Slain Youth, Officer Were Neighbors Worlds Apart

In the 1980s, Metro bus drivers ventured down the street fearful of their vehicles being pelted with bricks and rocks. One Metro official told The Washington Post in 1981 that drivers called it "Brick Alley" because so many windows were broken there.

Broken windows weren't the half of it.

In October 2005, Marcel Merritt, a 16-year-old Condon Terrace resident, was found slain on Suitland Parkway. Authorities had been trying to catch him for months because he was suspected of killing four people and critically wounding another over a 20-month period. He lived in the 600 block of Atlantic Street SE, the block where DeOnté was killed.

The neighborhood spawned such D.C. street legends as Corey A. Moore, whom prosecutors accused of being a teenage enforcer for a violent group of young men calling themselves the Condon Terrace Crew. Moore, now in his 30s, stood trial four times for a 1994 killing. Each trial ended with the jury deadlocked. He was dubbed the "Teflon defendant."

Gangster lore sucks in misguided youths, said Rodney K. Taylor, who lived on Condon Terrace when it was alive with illegal activity. Now a firefighter assigned to his old neighborhood, Taylor and many of his colleagues volunteer at schools, sponsoring trips for youths and recruiting some to join the fire department.

When he was growing up, Taylor said, there were still mentors and recreation programs. Now, he said, adults are too quick to write children off. Without intervention, young people will continue to gravitate toward the negative, he said. In 2001, Taylor founded the Working Men Who Care, a nonprofit group that provides resources for underserved children..

"There are no resources out here," said Taylor, who turns 42 today. "These brothers are hurting. They want somebody that can offer them something. The most hurting thing is so many say to me, 'I'm 14. I know I'm not going to make it to 18. Why should I change?' "

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In the police version of the events leading to Monday night's shooting, Haskel learned that his minibike had been stolen from his home and set out in his sport-utility vehicle to look for it with a neighbor, police officer Anthony Clay.

They ended up in Highland Dwellings. The officers told authorities that they encountered DeOnté on Haskel's minibike and were fired at before they could identify themselves as police. Haskel returned fire, fatally shooting DeOnté in the head. Police units were alerted by a rooftop sensor that detects the sound of gunfire.

Residents also have a version of the events.

William Lockridge, the area's representative on the State Board of Education, said he pieced together an account after canvassing residents the morning after the shooting.