Who's Minding Troubled Youths?

By Colbert I. King
Saturday, October 20, 2007

Excerpts from an Oct. 9 police statement filed in the Criminal Division of D.C. Superior Court:

"Officers Parker and Campanale heard several sounds of gunshots coming from the top of the hill" near the 4800 block of Benning Road SE. "They observed two suspects coming down the hill firing handguns back toward the top of the hill."

Defendant No. 1 "was behind the wheel of a vehicle awaiting the return of [Defendant No. 2] and the unknown third suspect. D-2 then got in the rear . . . and the unknown third suspect got in the passenger seat."

A chase ensued.

"The vehicle traveled into the 4400 block of F St. S.E. at which point D-2 and the unknown suspect began firing their weapons at Officers Parker and Campanale. The vehicle drove onto numerous sidewalks and yards as they attempted to . . . escape."

After the vehicle, which was confirmed as stolen, came to a halt, the suspects fled.

Officer Campanale apprehended the first suspect; the third suspect escaped.

Defendant No. 2, caught in the 4400 block of F Street SE, suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks.

A Bersa semiautomatic handgun was recovered from a dumpster directly in the path of the first defendant. A canvass of the area where two of the three had initially been seen shooting revealed that several vehicles had been struck by bullets. Many shell casings were also recovered.

In an interview with a detective, Defendant No. 1 said that he had seen the police being fired on from the stolen vehicle, but he "would not say which suspect was the firing gunman."

Defendant No. 2 was identified as a 17-year-old who had run away from the Oak Hill Youth Center, operated by the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.

Thanks to Fox 5 reporter Paul Wagner, who broke this story last week, more is known about the 17-year-old runaway.

The boy's grandmother told Wagner that a social worker from Oak Hill had called the previous week and said her grandson was ready for a one-day pass. The grandmother, who had raised the boy, said she told the social worker not to release him, noting that he had been arrested several times for stealing cars. He needed to learn a lesson, she said.

Pressed to change her mind, the woman said she agreed to pick up her grandson. He disappeared on his first day at home.

Eight days later, she got a call that he was hospitalized with a gunshot wound.

Wagner said that the police believe the runaway and his two companions were involved in three armed robberies in the District and a carjacking in Prince George's County.

That runaway was on my mind when I met this week with Vincent Schiraldi, director of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, and his chief of committed services, David Muhammad, at the Oak Hill center in Laurel.

Schiraldi declined to discuss the case or even acknowledge its existence, citing D.C. confidentiality laws.

He did say that the department will not send youths home on passes without family consent.

Schiraldi also pointed out that the number of youths absconding from Youth Rehabilitation Services facilities has declined significantly: 52 were missing as of October 2005, and 31 as of June 2007.

By the date of our meeting, though, the number had increased to 47. Considering the runaway's alleged crimes, I wonder: What are the other 46 up to?

Concern shouldn't be limited to escapees. Thus far in 2007, six youths who were under the agency's supervision were arrested on homicide charges. How did they get out on the streets?

Then there are those youths assigned to the department who became homicide victims: 24 in 2005; 15 in 2006; 15 so far in 2007.

What's going on? Juveniles in Youth Rehabilitation Services custody end up on the streets killing or getting killed. That's detention?

This week, I obtained a confidential 2006 Rehabilitation Services annual fatality report prepared by the D.C. Child Fatality Review Committee. It noted a "high number" of cases in which youths assigned to the department were released to the community without adequate risk assessments, support services or monitoring. The report called for several changes.

During our meeting, Schiraldi, a top-tier juvenile justice expert, outlined a number of restructured department policies and procedures.

Still, the department's handling of juvenile offenders demands scrutiny.

D.C. residents need assurance that Schiraldi's department respects public safety first. Nothing less than an independent case-by-case review of the agency's placement decisions since 2006 will do.

And for goodness sake, find those missing 46 kids before they, or we, end up as crime statistics.

kingc@washpost.com