Monday, April 27, 2009

Warm Weather = Shootings Galore

Ah, warm weather in DC...dining al fresco, driving with the windows down, and ducking bullets fired by roving gangs of warring teenagers.  We're nothing if not consistent.

Over the weekend, things flared up a bit in our fair city, with no fewer than three shootings.  An adult man was shot at the corner of 14th and W streets on Saturday night, and is expected to survive.  A little farther north, a teen was shot by another teen at the corner of 14th and Harvard, in broad daylight no less.  Finally, a woman was killed and three others wounded when a man opened fire inside a house at 67 N. Bryant St. NW.

The shooting at 14th and Harvard, on Sunday afternoon, was particularly troubling due to its brazenness. From a comment on the DCist blog:

I'm writing to confirm the shooting at 14th and Harvard today. In fact, I witnessed the entire incident at about 4:10PM. Was in my car on Harvard about to turn south onto 14th when I saw a young black male on the opposite side of the intersection pull a black handgun out of his pocket. He lifted the gun and started shooting (about 3 or 4 shots) at another young black male running east on Harvard. Still in shock my friend and I turned right to get out of there but got stuck at the red light by Dunkin Donuts. The shooter (black male, jeans, red t-shirt) came running south on 14th behind us so we decided to drive through the red light to create some distance. Another SUV did the exact same as us and ran the red light to get the hell out of there. We immediately called 911 to report what we had just witnessed. The shooter disappeared by the apartment building on the SW corner of 14th and Harvard.

The scary thing is that this happened in the middle of the day and the people involved looked like they were no older than 15 or 16. People walking nearby on the sidewalk hit the ground as soon as they heard shots.

Still in shock...


And all of this coming on the heels of one of Police Chief Cathy Lanier's "All Hands on Deck" weekends.  Stay safe out there, everyone...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The increase in crime on the 1400 Block of W Street is astounding (now as the weather gets warmer). It is important to point out that the parking lot at the corner of 14the and W (owned by Ready Personnel) is a huge factor in the crime. Ready Personnel allows invididuals to drink, deal drugs and use drugs in the lot. The owner of Ready Personnel regularly ignores our pleas to help. Please note that Ready Personnel is owned by a high end florist - Greenworks. I would think before purchasing flowesr from Greenworks based on the fact that the business ignores the crime issues at 14th and W.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like members of this blog are all over it. Congratulations. I hope Graham is reading. Keep following up. Believe it or not, it does do good.

Anonymous said...

It's Washington, DC. Live with it or move, whitey. It's funny that people want to move into a neighborhood, exploit it and push people out, yet at the end of the day you don't want the riff-raff that goes along with it. This is not some Mary Poppins town and it doesn't go down that way.

Anonymous said...

it's sad or maybe funny that some people don't have a problem with this kind of activity and don't complain about it. they just accept it as a fact of life. maybe some of these "old timers" should get their heads examined.

Anonymous said...

I find it sad/ hope it is a joke that someone thought that it must be white people who are complaining about crime. Is the assumption that black people are okay with crime? Also, I know that gentrification is painful but is it really exploitation?

Anonymous said...

I am offended by the message on May 13th. There's a difference between riff-raff and illegal and dangerous crime. The only people that I'd like "push out" are they people committing these types of crime. I don't understand why you wouldn't want that to?