4 Killed in D.C. on a Violent Weekend

Teen Slain, 2 Others Hurt After Dispute

A 15-year-old was fatally shot early yesterday and two friends were wounded near a Brightwood bus stop shortly after they had an argument with another group of young men near 14th and U streets NW.

The triple shooting came on a violent weekend in the District: There were four homicides, including a stabbing and the killing of a 17-month-old boy by blunt force. Police said 11 people were shot over the weekend. The latest of the shootings came about 10 p.m. yesterday in the 2000 block of Hamlin Street NE in the Woodridge area. Initial indications were that the wound was not life-threatening.

The gunfire that struck the teenagers about 1 a.m. in Northwest left Jonathon Franklen, 15, dead and two other boys, ages 14 and 15, in the hospital.

The youths had been standing near a bus shelter at 14th and Colorado streets NW, police said, when a bronze-colored long-bed pickup with tinted windows pulled up nearby. Two men, described as between 20 and 30 years old, got out of the pickup and approached them, shooting.

Jonathon was hit in the back, as was the younger teenager, and the older one was struck in the thigh as they ran away from the gunmen, police said. Jonathon was pronounced dead at Howard University Hospital. The other teenagers were in stable condition yesterday.

An hour earlier, three young people were shot after another dispute. In that incident, near 17th Street and Benning Road NE, two 23-year-old men and a 23-year-old woman were wounded. Police said that one man was in critical condition and that the others had been shot in the leg. They have made no arrests.

As police were investigating those shootings yesterday, there was another, shortly after 2 p.m. in the 1300 block of New Jersey Avenue NW. An argument left a man with a gunshot wound to the arm. Police arrested a man in that shooting, police said. The wounded man was in stable condition.

"The chief is very concerned. The mayor is very concerned," Lt. Robert Glover of the violent crimes branch said during an evening news conference. He said city leaders were monitoring the cases throughout the day.

September brought several shootings involving teens in the District. A 14-year-old boy was shot by an off-duty police officer Sept. 17 on Atlantic Street SE. Five days earlier, a 13-year-old and a 19-year-old were shot in Northeast when a group of young men came upon them while they were play boxing and opened fire.

Yesterday, Jonathon Franklen's family was not at home in the apartment he shared with his grandmother in Southwest Washington.

Neighbors recalled the teenager, whose nickname was "Shanky," as a quiet kid who spent time at his grandmother's house but did not get to know many of the neighbors in surrounding apartments.

"It's too much," said DaLaShawn Hart, a neighbor whose son knew Jonathon. "It's kids killing kids." Parents need to know more about their children's whereabouts and activities, she said. "People need to get ahold onto their kids," she said.

There was much of the same feeling at Star of Bethlehem Church of God in Christ, steps from the bus stop where the spray of bullets started. Some church members missed the 8 a.m. prayer service because of blocked streets, said Bishop Harvey Lewis Sr., the church's pastor.

Lewis said the incident leaves him concerned about the causes of teen violence.

"Somebody said it takes a village to raise a child, but I believe the primary responsibility is on the parent," he said. Greater emphasis is needed, he said, on "nurturing them and being an example for them."

He wondered why teenagers were out at 1 a.m. "If I stayed out that late, my dad would meet me at the door with a stick," he said. On Friday and Saturday night, the curfew for minors in the District was midnight.

Lewis said there was a community meeting this year after two young men were found dead nearby. But the neighborhood has been quiet otherwise, he said. "I've been here since 1986, and those are the only incidents I've seen of that nature."

D.C. Council member Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), whose district includes the area of the shooting, said police told her that during the argument near 14th and U, a gun was shown and that the three teenagers fled and got a ride to the bus stop.

Police were investigating whether there was a link between the shooting and the earlier argument.

Yesterday, police described the attackers: One was a black male about 5-foot-11 and 160 pounds with dreadlocks, wearing a green and brown hooded sweatshirt and dark pants. The other was a black male about 6 feet tall and stocky, with a three-quarter-length jacket, dark pants and possibly a mustache.

The incidents brought the District's homicides for the year to 143. Last year, there were 131 by the same time, police statistics show.

Staff writers Ernesto Londo¿o, Theola Labb¿, Elissa Silverman and Martin Weil and researcher Rena Kirsch contributed to this report.