Police found North Carolina Central University student Myles Gresham shot to death in his car several miles away from campus at an apartment complex near where he lived in Durham Thursday.

The 22-year-old was driving when he was struck by gunfire about 3:30 p.m., police said. His car crashed into two others in the apartment complex parking lot. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police call it an isolated incident. They have not made an arrest.

Gresham’s mother described him as very smart and humble, often flying under the radar.

NCCU’s chancellor issued a statement saying Gresham, a business administration mayor, was a dedicated student with entrepreneurial aspirations.

“He diligently selected his courses each semester, aiming for a path toward future success,” the statement reads. “Actively involved in campus life, Myles served as treasurer of the Metro Eagles Club. His friendly nature and enthusiasm for the Wordle game will always bring forth smiles from those who had the pleasure of knowing him.”

Gresham planned to start an internship in real estate this summer in Seattle.

His mother said the family will accept his diploma at graduation Saturday.

Hundreds of teenagers gathered at Schrom Hills Park April 19 for a skip day gathering that ended in chaos as shots were fired.

Video recorded by a Bladensburg High School student who shared it with News4 captured the sound of teens celebrating interrupted by gunfire.

Five teens were shot, and the shooters fled among the scattering crowd.

Prince George’s County police – with the help of the sheriff’s office, FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – identified a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old as suspects. U.S. marshals arrested them in Bowie and District Heights.

The suspects face attempted murder and gun charges and are charged as adults.

The skip day was not a school-sanctioned event but is a widely known tradition in Prince George’s County.

Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy opposes senior skip days.

Greenbelt Apr 19

‘Just maddening': 5 teens shot during senior skip day gathering at Greenbelt park

gun violence Apr 22

Witnesses describe chaos after 5 teens were shot at Greenbelt senior skip day gathering

“Our young people deserve a future free from violence, and it is our responsibility as grownups to show them the way,” she said. “I know that senior skip days might sound like a lot of fun, but senior skip days of 20 years ago was not like senior skip days today.”

The injured teenagers – all between ages 16 and 18 – have been released from the hospital.

In response to the shooting, Greenbelt’s city manager said more camera trailers will be added to the park and license plate readers around the city.

Officers responded after hearing gunfire on 10th Street and Spring Road NW just after midnight. They arrived to find three victims, D.C. police said.

Residents said they heard about 30 seconds of gunfire. They grabbed their babies and spouses and dropped to the floor.   

An adult male was pronounced dead on the scene, police said. His identity was not immediately released.

A woman and a teenage boy were taken to a hospital.

Evidence markers are among the visual evidence of how violent the shooting was, even in a neighborhood somewhat accustomed to crime. It was the type of incident that makes people rethink their accommodations.

“Yes, I’m moving because I’m tired of this,” resident Ania Govak said.

Neighbors can point up and down the block to spots where someone has fallen to violence.

“Three or four murders down this way and it’s blocked off,” Govak said.

Two resident’s cars were hit by gunfire and towed away. One of those residents said he’s had bad luck since moving here.

“This is not the first incident. I think about maybe three weeks ago, there was another shooting fatality right here at that corner,” another resident said.

He said he was walking his dog right before the shooting erupted but made it home safely. He chalks that up to good luck. Either way, he said he now feels scared to walk in the area at night.

“I don’t feel safe at all,” he said.

American Civil Liberties Union Apr 24

ACLU sues DC high school on behalf of students over pro-Palestinian programming

Washington DC Apr 24

Father and young daughter shot along DC's North Capitol Street

About 30 minutes later, officers were called to another shooting in the 4500 block of Sheriff Road NE, police said. They located a man who had been shot.

He died from his injuries at the hospital, police said. His identity was not immediately released.

At about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, there was a shooting at Bruce Place and Ainger Place SE, police said.

A teenage male was shot and died at the hospital. His identity was not immediately released.

The shootings are under investigation. Police have yet to release information on suspects.  

“When is it going to stop? I mean, good gracious,” Govak said.

This is a developing story. Stay with News4 for updates.

Officers were called to a shooting in the 4800 block of North Capitol Street NE about 11:30 p.m., D.C. police said. The shooting occurred in the Fort Totten neighborhood.

The child is about 4 years old, police said. Both victims were taken to the hospital and were in stable condition.

Police do not believe this was a random crime. They are searching for the suspect.

The cause of the shooting remains under investigation.  

A barrage of bullets at 17th Street and Independence Ave SE woke up residents and sent people ducking for cover in their homes at about 2 a.m. The neighborhood is located near RFK Stadium and the DC Armory.

The video shows a brief glimpse of a car turning an alley corner. Then a man wearing white socks but only one shoe bursts out of a home’s side gate, runs to the corner and starts shooting. 

Muzzle flashes are visible as he fires down Independence Avenue SE at the car.

Another camera captured the sound of over a dozen shots.

It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was injured in the shooting.

D.C.’s real time crime center was able to quickly access images that led to an arrest, officials said. Police also recovered a gun.

Independence Avenue was a police scene for hours as the shooting was investigated, and a warrant was served on the home the suspect fled.

Neighbors describe an uptick in shootings in the area

“I’ve lived here in this house over here since 2003. Just over 20 years. The first 15 years, not one shooting. Not one. In the last five years, I’m counting at least 10 shootings,” Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Chander Jayaraman said.

Jayaraman is referring to incidents like the morning’s shooting and another on April 3 at 15th Street and Independence Ave SE.

“Another friend of mine, another neighbor, they moved back here, ’cause they love D.C. And he ducked while bullets were flying over his head,” Jayaraman said.

DC Council Apr 22

Showdown over DC budget could lead to another clash with Congress

Crime and Courts Apr 21

Four DC men federally charged in deadly carjacking ring

Residents, including former ANC Commissioner Denise Krepp, said they have noticed an additional D.C. police presence in recent weeks.

“The police were around the corner. These guys don’t care. They don’t care there’s a police officer a block away,”  Krepp said.

About 500 to 600 people gathered at Schrom Hills Park and Schrom Hills Recreation Center for an unsanctioned senior skip day at about 2:30 p.m. Friday. Witnesses and police described a peaceful celebration, with teens shooting water guns, enjoying food and listening to music before the burst of violence.

Officers in the area to direct traffic heard gunshots at about 3 p.m., Greenbelt police said.

The injured teens, all between 16 and 18 years old, are expected to survive.

News4 spoke to a student who recorded the heart-pounding rush to safety. It captured the sound of teens celebrating getting cut short by sharp pops of gunfire.

Carlos Mejia recorded a video and shared it with News4 with his mother’s permission. We’ve blurred the video over privacy concerns. Mejia said he’s still rattled by what happened.

“It’s kind of a scary thought, thinking that you and your friends are enjoying yourselves and something like that happens literally not too far from me,” he said.

Mejia – who goes to Bladensburg High School – said the gathering brought together students from several different high schools in the county. He said people were having a good time when, out of nowhere, someone started shooting.

Greenbelt Apr 19

‘Just maddening': 5 teens shot during senior skip day gathering at Greenbelt park

crime Apr 16

Prince George's introduces 2 bills to curb youth crime

Prince George's County Public Schools Apr 5

Parents, pay attention: Prince George's schools planning big changes to buses, start times

“That’s what senior skip day is all about — just to enjoy your last days of high school. But as you can see, it wasn’t that in this case,” he said.

“I still can’t process the fact that a couple feet away, people got shot from me and that could’ve been me, you know?” Mejia said.

Dave Bimbai was sitting in his car in the parking lot when he heard the shots. He said it took a long time for medics to make their way through the crowd to those who were hurt.

“It took the ambulance more than 25 minutes to get in, to reach here, because you couldn’t come in,” he said.

Investigators believe there was a single shooter who escaped as a crowd fled but haven’t announced any arrests or information about a potential motive.

Prince George’s officials weigh in on senior skip day tradition

The skip day was not a school-sanctioned event but is a widely known tradition in Prince George’s County.

County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said it was unfair for the teens to have to be unsafe as they enjoyed part of childhood. She blamed an epidemic of gun violence.

“These are environments that should be made safe for our kids. I think the worst thing we can say to our kids is they cannot congregate and come together to celebrate their senior year,” she said.

State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said she disagrees with having seniors skip school because of these types of dangers.

“We don’t want to deny any young person the opportunity to really savor these last few days or weeks of high school, but they still have to obey the law and they have to be in school,” she said. “If they had been in school, this would not have happened.”

Greenbelt police said three of the victims have been released from the hospital. One victim who was in critical condition was upgraded to stable condition over the weekend.

There were no cameras in the park. A stationary camera was set up at the entrance on Monday, and additional police were on patrol. The pavilion area was still roped off with crime tape.

Bimbai, who heard the shots, said he has visited the park every day for years but that it might be time to move on.

“It’s just really, really bad. Everybody got a gun,” he said.

Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to contact police.

Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.

Dover police said officers responded at about 1:40 a.m. to a report of shots on the campus.

Police said an 18-year-old Wilmington woman who was not a registered student was found with a gunshot wound to the upper body near Warren-Franklin Hall, which the university describes as a freshman dorm.

The victim was provided aid and rushed to Bayhealth Kent Campus, where she was pronounced dead, police said. Her name wasn’t immediately released pending notification of her family. No other injuries were reported and no description of a suspect was immediately available.

A university statement provided by police said the campus was closed Sunday with no visitation permitted, all events canceled and police patrols increased.

Delaware State University said counseling services would be available in the Tubman Laws Hall housing office and said it would “continue to take all necessary actions to ensure the health and well-being of our campus community.”

Dover police and Delaware State University police are investigating the case, which was classified as a homicide, police said.

Nelson Ballard III was arrested Wednesday, nearly a week after the shooting at an LA Fitness at 9450 Ruby Lockhart Boulevard in Lanham, according to Prince George’s County police.

Witnesses told police that Ballard and another man got into an argument during a basketball game on the evening of April 11, according to charging documents. Someone tried to separate them, but Ballard ran to a bag in the corner of the gym and then went back to the other man, telling him, “I got something for you,” according to police.

Surveillance video showed Ballard pulling out a gun and shooting the victim several times, police said.

Dozens of people fled the basketball court in fear, and Ballard also ran out, according to the charging documents.

Officers with the Glenarden Police Department responded to the LA Fitness about 8:30 p.m. and found the victim with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital, where he remains in critical but stable condition.

Prince George’s County police took over the investigation, and detectives identified the suspect. They got an arrest warrant the day after the shooting, and the department’s Fugitive Squad arrested Ballard on Wednesday.

Ballard is charged with attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, weapons offenses and related charges.

Ballard has a bond hearing scheduled for Friday. It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney yet.

Anyone with information on this case is asked to call police at 301-772-8960. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may submit their tip online at www.pgcrimesolvers.com, via the P3 Tips app, or by calling 866-411-TIPS (8477). 

Three months after a fatal school shooting, Iowa lawmakers this week passed legislation allowing trained teachers and staff to carry guns on school property.

Two states. Two tragedies. Two different approaches to improving public safety.

“We live in two different Americas, in essence,” said Daniel Webster, a health policy professor affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

“We see terrible acts of gun violence; no one wants them, of course,” Webster said. “But we see this through different lenses.”

Legislatures in about 20 states already have passed measures this year to expand gun rights or restrict access to firearms. Dozens more proposals are pending. The divide continues a trend seen last year, when more than half the states enacted firearms legislation, with Democrats generally favoring more limits and Republicans more freedoms for gun owners.

Limits on guns in Maine

Maine has a tradition of hunting and gun ownership. But after an Army reservist killed 18 people and wounded 13 others in Lewiston, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills called for a variety of new laws aimed at preventing dangerous people from possessing guns and strengthening mental health services.

Before adjourning its 2024 session early Thursday, lawmakers approved measures imposing a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases, expanding background checks on private gun sales and criminalizing sales to certain prohibited people. They also passed a ban on devices that convert semi-automatic firearms into rapid-firing weapons like machine guns, and enhanced an existing law that allows judges to temporarily remove guns from people during a mental health crisis.

Iowa Jan 8

Parents of Iowa teen who killed 1 and wounded 7 in shooting say they had ‘no inkling' of his plan

A gun safety coalition praised it as a significant step forward in response to constituents’ concerns after the Lewiston shooting. But Republican state Sen. Lisa Keim criticized colleagues for “using the tragedy to advance legislation” that had been unable to pass previously.

Guns in Iowa Schools

In Perry, Iowa, a school principal and sixth-grade student died and several others were wounded when a 17-year-old student opened fire in January.

A 2021 state law already allowed schools to authorize individuals to carry firearms, though some districts have not done so because of concerns about insurance coverage.

The legislation given final approval Monday by the Republican-led Legislature builds upon the prior law by allowing teachers and staff who undergo gun safety training to get a professional permit to carry guns in schools. If they do, they would be protected from criminal or civil liability for use of reasonable force.

The legislation also requires large school districts to station a police officer or private security guard at each high school, unless the school board votes not to do so. Most of those school districts already have security staff.

Diverging State Laws

Republican-led legislatures in Kentucky, Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah also passed measures this year that would expand the ability of some people to bring guns into schools. A bill passed in Wyoming allots $480,000 to reimburse schools for the cost of training employees to carry guns on school property.

Louisiana and South Carolina, led by Republican lawmakers and governors, each enacted laws allowing people to carry concealed guns without a permit. The National Rifle Association, which supported the measures, said similar laws now exist in 29 states.

By contrast, the Democrat-led Delaware Legislature passed legislation requiring people wanting to buy a handgun to first be fingerprinted, undergo training and obtain a state permit.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, signed a pair of new laws imposing restrictions. One sets a seven-day waiting period to purchase firearms — more than double the three-day period required by the federal government for a background check.

Another new law in New Mexico prohibits carrying firearms within 100 feet (30 meters) of polling places, with an exemption for concealed-carry permit holders. Voting site restrictions on guns now exist in about one-third of the states and Washington, D.C., according to the gun-violence prevention group Giffords.

Bucking Party Trends

Not all new gun policies diverge along partisan lines.

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin this year vetoed 30 gun-related bills passed by the Democratic-led General Assembly that he said would have trampled on constitutional rights. Yet Youngkin also signed some gun restrictions: One bans devices that convert semi-automatic handguns into automatic weapons. Another allows felony charges against parents who let a child have access to a firearm after being notified the child poses a threat of violence.

While signing several gun rights measures, Republican Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming also vetoed legislation that would have allowed people to carry concealed guns in public schools and government meetings. Gordon cited concerns the bill could have exceeded the separation of powers provision in the state constitution.

And in some cases, high-profile shootings have prompted lawmakers to avoid taking action on proposals they might otherwise have considered.

Missouri’s Republican-led House had been prepared to debate bills exempting guns and ammunition from sales taxes and allowing people with concealed-carry permits to bring guns onto public transportation. But after the deadly shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl celebration, House Majority Leader Jon Patterson said those bills would not be brought up this year.

___

Associated Press writers David Sharp in Augusta, Maine, and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

“I’ve known seniors who have played it since I was a sophomore and I’ve looked forward to playing it since … I was that age. And now that it’s actually here, I look forward to playing it,” a West Potomac High School senior said.

The goal of senior assassin, for those who choose to participate, is to spray their assigned target. The last person in the game gets a monetary prize.

In some cases, high school seniors create Instagram accounts to document the game, posting videos of teammates’ successes in action.

“You pay $5 to get a target each week and you have to get your target out by the end of the week or else you’re out,” another senior told News4.

However, the principals of West Potomac High School and Cedar Lane School sent a letter to parents this week, calling the game a security risk that could normalize gun violence.

“In stressful or high-pressure situations, it can be very difficult to quickly differentiate a toy gun from a real firearm. This confusion can lead to misidentification and potentially tragic consequences,” they said.

Students say the game is an innocent senior tradition.

“It’s not played on school grounds; it has no effect on the teachers or anything like that. It’s a lot of money to win, and I think it’s really fun,” another senior said.

In a suburb of Chicago, the game has faced backlash. The Gurnee police department said a group of students entered a pancake restaurant wearing ski masks and carrying water guns that looked real, which scared the patrons.

Niomi Russell, of Northwest D.C., was in the 2400 block of Elvans Road SE when someone started shooting at people outside an apartment building, D.C. police said.

Russell was hit and went inside the building, police said. She had been shot in the neck, according to a police watch commander.

“I knew it was something tragic because I heard the mother crying and screaming up here,” Kimberly Little, an ANC commissioner in Ward 8, said while holding her young child. “That little girl did not deserve that. I know that she didn’t.”

Officers heard gunshots and rushed to the scene, which is near Stanton Road and Suitland Parkway in the Barry Farm area, D.C. police said.

Russell was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Police were looking for a silver SUV with a black top that was seen on Stanton Road SE headed toward Sheridan.

Authorities didn’t immediately comment on a motive for the shooting nor whether Russell was an intended target.

After the shooting, chalk drawings could be seen on the sidewalk where police officers marked evidence such as shell casings.

The D.C. police crime map shows since April 15, 2022, there have been 10 homicides, 48 assaults with a dangerous weapon and 37 robberies in the area. On April 8, police responded to the shooting of a woman in the exact same block of Elvans Road.

“You can’t really talk to people or have any friends,” Little said of the neighborhood. “I don’t have any family, I don’t have any friends, because they’re scared to come here.”

Little said the apartment complexes are not spending enough money for security, and she fears retaliation will come as it often does.

“If you know that someone just died, you know there’s going to be a retaliation. This little girl is dead,” Little said.

The “constant” sound of gunshots also devastates the mental health of people living in the community, including young children, Little said.

“It could be my 2-year-old next,” she said through tears.

Of the four juveniles killed in the District so far this year, police have made arrests in two of the cases.

Stay with News4 for more on this developing story.

The shooting happened at around 8:20 p.m. in the 1200 Block of Booker Terrace, according to the Prince George’s County division of Maryland-National Capital Park Police. 

Surveillance camera in the area caught someone shouting “get the kids in the house” moments before 10 seconds of relentless gunfire.

All victims were taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. Authorities did not elaborate on their conditions.

Police said they are searching for multiple shooters and do not believe that the gunfire was random.

“We don’t have any suspects at this time or suspect information. We’re canvassing the area right now trying to pull up video camera footage to help with the investigation,” Acting Chief Germaine Haywood said. “At this point, it seems like it’s neighborhood beef. Some pre-existing things… culminated in our park this evening.”

Police believe the shooting could be related to the deadly shooting of another man less than a mile away at a park in the 800 block on Birchleaf Avenue in Seat Pleasant.

“We don’t think that there is a threat to the community,” Prince George’s County police Capt. Lovita Bryant said. “It seems to be just a targeted event.”

More details on the possible connection were not provided.

Community members gathered Monday for a previously scheduled event to talk about cracking down on crime.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with people, but they need to stop,” Prince George’s County Council member Jolene Ivey said. “I don’t know why people keep getting shot, people keep getting killed. Clearly, we have too many guns in our community.”

This is a developing story. Refresh for updates.

A police officer found the man’s body in the car shortly before 4:15 a.m. at the intersection of Stanton Road and Mississippi Avenue SE. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police have identified the victim as 35-year-old Christian Elsberry, of Clinton, Maryland.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call police at 202-727-9099. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may text the police department’s Text Tip Line at 50411.

Aubrey McLeod, 29, was taking his sons to football practice when gunfire erupted on 21st Street NE, Marlea Tolson said. Five other people were injured, including two children unrelated to McLeod.

“I’m forever changed. I will never be the same,” Tolson said.

The other five shooting victims survived, including a 9-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy.

The 9-year-old was shot in the foot and is too afraid to sleep, his mother said.

“Everyone’s always crying and it’s just a lot. My heart is really hurting for my child,” she said.

The family is staying in a hotel while they seek housing elsewhere.

Northeast DC Apr 10

1 killed, children among 5 hurt in Northeast DC shooting

gun violence Apr 11

‘Our kids aren't safe': Mother speaks after her child survived DC shooting that killed 1, wounded 5

D.C. police data shows that in the past year, eight people have been killed within a half-mile radius of where the shooting Wednesday occurred, in the Carver-Langston neighborhood.

“We cannot go back to that apartment. My son is terrified. My two other kids, they are scared,” the mother said.

Police are still searching for the shooters. McLeod’s mother said she’s praying for them.

“I ask God to be with them and be with their souls,” she said. “What they have taken, what they have removed from my body, I don’t want their parents or their loved ones to experience it.”

McLeod worked on a food truck with his father and was excited to be starting a new career flipping houses.

The shooter opened fire in the gym on Ruby Lockhart Boulevard, near the Woodmore Towne Centre stores and restaurants.

Glenarden and Prince George’s County police say the shooting stemmed from a fight between two men inside the gym. Police say the victim was shot multiple times.

The shooter drove away in a white vehicle, investigators said. The shooting victim was taken to a hospital and was in critical condition. Multiple people witnessed the shooting, detectives said.

People who frequent the gym said they’re upset.

“You can’t even go to the gym? That’s your free space, and you can’t even work out in peace?” one man said.

The gym was temporarily closed, signs on the front door on Friday said.

Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to contact police.

LA Fitness did not immediately respond to an inquiry.

Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.

That nonprofit, Doorways, says there is a legal loophole that allows individuals banned from possessing guns to transfer the guns within their home or to third parties without properly notifying authorities.

Advocates say leaving that loophole open puts victims in danger.

“We’re disappointed by these roadblocks and continue to ask for the governor’s support and partnership in expanding survivor access to safety statewide,” said Jonathan Yglesias, policy director for the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance.

“We’re also very saddened [by] the chances of more funding cuts in times when more survivors are seeking support,” said Diana Ortiz, president and CEO of Doorways. “And we’re really saddened by the missing opportunities to enhance the current laws to protect survivors.”

According to Doorways, domestic violence homicides make up 32% of all homicides in Virginia. Of those domestic violence homicides, 65.5% are committed with a firearm.

Instead of more restrictions, Youngkin is pushing for stricter penalties for gun crimes, and more funding for mental health.

For more information about the warning signs of domestic violence and what you can do to help yourself or a loved one escape, click here.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), visiting www.thehotline.org or texting LOVEIS to 22522.

The victim was shot in the upper body about 5:30 a.m. on the 3400 block of Charles Street, police said. That’s just off Leesburg Pike and north of Columbia Pike.

The victim was rushed to a hospital and is expected to survive, police said.

A swarm of police vehicles were seen blocking Charles Street over an hour later.

Police didn’t immediately release a description of the suspected shooter.

Stay with News4 for more on this developing story.

Gunfire erupted on 21st Street in the Carver-Langston neighborhood. Police are still searching for two shooters and a light blue Toyota sedan with no front tags, dark windows and black rims. The shooters jumped out of the car and fired into a crowd, police said.

The mothers of two shooting victims told News4 they’re devastated.

Aubrey McLeod, of Largo, Maryland, was the man who died, police said. He was the father of three children, who are 2, 3 and 8, his mother said.

The mother of the 12-year-old boy who was shot and wounded said her son was shot, he tried to run home for help and then he was hit by a car.

“He’s definitely in a lot of pain. He has a lot of burns across his body from when he was hit by the car,” she said.

The mother said her son was released from the hospital Thursday morning but still has a long road to recovery. She said she’s looking to leave the neighborhood and find a new home as soon as possible.

“I have to go. I can’t. It’s not safe for my children,” she said.

Northeast DC Apr 10

1 killed, children among 5 hurt in Northeast DC shooting

Washington DC Apr 7

Real-time crime center to open in DC on Monday to combat crime

Metropolitan Police Department (DC Police / MPD) Apr 8

DC asks residents, businesses to register security cameras with real-time crime center

Metropolitan Police Department statistics for the half-mile radius where the shooting occurred show that in the past year there have been eight homicides, 45 assaults and 147 stolen vehicles.

“This is another example, and I’ve been through it before in this space of violence, that we cannot, we just cannot accept in our communities,” Chief of Police Pamela Smith said Wednesday night. “My condolences go out to the families and friends who were impacted by this senseless gun violence.”

The mother of the 12-year-old who was shot said the arrests of the shooters can’t come soon enough. She said she couldn’t understand why they opened fire though they saw children in the crowd.

“If you saw these children outside, why even follow through with what you obviously had planned? It doesn’t make sense. Like, our kids aren’t safe because you guys are acting crazy,” she said.

The mass shooting comes just four days after the District opened its brand-new crime center. Officers are able to monitor security cameras for around the region in real time. Police say that’s how they obtained images of the getaway vehicle quickly.

The rule aims to close a loophole that has allowed tens of thousands of guns to be sold every year by unlicensed dealers who don’t perform background checks to ensure the potential buyer is not legally prohibited from having a firearm.

It’s the administration’s latest effort to combat the scourge of gun violence across the country. But in a contentious election year, it’s also an effort to show voters — especially younger ones for whom gun violence deeply resonates — that the White House is trying to stop the deaths.

“This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “And my Administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives. Congress needs to finish the job and pass universal background checks legislation now.”

The rule, which was finalized this week, makes clear that anyone who sells firearms predominantly to earn a profit must be federally licensed and conduct background checks, regardless of whether they are selling on the internet, at a gun show or at a brick-and-mortar store, Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters.

Biden has made curtailing gun violence a major part of his administration and reelection campaign, creating the first-ever White House office of gun violence prevention, and urging Congress to ban so-called assault weapons — something Democrats shied from even just a few years ago.

But the rule is certain to prompt criticism from gun rights advocates who believe the Democratic president has been unfairly and unlawfully targeting gun owners.

The Biden administration first proposed the rule in August, after the passage of the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades, a bipartisan compromise in response to the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school.

Crime and Courts Apr 4

Federal report finds 68,000 guns were illegally trafficked through unlicensed dealers over 5 years

gun laws Aug 31, 2023

Biden proposes rule that would require gun-show sellers to run background checks

That law expanded the definition of those who are “engaged in the business” of selling firearms, and are required to become licensed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and therefore run background checks. The rule, which implements the change in the law, will take effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

There are already roughly 80,000 federally licensed firearms dealers. Administration officials believe the new rule will impact more than 20,000 dealers who have gotten away with selling firearms without a license and performing background checks at places like gun shows and over the internet by claiming they aren’t “engaged in the business” of firearm sales.

“This final rule does not infringe on anyone’s Second Amendment rights, and it will not negatively impact the many law-abiding licensed firearms dealers in our nation,” ATF Director Steve Dettelbach said. “They are already playing by the rules.”

It comes a week after the ATF released new data that shows more than 68,000 illegally trafficked firearms in the U.S. came through unlicensed dealers who aren’t required to perform background checks over a five-year period. The ATF report also showed that guns trafficked through unlicensed dealers were used in nearly 370 shootings between 2017 and 2021.

Gun control advocates have praised the regulation as a big step toward their goal of universal background checks for gun buyers — a Democratic priority that has been blocked by Republicans in Congress.

“Expanding background checks and closing the gun seller loophole is a massive victory for safer communities — and it was made possible thanks to the tireless advocacy of our grassroots movement,” Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, said in an emailed statement.

But the rule is likely to be challenged in court by gun rights activists, who have previously sued over other ATF rule changes that they argue infringe on gun rights. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade group, previously warned of a court challenge if the rule was finalized as written.

Biden administration officials said they are confident the rule — which drew more than 380,000 public comments — would withstand legal challenges.

“The child was not searched. The child was not removed from class. The police or SRO was not called,” the report said, referring to a school resource officer.

The report was released a day after the former administrator, Ebony Parker, was charged with eight counts of felony child neglect, one for “each of the eight bullets that endangered all the students” in teacher Abby Zwerner’s classroom, Newport News prosecutors said in a statement.

The 31-page report offers fresh details about the January 2023 shooting and serious wounding of Zwerner, which occurred after the boy brought his mother’s gun to school in a backpack. And it catalogs missed opportunities to provide more resources to the often-misbehaving student, as well as tools Parker could have used to remove him from class, such as alternative school, in the months before the shooting.

“Dr. Parker’s lack of response and initiative given the seriousness of the information she had received on Jan. 6, 2023 is shocking,” the grand jury report said. “This is only heightened by the fact that she was well aware of the child’s past disciplinary issues and had been involved in the decisions to address his behavior” in both the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years.

One parent testified that during the latter of those two school years, her son was choked twice by a fellow classmate, but the parent was never given the boy’s identity or told that he had a history of such behavior, including choking his kindergarten teacher. It was the same boy who shot Zwerner, the report said.

Virginia Nov 3, 2023

Virginia teacher shot by 6-year-old can proceed with $40 million lawsuit, judge rules

Virginia Oct 27, 2023

Lawyers spar over workers' compensation for Virginia teacher who was shot by 6-year-old

The report accused Parker of criminal responsibility because she “neglected to take any action” the day of the shooting after receiving reports that the boy may have had a gun.

“Over the course of approximately two hours Dr. Parker acted in complete disregard for the safety of all the children in Ms. Zwerner’s class, all the children the child played with at recess, and all the children who could have been shot in the school,” the report said.

Parker, 39, posted $4,000 in secured bail Wednesday and did not yet have an attorney listed for her, the Newport News Circuit Court clerk’s office said.

The grand jury report provides a granular, often minute-by-minute accounting of each time the special grand jury said Parker disregarded concerns. For instance, one teacher spoke of a “visibly scared and shaking” child who reported seeing bullets from the boy’s 9mm handgun during recess.

A counselor, Rolonzo Rawles, then told Parker the same story, according to the report.

“Mr. Rawles, now the third person and fourth time this message had been relayed, went back to Dr. Parker and communicated that the child either had a gun or ammunition at least,” it said.

Parker refused to let the boy be searched after his backpack was examined, the report said, describing the child sitting at his desk with “a loaded firearm tucked into his jacket.”

“Ms. Zwerner was then left alone with 16 first-grade students in her class that day, of which one had been reported by three different students over the course of two hours to have a firearm,” it added.

In the weeks after the shooting, Newport News Public Schools announced that Parker had resigned.

She and other school officials also face a $40 million negligence lawsuit from Zwerner, whose accusations dovetail with many of the details in the grand jury’s report.

The similarities were emphasized Wednesday by Zwerner’s attorneys, Diane Toscano, Kevin Biniazan and Jeffrey Breit, who said the grand jury report “reveals a systemic failure that led to the shooting.”

Zwerner was sitting at a reading table in front of the class when the boy fired the gun, police said. The bullet struck Zwerner’s hand and then her chest, collapsing one of her lungs. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and has endured multiple surgeries as well as ongoing emotional trauma, according to her lawsuit.

The children who were in her class that day are also struggling emotionally.

One student “will not talk to anyone about what happened,” according to the report, while another boy covers his ears any time someone asks him about it.

“He is afraid that the child will come back someday and hurt him,” it said. “His mother is currently in therapy as a result.”

Yet another boy who reported the 6-year-old having the gun is also in therapy, struggling with the guilt that the shooting was his fault, according to the report.

And a woman whose daughter witnessed the shooting and was subsequently denied a request to transfer to a different school was said to have sold her house and drained her savings — all “so that her daughter could go to school without feeling afraid.”

Many children were denied transfers per school policy, according to the report, which recommended allowing them in cases where a medical professional confirms a child is still struggling.

The report also found that police responding to the shooting were unable to access the school immediately because the door-buzzer system was broken. They banged on the door for a full minute before a custodian let them in.

The grand jury recommended that all Newport News schools have an automatic system, such as key fobs or swipe cards, to allow law enforcement instantaneous entry.

The gunfire quickly scattered the crowd. Children who had been playing on the sidewalk and neighbors ran for their lives into nearby apartments, News4’s Jackie Bensen reported.

D.C. Chief of Police Pamela Smith said at about 6:15 p.m. the suspects drove up and shot into a crowd in the 1100 block of 21st Street NE and then took off in a light blue Toyota sedan with no front tags, dark tints and black rims.

The Toyota was “possibly occupied with two shooters inside,” authorities said.

This occurred at the Fairway Park Apartments in the Carver-Langston neighborhood off Maryland Avenue.

“Shortly after this shooting occurred, a 12-year-old boy arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound,” Smith said.

Ambulance crews on the scene kept locating victims.

“Five patients total,” a dispatcher said.

A man was declared dead at the scene. Police identified him as Aubrey McLeod, 29, of Largo, Maryland.

Two boys, ages 9 and 12, one woman and two men were shot and taken to hospitals. They are expected to survive their injuries.

“This is another example, and I’ve been through it before in this space of violence, that we cannot, we just cannot accept in our communities,” Smith said. “My condolences go out to the families and friends who were impacted by this senseless gun violence.”

Anyone who has any information is asked to call police at 202-727-9099 or text 50411. Police offer a reward of up to $25,000 for any tips that lead to an arrest.

More information on the motive for the shooting or descriptions of suspects was not provided. Police said the new real-time D.C. crime center was used to capture photos of the wanted vehicle. 

According to information gathered by the News4 I-Team, this is the fourth mass shooting in the District this year. A mass shooting is defined as four or more people shot or killed, not including the gunman. 

This is a developing story. Refresh for updates.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

The proposal cleared the GOP-controlled chamber amid emotional chants and screams from protesters against the legislation. Many were eventually ordered to leave the Senate galleries.

After receiving a 26-5 Senate vote, the proposal is now ready for a House floor vote. The bill would bar disclosing which employees are carrying guns beyond school administrators and police, including to parents of students and even other teachers. A principal, school district and law enforcement agency would have to agree to let staff carry guns.

“I’m upset. My child is at risk under this bill,” said Democratic state Sen. London Lamar, holding her 8-month-old son. “This bill is dangerous and teachers don’t want it. Nobody wants it.”

Senate Speaker Randy McNally, a Republican, cleared the galleries after many protesters refused to quiet down even as he gaveled them down repeatedly for disruptions. In the nearly 15 minutes it took to remove the audience and resume the debate, they continued chanting, “Vote them out;” “No more silence, end gun violence;” and “Kill the bill, not the kids.”

The heated debate comes about a year after a shooter indiscriminately opened fire last March at The Covenant School — a Christian institution in Nashville — and killed three children and three adults before being fatally shot by police. Despite sweeping, coordinated efforts after the shooting to convince Tennessee’s Republican-dominant statehouse to enact significant gun control measures, lawmakers have largely balked at such calls. They’ve dismissed proposals on the topic by Democrats — and even one by the Republican governor — during regular annual sessions and a special session.

Only a handful of GOP supporters spoke in favor of the bill, taking time to stress that teachers would not be required to be armed or use their weapons in active shooter situations. They argued that it could be particularly helpful in rural counties with limited law enforcement resources.

“It’s time that we look at the facts of the bill, that we are not trying to shoot a student, but protect a student from an active shooter whose sole purpose is to get into that school and kill people,” Republican Sen. Ken Yager said.

A worker who wants to carry a handgun would need to have a handgun carry permit, have written authorization from both the school’s principal and local law enforcement, clear a background check and undergo 40 hours of handgun training.

“We’re sending teachers to learn how to handle a combat situation that veteran law enforcement have trouble comprehending,” said Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro. “We’re letting people do that with a week’s training,” he said.

Several parents of Covenant School students watched on in opposition to the bill.

“It is so extremely disappointing, just as a mother,” said Mary Joyce, one of the Covenant mothers. “We’re very disappointed at how things went today, and we can absolutely do way better.”

Tennessee Republicans have pushed to loosen gun laws over the years, including signing off on permitless carry for handguns in 2021.

Most recently, House Republicans advanced a proposal out of committee that would expand the state’s permitless carry law to include long guns.

The original law allowed residents 21 and older to carry handguns in public without a permit. Yet two years later, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti struck a deal amid an ongoing lawsuit that then allowed 18- to 20-year-olds to carry handguns publicly. The bill approved Monday has been slowly making its way through the statehouse, but still must clear the House and Senate.

Meanwhile, last year, Tennessee Republicans passed a law bolstering protections against lawsuits involving gun and ammunition dealers, manufacturers and sellers. This year, they are awaiting the governor’s decision on a bill that would allow private schools with pre-kindergarten classes to have guns on campus. Private schools without pre-K already can decide whether to let people bring guns on their grounds.

Separately, Senate Republicans on Tuesday advanced an amendment to the Tennessee Constitution’s “right to keep, bear, and wear arms” that would broaden the right beyond defense and delete a section giving lawmakers the ability “to regulate the wearing of arms with a view to prevent crime.” If approved, that wouldn’t be on the ballot until 2026.

A special grand jury in Newport News found that Ebony Parker showed a reckless disregard for the lives of Richneck Elementary School students on Jan. 6, 2023, according to indictments unsealed Tuesday.

Parker and other school officials already face a $40 million negligence lawsuit from the teacher who was shot, Abby Zwerner. She accuses Parker and others of ignoring multiple warnings the boy had a gun and was in a “violent mood” the day of the shooting.

Criminal charges against school officials following school shootings are quite rare, experts say. Parker, 39, faces eight felony counts, each of which is punishable by up to five years in prison.

The Associated Press left a message seeking comment Tuesday with Parker’s attorney, Curtis Rogers.

Court documents filed Tuesday reveal little about the criminal case against Parker, listing only the counts and a description of the felony charge. It alleges that Parker “did commit a willful act or omission in the care of such students, in a manner so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life.”

Newport News police have said the student who shot Zwerner retrieved his mother’s handgun from atop a dresser at home and brought the weapon to school concealed in a backpack.

Zwerner’s lawsuit describes a series of warnings that school employees gave administrators before the shooting. The lawsuit said those warnings began with Zwerner telling Parker that the boy “was in a violent mood,” had threatened to beat up a kindergartener and stared down a security officer in the lunchroom.

The lawsuit alleges that Parker “had no response, refusing even to look up” when Zwerner expressed her concerns.

When concerns were raised that the child may have transferred the gun from his backpack to his pocket, Parker said his “pockets were too small to hold a handgun and did nothing,” the lawsuit states.

A guidance counselor also asked Parker for permission to search the boy, but Parker forbade him, “and stated that John Doe’s mother would be arriving soon to pick him up,” the lawsuit stated.

Zwerner was sitting at a reading table in front of the class when the boy fired the gun, police said. The bullet struck Zwerner’s hand and then her chest, collapsing one of her lungs. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and has endured multiple surgeries as well as ongoing emotional trauma, according to her lawsuit.

Parker and the lawsuit’s other defendants, which include a former superintendent and the Newport News school board, have tried to block Zwerner’s lawsuit.

They’ve argued that Zwerner’s injuries fall under Virginia’s workers’ compensation law. Their arguments have been unsuccessful so far in blocking the litigation. A trial date for Zwerner’s lawsuit is slated for January.

Prosecutors had said a year ago that they were investigating whether the “actions or omissions” of any school employees could lead to criminal charges.

Howard Gwynn, the commonwealth’s attorney in Newport News, said in April 2023 that he had petitioned a special grand jury to probe if any “security failures” contributed to the shooting. Gwynn wrote that an investigation could also lead to recommendations “in the hopes that such a situation never occurs again.”

It is not the first school shooting to spark a criminal investigation into school officials. For instance, a former school resource officer was acquitted of all charges last year after he was accused of hiding during the Parkland school massacre in 2018.

Chuck Vergon, a professor of educational law and policy at the University of Michigan-Flint, told The AP last year that it is rare for a teacher or school official to be charged in a school shooting because allegations of criminal negligence can be difficult to prove.

More often, he said, those impacted by school shootings seek to hold school officials liable in civil court.

——

Lavoie reported from Richmond, Virginia.

The victim, 14-year-old Avion Evans, attended Ida B. Wells Middle School. He was on his way to an after-school program the afternoon of April 4 when he was fatally shot after stopping to talk with a friend at the Metro station, the victim’s mother, India Wells, told News4.

The suspect was arrested Tuesday morning. A judge ordered him detained until his next court appearance Friday, finding probable cause on six charges, including second-degree murder while armed.

Police say Evans was killed after someone pulled out a gun and fired into a small crowd of teens who were fighting on the platform at the Brookland station. Security officers were on the platform when Evans was shot and were able to get other riders to safety, Metro Transit Police Deputy Chief Maurice McKinney said.

Medics rushed Evans to a hospital, but he didn’t survive.

D.C. police quickly released a few photos of the suspect, and someone who recognized him called 911 and gave his name and where he goes to school, prosecutors said. Investigators used Metro card registration information to track the suspect’s travels that day.

Evans’ mother said her son was not someone who got into many fights, so she keeps asking the same question.

“Losing my son to violence? My son wouldn’t harm nobody,” she said. “Now he would defend himself, but, you know, he was a sweet kid. He was very smart, intelligent, very debative. A little bit arrogant,” she added with a rueful chuckle. “Just keeping it real, but he was a good kid.”

She has looked at the photos of the suspected shooter but said she doesn’t recognize him.

Police say the gunman and all the other teens on the platform ran after he opened fire.

“To pull out guns and to think that it’s OK to take somebody off this Earth — like, you don’t know what you’re taking from a family?” Wells said. “Put the shoe on the other foot. What if that’s your family? You have to think about your brother, your mom, your sister, like — anything can happen, so you’ve got to come to your senses and think before you act.”

Wells said Avion loved to run track, work with computer graphics and debate.

Wells said Avion had recently lost two of his brothers. When asked about the circumstances, she said she wasn’t ready to talk about what happened.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Jennifer and James Crumbley are the first parents convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting. They were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors presented evidence of an unsecured gun at home and indifference toward the teen’s mental health.

Ethan Crumbley drew dark images of a gun, a bullet and a wounded man on a math assignment, accompanied by despondent phrases. Staff at Oxford High School did not demand that he go home but were surprised when the Crumbleys didn’t volunteer it during a brief meeting.

Later that day, on Nov. 30, 2021, the 15-year-old pulled a handgun from his backpack and began shooting at the school. Ethan, now 17, is serving a life sentence for murder and other crimes.

US & World

Michigan Mar 19

Michigan school shooter's father threatened to destroy the prosecutor in case against him, sources confirm

Crime and Courts Mar 14

James Crumbley, who bought gun used by son to kill 4 students, guilty of manslaughter in Michigan

Crime and Courts Feb 7

Jury foreperson in Jennifer Crumbley trial speaks out about guilty verdict: ‘There was an undeniable weight'

“These convictions are not about poor parenting,” Judge Cheryl Matthews said. “These convictions confirm repeated acts, or lack of acts, that could have halted an oncoming runaway train.

“About repeatedly ignoring things that would make a reasonable person feel the hair on the back of their neck stand up,” the judge said. “Opportunity knocked over and over again — louder and louder — and was ignored. No one answered.”

Defense attorneys asked that the Crumbleys be spared a prison term, noting they have already served nearly 2 1/2 years in jail after failing to meet a $500,000 bond after their arrest.

The Crumbleys will be eligible for parole after serving 10 years in custody and will get credit for the jail time. If parole is denied, they can’t be held longer than 15 years.

Before the sentencing, parents of students killed in the shooting asked a judge to sentence the attacker’s parents to 10 years in prison Tuesday, condemning them as failures whose selfishness led to four deaths and a community tragedy.

“The blood of our children is on your hands, too,” said Craig Shilling, wearing a hoodie with the image of son Justin Shilling on his chest.

Nicole Beausoleil, the mother of Madisyn Baldwin, recalled simple things she enjoyed doing for her daughter, such as scheduling an oil change for her car or helping choose senior year classes.

“While you were purchasing a gun for your son and leaving it unlocked, I was helping her finish her college essays,” Beausoleil told James and Jennifer Crumbley.

Five deputies in the courtroom stood watch over the Crumbleys and more lined the walls. They are the first parents convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting.

They did not know their son, Ethan Crumbley, was planning the shooting at Oxford High. But prosecutors said the parents failed to safely store a gun and could have prevented the shooting by removing the 15-year-old from school when confronted with his dark drawing that day.

In a court filing, defense attorney Shannon Smith said Jennifer Crumbley is “not a threat to the community,” and she’s even willing to put her up in a guest house at the lawyer’s property, outfitted with an electronic tether.

“Putting Mrs. Crumbley in prison does nothing to further deter others from committing like offenses,” Smith said. “There is no person who would want the events of Nov. 30, 2021, to repeat themselves.”

Smith said “any gross negligence” were mistakes “that any parent could make.”

Mariell Lehman, a lawyer representing James Crumbley, said the nearly 2 1/2 years spent in jail since the couple’s arrest is enough time in custody. His wife, too, has been in jail, both unable to post a $500,000 bond before trial.

James Crumbley “did not believe that there was reason to be concerned that his son was a threat to anyone,” Lehman said.

Ethan Crumbley, now 17, pleaded guilty and is serving a life prison sentence.

Prosecutors said “tragically simple actions” by both parents could have stopped the catastrophe.

The couple had separate trials in Oakland County court, 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Detroit. Jurors heard how the teen had drawn a gun, a bullet and a gunshot victim on a math assignment, accompanied by grim phrases: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me. My life is useless. Blood everywhere.”

Ethan told a counselor he was sad — a grandmother had died and his only friend suddenly had moved away — but said the drawing only reflected his interest in creating video games.

The Crumbleys attended a meeting at the school that lasted less than 15 minutes. They did not mention that the gun resembled one James Crumbley, 47, had purchased just four days earlier — a Sig Sauer 9 mm that Ethan had described on social media as his “beauty.”

His parents declined to take him home, choosing instead to return to work and accepting a list of mental health providers. School staff said Ethan could stay on campus. A counselor, Shawn Hopkins, said he believed it would be safer for the boy than possibly being alone at home.

No one, however, checked Ethan’s backpack. He pulled the gun out later that day and killed four students — Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana, Shilling and Baldwin — and wounded seven other people.

There was no trial testimony from specialists about Ethan’s state of mind. But the judge, over defense objections, allowed the jury to see excerpts from his journal.

“I have zero help for my mental problems and it’s causing me to shoot up the … school,” he wrote. “I want help but my parents don’t listen to me so I can’t get any help.”

Asked about Ethan reporting hallucinations months before the shooting, Jennifer Crumbley, 46, told jurors he was simply “messing around.”

At the close of James Crumbley’s trial, the prosecutor demonstrated how a cable lock, found in a package at home, could have secured the gun.

“Ten seconds,” McDonald said, “of the easiest, simplest thing.”

___

Follow Ed White at X at https://twitter.com/edwritez

The victim, 14-year-old Avion Evans, attended Ida B. Wells Middle School.

Police say someone pulled out a gun and fired into a small crowd of teens who were fighting on the platform at the Brookland station, located at 860 Monroe St. NE. Security officers were on the platform when Evans was shot and were able to get other riders to safety, Metro Transit Police Deputy Chief Maurice McKinney said.

Medics rushed Evans to a hospital, but he didn’t survive.

Avion’s mother, India Wells, said she got a call about the shooting from one of Avion’s friends. She rushed to the station. Now, she says, she’s just trying not to fall apart.

D.C. police are still looking for the shooter. They quickly released a few photos of the suspect but don’t know who he is.

Wells sat on the front porch of her Northeast D.C. home Friday and asked a question that at the moment has no answer: Why did the gunman fire into the crowd?

“And that’s what hurts the most, because why? Why? I don’t understand. I don’t understand. Why? Why?” Wells asked. “I am at a loss for words.”

She said Avion was not someone who got into many fights and so she keeps asking the same question.

“Losing my son to violence? My son wouldn’t harm nobody,” she said. “Now he would defend himself, but, you know, he was a sweet kid. He was very smart, intelligent, very debative. A little bit arrogant,” she added with a rueful chuckle. “Just keeping it real, but he was a good kid.”

earthquake Apr 5

How the earthquake in New Jersey compares to what Virginia felt in 2011

homicide Apr 4

‘I knew that I was going to kill somebody': Confession in 1994 Virginia killing of woman played in court

Wells said her son was on his way to an after-school program and had stopped to see a friend at the Brookland Metro station when he was shot. She has looked at the photos of the suspected shooter but said she doesn’t recognize him.

Police say the gunman and all the other teens on the platform ran after he opened fire.

“To pull out guns and to think that it’s OK to take somebody off this Earth — like, you don’t know what you’re taking from a family?” Wells said. “Put the shoe on the other foot. What if that’s your family? You have to think about your brother, your mom, your sister, like — anything can happen, so you’ve got to come to your senses and think before you act.”

Wells said Avion loved to run track, work with computer graphics and debate.

She said hopes police make a swift arrest.

Wells said Avion had recently lost two of his brothers. When asked about the circumstances, she said she wasn’t ready to talk about what happened.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Several shots were fired near the intersection of Glenoak Road and Greenvale Parkway in Woodlawn before 4 p.m., police said. The scene was near Woodlawn Recreation Center.

An employee of a private garbage removal company was pronounced dead at the scene. He was identified as 30-year-old Idongesit Udosen of Lanham.

“I want my son back,” his mother told News4, tearfully. “I love him. He’s a good son.”

“I walked down there and saw the deceased on the ground, and my heart was broken,” a witness said. “Your heart just goes out. He was there laying out for a while.”

Police said the shooting was not random but did not provide a motive.

“I can’t believe it, not around here,” said Nadi Harper, who works nearby. “I really can’t believe this is happening.”

“Everyone is just so community-like around here,” she said. “As long as I’ve been working here, that’s the only vibes I get. You see I’m outside at night, like, walking around. I don’t do this at home.”

On Friday, police identified the victim as 14-year-old Avion Evans of Northeast D.C.

Evans was shot during a fight among teenagers at the station at 860 Monroe St. NE. Police initially said the shooter had nothing to do with the fight, but later said the shooter was indeed part of the physical altercation. It’s unclear how many shots were fired.

Security officers were on the platform when Evans was shot.

“They were able to shield patrons and get them to safety,” Metro Transit Police Deputy Chief Maurice McKinney. “They were able to alert Metro Transit Police.”

Metro transit officers, D.C. Fire & EMS and D.C. police were called to the scene about 4 p.m. Medics arrived quickly and rushed Evans to a hospital, but he died.

Police released images they say show the suspect. Anyone who sees this person is asked to call 911.

“We have young people that are good young people, and then we have those of them that create this kind of activity, and we want to bring these folks to justice,” D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said. “That is our job; that is our responsibility.”

“We will have an increased presence in this space,” Smith said.

There was no immediate word on a motive. D.C. police are leading the investigation.

People on the main campus of Catholic University nearby were told to shelter in place until it was determined there was no active threat. In a letter to the school community, the university said evening classes and athletic practices were canceled.

The Brookland Metro station was evacuated, and Red Line trains bypassed the station for hours. Service was restored as of 9:30 p.m.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call police at 202-727-9099. Those wishing to remain anonymous can send a text message to 50411.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

That much was reported at the time, but now the News4 I-Team has the federal documents proving a concerning number of guns the Metropolitan Police Department helped bring into the District ended up at crime scenes. So many guns recovered at crime scenes, in such a brief period, that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives placed D.C. police into a program designed to give extra scrutiny to dealers with higher levels of so-called crime guns.

MPD’s gun dealing was different than what many gun owners may be used to. Theirs was not a typical gun store with display cases and racks of guns to peruse. When a D.C. resident wants a legal handgun, they usually go to a gun store in Virginia or Maryland or to an online site. They pick the gun out, pay for it and have it shipped to a licensed dealer in D.C. – at the time, D.C. police headquarters. That D.C. dealer plays an important role in the sale process as the only place a federal background check is conducted, looking for past crimes or other disqualifications.

In recent weeks, the group Brady United Against Gun Violence released hundreds of letters sent by the ATF to gun dealers across the country that sold 25 or more guns recovered at crime scenes in a single year. The I-Team found one sent to MPD in May 2022. ATF calls it the Demand 2 Program.

“We are not anti-gun dealers at Brady,” Josh Scharff, the group’s general counsel, told the I-Team. “We are anti-irresponsible-gun dealing.”

According to Brady, just 2% of gun dealers across the country are in the ATF program any given year. The I-Team found 14 dealers in D.C., Northern Virginia, and the Maryland suburbs. That includes both currently licensed dealers in D.C. along with MPD from the time when it was an active gun dealer.

That means at least 25 of the guns MPD helped sell to D.C. residents in 2020 and 2021 were recovered at crime scenes in 2021 alone.

“It was a little bit surprising to see that the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department receive a demand letter,” Scharff said.

Federal firearms licensees (FFLs) play an important part in crime investigations.After a gun is found at a crime scene, the ATF traces it all the way back to the original sale with dealers and then follows the trail to see who else may have bought the gun before it was used in a crime. Detectives use the traces to develop suspects.

Short ‘time-to-crime’ with DC police dealt guns

According to the ATF, a gun found at a crime scene is on average 10 years along from its first sale – a calculation the ATF calls “time-to-crime.” The ATF explained to the I-Team, “Shorter time-to-crime periods could be indicators of illegal trafficking and provide crucial intelligence to investigators.”

The agency says if that happens within three years of the first sale, it deserves extra scrutiny into the gun dealer. For the dozens of guns recovered at crime scenes that D.C. police helped sell, the time-to-crime was at most 20 months – less than two years.

MPD is ‘ultimately responsible’

D.C. police has since stopped operating as an FFL, but Scharff told the I-Team the department should want to know why that time-to-crime was shorter and be able to tell D.C. families if their loved one was shot with a gun they helped bring into the District.

“MPD is ultimately responsible for the public safety of the residents of the of Washington, D.C.,” Scharff said. “Everything that they do should have an eye towards protecting the public safety. If Washington Metropolitan Police Department is engaged in selling firearms to the public, they have an obligation to the residents of D.C., to make sure that they are doing so safely and responsibly.”

Gun dealer had concerns about MPD’s practices

Shawn Poulin opened DC Security Associates in 2021. He is one of two FFLs in D.C. currently working with the public. He said he sees himself as the last check on responsible sales.

“We have a conscience just like everyone else. And we believe in responsible ownership,” he said.

Poulin opened his business months after MPD started operating as an FFL. At that time, MPD was the only licensed operating gun dealer in the District. D.C. police were then – and, according to everyone the I-Team talked to, is still – the only police department in America to help sell or have sold guns to the public. Federal records show D.C. police held a Type 1 federal firearms license, which the ATF defines as a “dealer in firearms other than destructive devices.”

Even before Poulin opened, he said D.C. police told him they wanted out of the gun business.

“They asked us to open early by four weeks?” Poulin told the I-Team at his D.C. location. “They were getting sick and tired of managing all those firearms they had down there. They had thousands of firearms waiting to be processed.”

D.C. police would not talk to the I-Team about Poulin’s claim.

When asked if he agreed with D.C. police getting into the gun business, “Heck, no,” Poulin told the I-Team, explaining, “My biggest point there for a while was if your firearms branch screws up, you’re going to inspect and enforce your own firearms branch?”

Looking back, Poulin said he was not surprised to see D.C. police on the list of dealers with guns that ended up at crime scenes.

“Does not surprise me one bit,” he said. “I walked in there, and it was, it was archaic. The processes, the systems they were using, to manage that process. It was archaic. I offered advice and offered little suggestions.”

D.C. police did not respond to that concern, either.

The I-Team also found Poulin’s business and the other D.C. FFL also received an ATF Demand 2 Program letter. Poulin told the I-Team his managers submit quarterly reports as required by the program and responded, “We don’t play games with (requests from the ATF).”

Few answers from DC police

After weeks of trying to obtain even basic answers from both D.C. police and the mayor’s office, the I-Team received few answers about the department’s time as an FFL. Brady’s Scharff told the I-Team D.C. residents deserve to know more about how their police department legally moved more than 8,000 handguns into the hands of District residents.

The trail started in 2012. At the time, D.C. had recently and repeatedly been in court over its stringent gun regulations and the 2008 Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller had upended many of them.

The D.C. Council passed a law in 2012 allowing the city to seek a license to sell guns to D.C. residents if no other private business would do so.

Eight years later as COVID-19 took hold in the District (and, as federal statistics show, gun purchases rose rapidly), D.C.’s longtime lone licensed dealer closed his business. A D.C. police spokesperson told the I-Team, “MPD was required to operate as an FFL from April 3, 2020, until January 4, 2021, to uphold a constitutional right in the District.”

The department would not say how many guns were eventually tracked to crime scenes, or if they told families D.C. police helped sell a gun used to injure their loved one. D.C. police would not tell us how many people were assigned to the gun dealing unit. Nor would they say if they ever refused a sale – as is a dealer’s right.

While D.C. police didn’t answer most specific questions the I-Team sent, even basic answers the department offered were confusing. D.C. police said it started dealing guns more than two weeks before Mayor Muriel Bowser’s order allowing them to do so. D.C. police has not offered any explanation.

The law that allowed D.C. police to get into the gun business also allowed them to charge $125 per firearm transfer. D.C. police confirmed it charged that much, meaning they brought in more than a million dollars. A spokesperson said the funds collected from the transfers went to the city’s general fund.

In a statement to the I-Team, a D.C. police spokesperson wrote, “MPD has never sold guns. MPD was required to operate as an FFL from April 3, 2020, until January 4, 2021, to uphold a constitutional right in the District. During that period, the department facilitated the legal transfer of 8,038 firearms.”

That spokesperson also said once MPD ceased operations as a gun dealer, the department complied with requirements to submit transaction records to the ATF.

DC mayor told Virginia to better oversee gun dealers months before DC became one

Before Bowser told D.C. police to get into the gun business, she criticized Virginia lawmakers for not overseeing dealers in the commonwealth strictly enough.

gun laws Mar 7

In Democrat-led session, gun safety advocates ask why Virginia Dems won't get more on gun safety

gun violence Jan 29

Report looks at the drivers of gun violence in DC

In a letter she sent Virginia legislative leaders on Jan. 8, 2020, Bowser urged Virginia legislative leaders to do more to keep guns legally sold in Virginia from being used in DC crimes. “Illegal guns originating in Virginia are a key driver of gun crime in D.C.,” Bowser wrote. She continued, “According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, ATF data show that criminal or negligent gun dealers are responsible for ‘nearly half’ of the total number of trafficked firearms uncovered in ATF investigations.”

Four months later, she signed that mayor’s order authorizing D.C.’s police department to become a dealer themselves, and those ATF records show clearly, D.C. helped bring guns into the District eventually used in crime, too.

The I-Team asked about the letter and D.C. police’s role as a gun dealer two weeks ago. The mayor’s office acknowledged the questions but never answered them.

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Steve Jones.

The shooting around 3 p.m. in Nashville’s Salemtown neighborhood began within minutes of the male suspect’s arrival at the restaurant with a woman, police said.

The suspect and the man who died got into an argument that “significantly escalated within moments,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron said during a news conference at the scene.

Police later identified the deceased man as 33-year-old Allen Beachem. The conditions of the other victims were not immediately released.

Police identified a 46-year-old suspect and the car used to flee the scene with images from security video provided by the restaurant. As a search continued Sunday for the the suspect, police posted photos of the shooting scene on social media, including an image of a man pointing a handgun.

“The gunman was the only one who brandished a pistol. This was not a shootout, if you will, this was one person who decided to pull a gun based on an altercation occurring with another man and then he fired multiple shots,” Aaron said.

There was a panic inside the restaurant as customers tried to escape, Police Commander Anthony McClain said.

“Some people did try to resist the gunman,” McClain said. “It was just mass chaos.”

Investigators were at local hospitals Sunday interviewing victims to determine exactly what happened, Aaron said.

“It may have been something as simple as one person invading another person’s space,” he said.

The victim, a 44-year-old Michael James Quander, Jr., was shot inside an apartment building on 2nd Place Southeast near M Street at around 3 a.m., D.C. police said. 

Authorities have not announced a suspect or possible motive in the deadly shooting. 

“I’m ready to move. This is unacceptable, very unacceptable. And I don’t like it,” neighbor Niko Jones said. 

“I have a camera on my door [and] I have a bar at my door that goes from the floor to the door, so that no one can just kick my door in,” resident Sheronda Magbie said.

Navy Yard has seen a number of violent crimes in recent months. In October, Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar was carjacked at gunpoint and a resident was chased and assaulted by an armed suspect in broad daylight. In February, a DC Housing Authority officer was shot. Just a few days ago, a manhunt was underway for an armed suspect who fled a traffic stop. 

“There’s been an uptick in crime for sure,” neighbor Jacklyn Hooey said. “[I’m] kinda just desensitized to it, if that makes sense.”

According to the Metropolitan Police Department, there were four homicides in the area this past year, compared to two the previous year. Car thefts were up 94%, and thefts from cars were up 62%. Robberies increased 35%. Assaults with a dangerous weapon, however, were actually down 14%. 

Magbie, a native Washingtonian, said seeing crime is nothing new. 

“I know what used to be here, so what you’re seeing now is a return to what was. I don’t care how much you dress it up, D.C. is going to be D.C.,” she said.  

Anyone with information on Sunday’s shooting is asked to contact police by calling 202-727-9099 or texting 50411. A reward of up to $25,000 may be available.

One of the 13-year-olds was arrested Thursday. The other 13-year-old and the 12-year-old were arrested Friday.

The arrest of the youngest girl came after she was shot and wounded in her home on Peabody Street NW earlier Friday, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told News4.

Reggie Brown, a 64-year-old Northwest D.C. resident, died after he was assaulted on Oct. 17, 2023. Officers responded to the 6200 block of Georgia Avenue at about 12:55 a.m. He had injuries consistent with an assault and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. An autopsy determined he died of blunt force trauma and was a homicide victim.

Video a detective called “horrific” played in court Friday evening showed three girls kicking and stomping Brown. They appeared to be in a celebratory mood as they walked away.

Detective Harry Singleton testified Friday a man in a blue coat threw Brown to the ground. Then the man and a group of girls followed Brown as he tried to get away.

Singleton found no connection between Brown and the girls.

“My uncle really didn’t deserve this,” a niece of Brown’s said in a statement to News4. “He was known in this community for years so for this to happen where he lived for 64 [years] is insane. They have to be held accountable!”

The 13-year-old girls were taken to a secure youth facility after Friday’s hearing. The 12-year-old girl will be in court Saturday.

3 suspects arrested in Reggie Brown’s death five months later

One of the 13-year-olds was arrested and charged with second-degree murder on Thursday.

Early Friday, before 4 a.m., the 12-year-old was shot in her apartment in the 500 block of Peabody Street, about a half-mile from the scene of the deadly beating. The girl was hit in the leg and taken to a hospital with injuries not expected to be life-threatening.

She and the second 13-year-old girl were then charged with second-degree murder.

Police have not said if the gunfire that hit the girl early Friday was fired inside her apartment or if it came in from outside. Video from the scene shows a shattered pane of a first-floor window.

A neighbor told News4 that after a loud bang, two young people jumped out of the broken window and ran down an alley.

Police investigating the shooting took a number of young people into custody. Numerous officers were seen using flashlights to search the ground before dawn.

Information was not immediately released on who is suspected of shooting the 12-year-old or how detectives built their case against the girls. All three girls are Northwest D.C. residents. Their names were not released.

Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to contact police. A reward of up to $25,000 is available.

Stay with News4 for more on this developing story.

More than 70 children were inside the day care at the time of the shooting but none were hurt, Fairfax County police said.

“We’re relieved no children were harmed today,” Deputy Chief Brooke Wright told reporters.

Suspect Julio Pascual Sejas, 41, of Arlington, was arrested after an hourslong manhunt.

The gunman fired three shots through the door of the day care center in the 8500 block of Bauer Drive, Wright said. He had tried to speak with a woman with whom he had a relationship, but she refused to open the door to him.

“She was on the inside of the door, and she never did open the door,” Wright said.

Sejas used a pistol to shoot the woman and a coworker in the upper body, police said.

Officers were called to the day care at about 2:15 p.m. and arrived in less than two minutes, Wright said. A huge police response surrounded the day care. The shooting victims were rushed to a hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

The dozens of children at the day care were “not within sight” of the shooting and did not appear to even know about it, Wright said.

“It doesn’t appear that any of the kids had any indication that anything even happened here today. They were jovial. They were taken outside. They didn’t appear to see the broken front door or have any indication that something was wrong,” she said.

Woodbridge Mar 25

‘Beautiful person': Family mourning Woodbridge mother whose body was found in trash truck

Domestic Violence Mar 20

GMU gets $5M for creation of AI-fueled anti-domestic violence app

Police told parents to go to the West Springfield District Station on Rolling Road to pick up their children.

‘Why is this happening at a day care?’

A man whose wife works at the day care center said he sped there to pick her up after she texted him and said two teachers were hurt.

“I jumped to action. I jumped in my car and I ran over here,” he said.

“Why is this happening at a day care? What has a 4-year-old ever done to an adult or whoever to warrant this type of situation?” he said, fighting tears.

The shooting shook officers too, Wright said.

“Almost all of us are parents. We understand exactly what the public is feeling, and we want to reassure you that we will do everything to get this person, or any other person who’s dangerous, into custody as soon as possible to protect our children,” she said before Sejas’ arrest.

Suspect in Springfield day care shooting found after hourslong manhunt

Sejas was found and arrested by the police department’s Fugitive Tracking and Apprehension Unit, police said in an update at about 6:30 p.m. They tracked him down at Washington Dulles International Airport as he tried to pick up relatives who were arriving, police said in an update.

He was taken to the county jail and held without bond.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts had been asked to call 911.

“We do believe him to be dangerous, so we ask that you do not try to make contact with him,” Wright said.

Sejas was wanted on seven felony counts, including for malicious wounding and use of a firearm. It wasn’t immediately clear if he has a lawyer.

Police initially said the suspect fled in a green Dodge Ram. They said in an update that the truck is not related to the investigation.

‘We are grateful to our West Springfield team for their quick response’

The day care will remain closed through at least the end of the week, KinderCare Learning Companies said in a statement.

“We’re heartbroken that a violent man came to our center and shot two of our teachers. Our thoughts are with the two teachers who were hurt, and with their families. We understand the teachers are in stable condition, and we’re grateful for that news,” the statement said in part. “We’re also relieved that no children witnessed this violence, nor were any children hurt.”

“Nothing is more important to us than the safety of the children in our care. We train our teachers and staff to respond to a variety of emergency situations so that when a crisis happens they’re able to act quickly and calmly to keep your children safe. We are grateful to our West Springfield team for their quick response to today’s crisis and their unrelenting focus on the safety and wellbeing of the children in their care,” they continued.

KinderCare said they would check that teachers have access to mental health resources and families have access to trauma-support materials.

Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.

Corey Riggins Jr. had been shot three times before he was killed, so his mother and grandmother say they knew he was in danger. But neither of them could convince him to stay off the streets.

“When the streets get ahold of you, you can teach ‘em one thing and the streets can tell him something else,” his grandmother said.

When Riggins was 15, he was critically wounded in a shooting, but paramedics quickly got him to the trauma center at George Washington University Hospital. He survived and was featured in the hospital’s annual survivor ceremony.

But he would be hit by gunfire two other times before he was killed in November 2022.

“People don’t, they won’t talk till that death come to your door and snatch your heart out,” said Riggins’ mother, Carla Lawson. “The hole — like mom was saying — the hole is there.”

She frequently passes out flyers announcing a $25,000 reward for information in Riggins’ death.

Both women said they were surprised to hear on News4 two weeks ago that one of the guns used in the Mother’s Day shooting of Arianna also was used to kill Riggins. Lawson called the lead detective.

“It’s a lead, and I don’t know, so why are you hiding information?” she said. “They wouldn’t share.”

The 61 shell casings from the scene where Arianna was shot were entered into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ ballistic comparison database. Police found that four guns from that shooting were used in 28 shootings in D.C. and Prince George’s County, Maryland, including the killings of Riggins in November 2022 and Tyrone Hopkins in April 2023 — a few weeks before Arianna was killed.

“The gun was moving,” Riggins’ grandmother said. “Somebody is moving the gun, and they just taking people’s lives, and it is so painful to the families.”

Three men have been charged in Arianna’s death, but there’s no evidence linking them to Riggins’ death.

His mother and grandmother hope the case will be solved but fear the investigation will eventually end up a cold case.

The victim was a student at Westfield High school in Chantilly.

Police said 18-year-old Ismael Cruz-Delcid fatally shot the boy Wednesday afternoon in a hotel parking lot in the 13700 block of Coppermine Road.

Police released the name of the suspect Thursday amid a continued manhunt. Cruz-Delcid, of Herndon, turned himself in late that night after contacting a lawyer and negotiating a plan to surrender, authorities announced Friday. He is being held without bond on a second-degree murder charge, among other charges.

“The life of a 14-year-old child was simply not lost the other day. It was taken by a gunman who intentionally shot and killed one of our children,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said.

Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid said they focused on extra counseling Friday at Westfield High, which the victim attended, and also at Herndon High, where students knew the victim.

“Any time a student’s life is taken before [their] time, it’s a tremendous loss for us, and the proliferation, really. of gun violence with our youth is a significant challenge for us across the country,” Reid said.

The alleged gunman had graduated recently from Fairfax County’s Mountain View alternative high school.

Witnesses said a confrontation among three teenagers led to the shooting Wednesday shortly before 4 p.m. According to Fairfax County police, Cruz-Delcid drove to a hotel parking lot and got into a physical fight with two other teens, the 14-year-old and a 16-year-old.

“All of them started kicking each other,” a witness told our partner station, Telemundo 44, in Spanish. “When I saw this, I began yelling at them, ‘What’s going on? What’s happening?'”

Police say Cruz-Delcid then pulled out a gun and fired three shots, two of which struck the 14-year-old. The victim was rushed to a hospital, where he died. His name has not been publicly released by police because he is a minor.

The gunshots missed the 16-year-old, who was able to identify the suspect to police.

The three of them did know each other, police said Friday, and they’re investigating whether the altercation was planned. Law enforcement sources said the shooter and the other teens were associated with groups who had been feuding. Investigators are going through social media and tech to look into the intent and the connections among the three.

“We believe there was ongoing verbal disputes,” Fairfax County Deputy Police Chief Brooke Wright said. “We don’t know if [there were] any prior physical altercations between the parties, but they were definitely known to each other.”

Tennessee Mar 22

Body of missing college student Riley Strain found in river near Nashville, police say

Maryland Mar 22

‘Blindsided': A Maryland small town suspended its entire police force. Residents want to know why

Cruz-Delcid ran off after the shooting, leaving his Honda Civic behind, police said.

A witness told Telemundo 44 they were pulling into the parking lot and saw someone running away and another person on the ground.

Another witness said she was steps away from where the shooting happened.

“I heard kids, like, kind of yelling, but you know, there are kids that walk all through here around that time, anyway,” Herndon resident Violet Vicks said. “And it sounded like a couple of boys, maybe, or men yelling at each other, but I wasn’t really paying attention, and then I heard, I only heard two pops, but I thought that it was, like, a car backfiring. I don’t know. I didn’t really process what it was.”

Cruz-Delcid did not make a statement to police when he turned himself in Thursday night.

‘I can’t imagine anything more devastating for that kid’s family’

There was a massive police response to Wednesday’s shooting with several heavily armed officers on the scene, and more officers on site the following day. The shooter was believed to have fled toward Lutie Lewis Coates Elementary School, which was locked down as police searched the area.

“We have a teenager who’s dead and shouldn’t be,” Wright said Wednesday. “I can’t imagine anything more devastating for that kid’s family. So, we take that very, very seriously. And obviously, the suspect, we know, was armed with a firearm. So, because of that, yes, we’re going to have heavily, heavily armed officers that are searching for that suspect, who we believe could be dangerous to them if encountered.”

Police said that victim specialists from their Major Crimes Bureau’s Victim Services Division were helping the victim’s family.

Witnesses say a confrontation among three teenagers led to the shooting Wednesday before 4 p.m. in a hotel parking lot in the 13700 block of Coppermine Road.

Fairfax County police say Cruz-Delcid, of Herndon, arrived at the parking lot in his car and got into a physical fight with two other teens. Cruz-Delcid then pulled out a gun and fired at them, police said. They did not give any potential motive.

One of the teens was shot and was taken to a hospital, where he died. His name and age have not been publicly released.

The gunshots missed the other victim, who was able to identify the shooter to police.

Cruz-Delcid left his Honda Civic at the scene and ran off after the shooting, police said.

A witness told Telemundo 44 they were pulling into the parking lot and saw someone running away and another person on the ground.

Another witness said she was steps away from where the shooting happened.

“I heard kids, like, kind of yelling, but you know, there are kids that walk all through here around that time, anyway,” Herndon resident Violet Vicks said. “And it sounded like a couple of boys, maybe, or men yelling at each other, but I wasn’t really paying attention, and then I heard, I only heard two pops, but I thought that it was, like, a car backfiring. I don’t know. I didn’t really process what it was.”

Police released the suspect’s name and photo Thursday afternoon. They said they have arrest warrants for Cruz-Delcid for second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, as well as a warrant for distribution of cocaine stemming from a previous narcotics investigation.

Anyone with information on the crime or on Cruz-Delcid’s whereabouts is asked to contact Fairfax County police at 703-246-7800. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous may contact Crime Solvers by phone at 1-866-411-TIPS (866-411-8477), via text at 847411(type “FCCS” before your message) or online here.

Southeast DC Mar 21

27-year-old making food delivery is killed in DC hit-and-run by stolen car driver

Mar 21

DMV services disrupted nationwide by system outage

‘I can’t imagine anything more devastating for that kid’s family’

There was a massive police response to Wednesday’s shooting with several heavily armed officers on the scene. The shooter was believed to have fled toward Lutie Lewis Coates Elementary School, which was locked down as police searched the area.

“We have a teenager who’s dead and shouldn’t be,” Fairfax County Deputy Police Chief Brooke Wright said Wednesday. “I can’t imagine anything more devastating for that kid’s family. So, we take that very, very seriously. And obviously, the suspect, we know, was armed with a firearm. So, because of that, yes, we’re going to have heavily, heavily armed officers that are searching for that suspect, who we believe could be dangerous to them if encountered.”

Officers were still spread out around the hotel and nearby as of Thursday afternoon.

Police said that victim specialists from their Major Crimes Bureau’s Victim Services Division have been assigned to assist the victim’s family receive resources and help.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

“We’re searching for who we believe the suspect to be,” Fairfax County police Deputy Chief Brooke Wright said.

Witnesses say a confrontation among three teenagers led to the shooting before 4 p.m. in a hotel parking lot in the 13700 block of Coppermine Road.

The three teens got into a fight, and one of them pulled out a gun and fired at least three shots at the other teens, striking and killing one of them, police said. The shots missed the third teen, who was able to identify the shooter to police.

There is a massive police response to the shooting, with several heavily armed officers.

“We have a teenager who’s dead and shouldn’t be,” Wright said. “I can’t imagine anything more devastating for that kid’s family. So, we take that very, very seriously. And obviously, the suspect, we know, was armed with a firearm. So, because of that, yes, we’re going to have heavily, heavily armed officers that are searching for that suspect, who we believe could be dangerous to them if encountered.”

Police are looking for a Hispanic male wearing all-black clothing, Fairfax County police said.

A witness told Telemundo 44 they were pulling into the parking lot and saw someone running away and another person on the ground.

The shooter was believed to have fled toward Lutie Lewis Coates Elementary School, which was locked down as police searched the area.

Stay with News4 for developments in this breaking story.

The children who pulled the trigger were most often teenagers ages 14 to 17 or children ages 5 and under, according to Everytown’s data, which is compiled from media reports. Roughly half of the incidents involved children who shot themselves. In the other half, someone else was injured or killed — usually another child.

“The victim is often a sibling, a cousin or a friend,” said Sarah Burd-Sharps, senior director of research at Everytown. “It leaves multiple families facing grief and regret.”

Everytown said federal and state authorities should do more to track and provide public data about such incidents to help identify the best ways to stop them.

“Nearly once every day, a child gets their hand on a loaded gun and shoots themselves or someone else,” Burd-Sharps said. “It’s so preventable.”

Those who died include a 2-year-old girl in Indiana who shot herself with a gun she found in her home and an 8-year-old boy in Alabama who was shot with a firearm that had been removed from his mother’s car. In Florida, a 12-year-old boy died and a 15-year-old was injured by a 14-year-old who was playing with a gun that he thought was unloaded, according to police.

Last year marked the highest number of unintentional shootings by children under 18 that Everytown has tallied since it began tracking them in 2015: 411 incidents resulted in injuries or deaths, with some involving multiple victims.

Everytown’s effort is spurred, in part, by the lack of timely, comprehensive national data on unintentional shootings, according to the group, which was co-founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides broad data on injuries and deaths in unintentional shootings, but the data is limited and can be delayed for years. Some states only recently began submitting detailed reports about incidents to the federal government. And information about injuries is far less complete than it is for deaths, because there is less documentation.

“There is no system that is set up to get the circumstances” of firearm injuries, said David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, which focuses on injury prevention. “No one is even close to doing that.”

While the federal government collects far more detailed information about fatal shootings, access to such data is restricted to universities and other research institutions.

In a statement, the CDC said it tracks and reports the age of shooters in all firearms deaths, but not all injuries, since that information is typically not available.

Everytown’s count of unintentional shootings based on media accounts also isn’t exhaustive, as not all shootings receive news coverage, particularly those in which no one is killed, and the initial reports of an incident may be incomplete.

But Hemenway said Everytown’s count of the fatal shootings seemed in line with what researchers would expect, given previous analyses of federal data and how often children tend to be involved in such incidents. “It sounds like they’re getting a sizable majority of deaths,” he said.

The overall rate of unintentional shooting deaths of both children and adults has fallen since the 1990s, according to CDC’s limited data. But firearms remain a leading cause of accidental child death. According to a 2015 survey, an estimated 4.6 million American children were living in homes with at least one loaded and unlocked firearm, and gun sales have surged since then.

In 2016, 14-year-old JaJuan McDowell was unintentionally shot and killed by another teenager who was playing with a gun that had been stored in a dresser drawer.

Eight years later, JaJuan’s mother, Julvonnia McDowell, still catches herself looking in the rearview mirror while she’s driving and remembers that she will never see her son sitting in the back seat again.

“When guns aren’t properly stored, it means pain and trauma that I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” said McDowell, who encourages others to have conversations about safe firearm storage as a volunteer for Moms Demand Action, the grassroots arm of Everytown.

“This is an issue that we all need to worry about,” McDowell said. “Whether it’s your gun or not, believe me — it can be your child.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Massachusetts family finds looted WWII artifacts in late father’s belongings, helps return them to Japan
• Idaho considers a ban on using public funds or facilities for transgender care
• Biden to sign executive order to boost women’s health research

The suspects charged with armed carjacking are two 15-year-old boys and a 14-year-old boy.

The crime happened on Thursday at around 6:07 p.m. in the 700 block of Lamont Street NW, police said. 

“The victim told officers that he was sitting in his car when a suspect approached him. The suspect pointed a gun at him while demanding the victim get out of the car,” D.C. police said in a news release. 

Washington DC Mar 13

DC mayor says crime bill may not be fully funded, tax increases can't be ruled out

DC Council Mar 5

DC Council approves crime bill permitting DNA collection before conviction, drug-free zones

A second suspect then approached and told the victim to get his child, of unspecified age, out of the vehicle, authorities said. The victim complied and the teens allegedly took off.

A police helicopter was able to track down the car “less than 15 minutes later,” according to MPD. 

Dramatic bystander video shows how at least three officers ran behind the stolen car, at one point trying to open a door.

Police said the suspects abandoned the car at 11th and R streets NW and fled on foot.

The helicopter was able to locate the teenagers and they were arrested, authorities said. Police also said they found a firearm. 

This is a developing story. Refresh for updates.

Kaeden Holland pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and use of a gun in the commission of a crime.

Holland was charged as an adult after the attack on a Prince George’s County school bus on May 1. He was 15 at the time.

As part of a plea agreement, Holland agreed to a 25-year sentence. His lawyer will be allowed to ask for a shorter sentence.

The victim’s mother told News4 she’s thankful that her son’s attacker will serve time, and that she’s getting help for her son.

Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said she’s glad that Holland took responsibility for his actions.

“It was important for Mr. Holland and other young people to know that there are consequences for your actions,” Braveboy said.

She said her office will recommend that he is sent to the Patuxent Institution, which works with youth offenders.

gun violence May 4, 2023

Shooter Tried to Fire at Boy on Maryland School Bus But Gun Malfunctioned: Police

gun violence Jun 1, 2023

Teen's Gun Malfunctioned 3 Times in Attempted Killing on Maryland School Bus: Prosecutors

Holland also was named a suspect in a homicide in Northwest D.C.

Teen shooter’s gun malfunctioned 3 times, prosecutors say

Prosecutors said Holland pulled the trigger of a gun three times but the gun malfunctioned each time.

As News4 reported, the bus was stopped at Iverson Street and Sutler Drive when three young people boarded and began to attack the 14-year-old, police said. The assault was captured on the bus’ surveillance camera.

Holland pulled out a handgun, pointed it at the victim’s head and pulled the trigger, prosecutors said.

“The gun made an audible click and the gun malfunctioned,” prosecutors said.

He racked the gun to try to correct it and pistol-whipped the boy, “leaving an indentation of the barrel of the gun on his right side temple.”

Two other young people punched and kicked the boy.

Then Holland pulled the trigger a second time. The gun malfunctioned again.

He racked it again and then hit the boy with the gun, his hands and his feet.

The boy tried to grab the gun away from him, but Holland pointed it at him and pulled the trigger a third time. Again, it did not fire.

Holland pointed the gun at the school bus driver and bus aide, and then he and the two other young people ran away, prosecutors say. Police found three, live 9 mm cartridges on the floor of the bus, prosecutors said.

The 14-year-old victim was able to escape with only minor injuries, police said.

Police previously said they arrested three other teens for the attack on the bus: a 14-year-old boy from Suitland, a 15-year-old boy from Temple Hills and a 14-year-old girl from Oxon Hill. They also were charged as adults.

Holland is due to be sentenced on May 17.

Correction (Thursday, March 14, 2024, 7:46 p.m. EST): A previous version of this article said the incident took place in Riverdale Park. That has been corrected to Oxon Hill.

A shooting was reported at the 600 block of Lafayette Avenue at about 1:30 a.m. Officers found two victims had been shot, according to the Laurel Police Department.

Track House Studios DMV is located in the industrial-like area near train tracks. News4 has reached out to the recording studio for comment.

“Upon arrival, officers actually found that two people had been wounded by gunshots, provided immediate medical attention to them. The fire department came and assisted as well,” Laurel Chief of Police Russell Hamill said. “Sadly, unfortunately, one passed away on scene.”

A second victim was taken to a hospital, where they died from their injuries.

The victims’ identities were not immediately released.

A third victim who was shot took themselves to the hospital to receive treatment. That person’s condition is currently unknown.

“Early indications are that there were two groups of individuals, there was some sort of argument developed,” Laurel Police Deputy Chief Mark Plazinski. “So, I would say that there’s not a general threat to the public, other than the fact that there’s folks out there using firearms to resolve their differences, which is not a good thing.”

“My deepest condolences for the loved ones of the people that passed away,” Track House’s owner said in a statement to News4. “My prayers go out to the person that is in the hospital. Going forward, my business partners have been working relentlessly all morning to see how we can heighten security measures in the studio.”

News4’s Pat Collins reported on a robbery that happened at the same address over 12 years ago.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police.

This is a developing story. Stay with News4 for updates.

Laurel Mar 8

Man helping passenger out of limo struck and killed by drunk driver in Laurel

Maryland Mar 8

Should rap lyrics be used as evidence in criminal cases? Proposed Maryland law would raise the bar

Charles Edward Owens, 24, was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder while armed. Owens was already in custody at the D.C. jail, police said.

‘Ari, don’t die’: 10-year-old shot in car after family left celebration

On the evening of May 14, 2023, Arianna’s family was driving in the 3700 block of Hayes Street NE, west of DC-295, when they saw multiple people get out of a car directly behind them.

The people from that car began shooting, police said.

Witnesses said they heard more than 50 shots. Arianna’s family believes their car was struck by other people returning fire, police said.

A witness in the victims’ car told investigators they weren’t aware Arianna was hurt until a younger child in the car said, “Ari, don’t die.”

gun violence Jun 7, 2023

‘Trauma after trauma': Maryland funeral home owner charged in murder at child's burial

gun violence Nov 15, 2023

As some DC families try to move away from gun violence, they find it's not always so easy

gun violence Nov 16, 2023

DC teens on gun violence: ‘Gun violence has definitely deprived me of my youth'

The family then rushed to a firehouse, and Arianna was taken to a hospital.

She died three days later.

At her funeral, her grandfather, Everette Douglas, said he misses her every day.

“I just wish more, this violence would stop,” he said. “Because it could have been anybody else’s child.”

Owens is the third man to be charged in Arianna’s murder.

“Since the shooting, the community has provided numerous tips and video evidence,” police said in a release Wednesday. “Through community cooperation and the tireless work of MPD’s Homicide Branch, detectives were able to identify the suspects.”

Karon Gregory, 19, of Southeast D.C., was arrested last September. Then, 19-year-old Dallas McKinney, also of Southeast D.C., was arrested in January. Both are also charged with first-degree murder while armed. 

The victim, identified by family members as 88-year-old Richard Butler, was inside a white Hyundai Santa Fe on the 100 block of North Dewey Street at 1:35 p.m. when shots were fired. Butler was shot twice in the chest and tried to drive away until his vehicle came to rest on a sidewalk, knocking over a potted plant.

Sources told NBC10 witnesses tried to use a tire iron to break into the vehicle and get Butler out shortly after the shooting.

He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 1:56 p.m.

Butler’s family told NBC10 a car had been sitting near the intersection of Arch and Dewey streets for a while. Once Butler’s SUV came into the area, they say the gunman got out, ran up on the SUV and fired at least two shots.

“This is so sad, that something like this could happen. And we were just sitting eating dinner together last night, having a ball and talking,” the victim’s son, Orlando Butler, said.

Family members told NBC10 Butler was an Air Force veteran and retired SEPTA bus driver.

“You know my father never bothered nobody,” Orlando said. “He’s just a retired military vet. He’s been an outstanding citizen in the community. Took care of all the kids from the block. For this to happen to my father, this is truly a sad situation.”

Butler’s family said that during his younger days he was known for taking kids in the neighborhood to Atlantic City and Wildwood, showing them life outside of Philadelphia.

“This man did nothing to anyone and he gave to everyone,” Minette Finn, Butler’s great niece, said.

No weapons have been recovered and police have not released information on any suspects or a possible motive.

Police are currently searching for any surveillance video that may have captured the incident.

Officers were in the area of the 6800 block of Greig Street when they heard several gunshots at around 6:30 p.m., police said. 

At the scene, they found a minor of unspecified age suffering from a gunshot wound, authorities said. They were taken to a hospital with injuries that are not life-threatening. 

A short time later, a man “walked into a local hospital suffering from a gunshot wound as well. He is being treated for his non-life-threatening injuries,” police said. 

More information on the circumstances of the gunfire and potential suspects was not immediately available. 

Anyone with information should call police at 1-866-411-TIPS.

After leaving Afghanistan, 31-year-old Nasrat Ahmadyar, a husband and father of four, settled in Northern Virginia.

“Here was a man starting out in the United States,” D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said. “He served the country.”

He was shot just after midnight July 3 while driving to make up for being behind on rent, friends said. Officers found him inside a car on 11th Street NE near D Street.

Police believe he was killed during an attempted carjacking.

“He had just dropped off a passenger and was sitting in his vehicle when he was approached by several young suspects,” D.C. police Assistant Chief Leslie Parsons said. “It appears through our investigation that these suspects may have been trying to take his vehicle. During that interaction, one if the suspects shot Nasrat.”

Home surveillance video from the area shows four people running through an alley. One is heard saying, “You killed him.”

“The reckless actions of these teens cost a man’s life and shattered a family just starting out on their journey in this country,” Parsons said. “No arrest will be able to make them whole, but today’s news sends a message loud and clear to those looking to introduce guns on our streets: Detectives do not rest until the reckless actions like this are met with severe consequences.”

Detectives continue to look for more suspects, police said.

“We are listening to you and we are more present in our communities than we have ever been,” Smith said.

The officer was shot in the 400 block of M Street SE just before 6 a.m. He was hit in the torso, Housing Authority Chief of Police Michael Reese said. In an update, police said the officer had a graze wound.

Police described exchanges of gunfire inside and outside the building.

Two uninvited guests were reported at the senior housing building at 410 M St. SE, Reese said, according to preliminary information. Housing Authority police asked them to leave.

Three exchanges of gunfire erupted, with shots fired on the second floor, in the lobby and outside.

The man shot the officer and ran, Reese said.

The officer was wearing a protective vest but was shot just below it. He will survive his injuries, D.C. police said.

No other injuries were reported.

Police searched for the shooter inside a building about a block-and-a-half south, at 1331 Fourth Street SE. Residents were told to shelter in place inside their homes with the doors locked. Anyone who saw or heard anything suspicious was asked to call 911.

The man, 40-year-old Victor Terrill of Landover, Maryland, was arrested in a “parking garage area” of the apartment building on Fourth Street, Reese said. He is the suspected shooter and is charged with assault with intent to kill, assault on a police officer, felon in possession of a firearm and unlawful entry. He reported chest pains after he was arrested and was taken to a hospital, police said.

The woman, 37-year-old Teyona Tolson, was arrested earlier in the morning and is charged with unlawful entry, Reese said.

Cellphone video showed a young man being taken into custody outside the building. It wasn’t immediately clear if he is the suspect.

Police flooded the residential area east of Nationals Park after the shooting.

Several streets in the area were shut down, and bus service was affected. Roads were back open as of about 11 a.m.

Police told residents of the building on Fourth Street at about 10:15 a.m. that they could stop sheltering in place. Some said they still couldn’t get to their cars about an hour later.

Reese pointed to a rash of violence in the District.

“It’s very disturbing – the violence that seems to be escalating,” he said.

The officer who was shot has been with Housing Authority police for six years, Reese said.

A number of law enforcement agencies have locations in the Navy Yard area, including the Metropolitan Police Department, Naval Police, Homeland Security and Housing Authority Police.

Just two weeks ago, three D.C. officers were shot and wounded by an animal cruelty suspect who opened fire as officers tried to serve him with an arrest warrant at a home in Southeast D.C.

Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

The shooting happened in the 6900 block of Stansbury Lane, Prince George’s County police said. Officers responded just before 9:30 p.m. and found two adults and a child suffering from gunshot wounds, police said.

The girl and the suspect were declared dead at the scene.

“Her bright future was cut tragically short last night by her stepfather,” Chief of Police Malik Aziz said.

A woman was taken to a hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries, authorities said. She is in stable condition.

Prince George’s County police said 38-year-old Curtis Lynch shot the woman and her daughter, Mailyn Turkes.

“Mailyn did not deserve this,” Aziz said. “The adult female victim did not deserve this. The families that are involved did not deserve this.”

Police said there was no threat to the community.

D.C. police arrested Lynch Feb. 12. He was accused of threatening to kidnap or injure someone, according to court documents. He was released Feb. 16 on pretrial supervision. He was given a curfew, placed on electronic monitoring and told not to possess a gun.

Prosecutors said they wanted him held without bond.

On Feb. 21, sheriff’s deputies were called to a Landover home because of argument, the Prince George’s County Sheriff’s Office said. Not finding any sign of a physical altercation nor having anyone complain of such, no action was taken by deputies other than to advise those involved with resources available to them.

Lynch was convicted in a domestic case in 2015, according to court documents.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 1-866-411-TIPS.

Note (Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, 8:59 p.m. ET): This article originally said the girl was 10. Police now say she was 11.

Last year, Baltimore saw historic declines in homicides while the District saw a historic spike.

The News4 I-Team has been investigating the reasons for the gun violence and looking for solutions over the past two years. While investigating why D.C.’s neighboring city up Interstate 95 was having measurable success in its fight against homicide, the I-Team found that both cities consult with some of the same experts to reduce crime, and although D.C. spends significantly more each year than Baltimore, the trends have been different. 

Kelief Hendricks said he’s an example of the changes in Baltimore.  

“I was caught up in the street life,” the 22-year-old said.

In 2022 he was one of hundreds shot, but he survived.

“I would say wrong place at the wrong time,” Hendricks said.

Hendricks’ family felt the pain of gun violence before. He said he lost his dad to gun violence one month before he was born. Without a dad, the men he saw on the corner filled that void and guided him in the wrong direction.

“It was all I seen growing up was people selling drugs,” he said. “So, I just went, okay, they got nice things, I want nice things, and I want to be able to provide for my family.”

Hendricks said he knows he’s lucky to be alive. The year he was shot, 330 others died in Baltimore. And in the two years that have passed, something has happened in his city: progress. 

Jeremy Biddle lives in D.C. but recently served as special advisor for the Group Violence Reduction Strategy to Baltimore’s mayor and police Commissioner. Now he serves as senior advisor for the University of Pennsylvania’s Crime and Justice Policy Lab.

He told the I-Team that before taking the job in Baltimore, he had a list of must haves for the collaboration to be successful.

“Leadership from the mayor first,” he said. “If you don’t have city and political leadership that’s deeply invested in doing this and doing it the right way, meaning not having a plan that you abandoned after a month with the first road bump, but really making a plan and sticking with it, you can’t get anywhere.”

In 2021, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott initiated a comprehensive violence prevention plan consisting of three pillars: treating violence like a public health issue, promising community engagement and government collaboration and evaluating and providing accountability for what’s working and what’s not.

“It’s not just flooding areas, doing car stops, field interviews,” Biddle said. “It’s knowing the people involved and focusing.”

And he said that plan included very specific goals.

“You understand who’s most directly impacted by violence, and you craft and tailor a strategy directly around that population,” he said.

That includes people like Hendricks, who’s been involved with a program called Roca for a year and a half.

“This program, it changed me,” he said.

Roca Managing Director JT Timpson admits his staff is relentless in trying to break through to those most at risk of being caught up in violence, knocking on doors and not taking no for an answer.

“We built a program for young people who we knew wouldn’t show up,” he said. “We built a program for young people we knew we have to go drag out of bed because they are the ones who need it the most.”

Timpson told the I-Team Roca takes a holistic approach — not only providing things like job training — but helping young people understand their emotions and behaviors through therapy and healing.

“Trauma is living in Baltimore for a lot of our young people,” he said. “We define trauma as we train. We define trauma as the fear that won’t turn off, so imagine that, imagine what our young people go through every day living here.”

While there is still substantial violence in Baltimore, for the first time since 2015 the city had fewer than 300 homicides last year – 263 according to the police department. That’s a 22% decrease in the past two years.

Biddle said there is a difference between Baltimore and D.C.

“I will say this, D.C. has a lot going for it,” he said. “It has a good community violence intervention, infrastructure, strong street outreach, strong resources behind kind of transformative mentorship and life coaching. What it does not have is a strategy. Baltimore city has a strategy. That is the difference.”

“Mayor (Muriel) Bowser has set clear priorities for reducing crime, gun violence and juvenile crime to create a safer, stronger Washington, D.C.,” D.C. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah told the I-Team. “This means ensuring all residents are safe, victims of violent crime experience justice and those that harm our community are held accountable.”

The office went on to say there have been encouraging results, with violent crime and homicides down compared to this time last year.

David Muhammad with the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform has helped both cities develop strategies for reducing gun violence.

“While not perfect at all, [Baltimore’s leaders] are putting the pieces in place to reduce gun violence, and so, this specificity and intensity is working in Baltimore,” he said. “Baltimore is not resource rich, is not a place that I would call resource rich, but they have focused their resources.”

Bowser previously said D.C. spends more than $100 million a year on programs to reduce gun violence. In Baltimore they’re spending about a quarter of that $22 million to $25 million a year according to the mayor’s office.

gun violence Jan 29

Report looks at the drivers of gun violence in DC

gun violence Jan 5

Baltimore celebrates historic 20% drop in homicides even as gun violence remains high

Timpson said working together is important and that Roca is sharing resources with D.C. by doing training with some of the District’s violence interrupters.

“Here’s the thing: If they don’t enter into this work in a healthy space, then they’re going to crash out, and that’s what happens to a lot of people who do this,” he said. “We crash and burn so fast because we’re dealing with trauma constantly.”

And while Roca believes in educating and healing, counselor Tyrone Kent said there is also talk about consequences.

“I would say that police in prosecuting and in some situations, prison is necessary,” he said. “Without accountability, there is no self-evaluation … You know, if you don’t self-evaluate, you don’t change.”

Hendricks said he’s accepting the change he’s learned, and for the first time, he’s seeing a new purpose for his own life. He hopes to one day work with youth.

“If I can change, I know the next generation under me can change,” he said.

Reported by Tracee Wilkins, produced by Rick Yarborough, shot by Jeff Piper, and edited by Jeff Piper and Steve Jones.

While D.C. law requires the police department to release bodycam video from any use of force incident, the subject of the use of force — Stephen Rattigan, in this case — is allowed to block its release.

In the past, the mayor could override that decision in the public’s interest, but a change to the law made by the D.C. Council removed that authority from the mayor. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she believes the mayor should have that authority and she’s having her attorneys look at the law.

Police arrested Rattigan, 48, after a 13-hour standoff that began when he opened fire on officers at his home in the 5000 block of Hanna Place SE the morning of Feb. 14, police said. The officers were trying to serve him a warrant on animal cruelty charges, and he was facing eviction after his dogs menaced a 2-year-old, according to his landlord’s account in court documents.

One officer was shot in the hand, another was shot in the foot or leg and a third was struck twice, but his ballistic gear stopped the bullets, authorities said.

The wounded officers were released from the hospital the next day as a crowd applauded them.

Rattigan’s landlord was trying to evict him for failing to remove dogs from his home, court documents show. Twenty adult dogs and 11 puppies were taken from the home after Rattigan was arrested. Three Humane Rescue Alliance vans were used to transport them.

Suspect accused of punching dog in the head

Police initially went to Rattigan’s home with a warrant to arrest him as a suspect in an animal cruelty case after an officer investigated a neighbor’s complaint in January.

When the officer went to the home on Hanna Place, it smelled of urine and feces, the officer wrote in court documents.

The concerned neighbor showed the officer a video that led to the animal abuse charge. Police said the video shows the suspect repeatedly punch a dog in the head.

Washington DC Feb 14

3 DC officers shot while serving animal cruelty warrant; suspect surrenders after 13-hour barricade

gun violence Feb 15

Animal cruelty suspect accused of shooting 3 DC officers had been charged with punching dog

In court documents, the officer said the video shows two of the dogs approaching a child “in an excited and friendly manner,” and an adult calmly picking up the child.

The suspect “then enters the picture… and approaches one of the dogs, grabbing it and pulling it away from [the adult] and child. The dog stays, cowering from [the suspect]. [The suspect] then proceeded to punch the dog in the face six times, causing the dog to yelp each time,” the officer wrote.

What officials say happened before Rattigan shot police

Court documents reveal what police say happened when they tried to serve the warrant. Officers knocked and said who they were, but Rattigan did not come out, officials say. The officers then breached the door but did not enter for fear of being attacked by dogs.

Rattigan then opened fire, police said.

He then called police himself and said he had fired warning shots at someone who was trying to get into his house. If they were there to get his dogs, they would have to kill him, he said.

Rattigan fired additional shots during the standoff because he was agitated as he waited for negotiators to bring him cigarettes, police said. Bullets hit a response truck and a neighbor’s Lexus.

Once Rattigan was taken into custody, officers found he had a Glock handgun with an extended magazine. He had no prior criminal history, records said.

Medrano-Moore – a bright, humble student who dreamed of playing basketball professionally – died after she was shot on Sept. 11 near DuVal High School.

A 17-year-old boy was arrested and charged with murder days later.

Prince George’s County police said Wednesday that they identified and charged three more suspects: Ramon Richardson, 18, of Lanham; Cameron Anderson, 18, of Landover; and a 17-year-old from Lanham whose name was not released.

Richardson and Anderson each were charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder and related charges. The 17-year-old, who also was charged as an adult, was charged with first-degree murder. It wasn’t immediately clear if they have lawyers.

Prince George's County Sep 11, 2023

DuVal High School student dies after shooting in Lanham

Lanham Sep 15, 2023

17-year-old charged in deadly shooting of DuVal High School student

Maryland Sep 13, 2023

Weapons detector added at DuVal High School after student is shot and killed

The three additional suspects were identified during the investigation and taken into custody Wednesday morning, police said.

Chief of Police Malik Aziz said in September that the shooter opened fire after “some type of petty beef” between groups of young people. Medrano-Moore had tried to intervene, he said.

“She stepped in between that when a gun was produced,” he said. “[…] The person with a gun at a fight shot and killed her.”

Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to contact police.

Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.