Crime & Safety: Shooting on School’s First Day, Commanders’ Player Shot
By • August 29, 2022 0 2385
A Shooting on the First Day of School
It was the first day of school for the pre-Ks, kindergarteners and elementary school students of Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School. But when the school at 30 P St. NW went into lockdown mode shortly after 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 24, it was not a drill.
A man walking his dog nearby said he “heard up to 10” gunshots fired. Police arriving on the scene in the Truxton Circle neighborhood found two men dead and three men injured.
Two shooters had emerged from a small black SUV near the school and began shooting people gathered near a residential building for seniors, according to D.C. Executive Assistant Police Chief Ashan M. Benedict. With their semi-automatic weapons they then jumped back into their SUV and escaped west on O Street.
Benedict said the shooting might have been “drug related,” but it was “not immediately known whether any of the victims had been targeted or were in any way involved in narcotics trafficking,” according to the Washington Post. Though the neighborhood has gentrified in recent years and some homes are valued at more than $1 million, flare-ups of gun violence are not uncommon. An “open-air drug market” has appeared in the area, according to Benedict.
“These acts of violence need to have consequences,” said D.C. Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie (D-Ward 5) who represents the area where the shootings occurred. Expressing his “outrage,” McDuffie said the shooters must be held “accountable,” according to the Washington Post.
The previous Saturday, McDuffie had been at a nearby community event organized by Cure the Streets, a violence-interruption program run by D.C.’s Office of the Attorney General. McDuffie told the Post he had been handing out backpacks to neighborhood parents and children for the start of the school year.
12 People Shot in D.C. in One Day
But these were not the only shootings in D.C. last Wednesday. In at least four separate incidents, 12 people were shot in the nation’s capital that day, leaving three dead.
Following the shootings on O Street near the Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School that left two dead and three injured, what appeared to be a related shooting of three men took place that evening on Quincy Place NE, just blocks away. “We believe now this was certainly a targeted incident at individuals who were in the block,” MPD Chief Robert Contee told NBC 4. “We certainly believe this was some sort of retaliation for the shooting that occurred earlier,” Contee said.
Three men have been arrested in connection with the Quincy Place shooting. But police are still searching for the car involved in the O Street shooting: a black 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe with a possible Virginia temporary tag: 956515X.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 202-727-9099. Anonymous tips can be texted to 50411. “The Metropolitan Police Department currently offers a reward of up to $25,000 in each homicide, bringing the total reward amount in this case up to $50,000, to anyone that provides information which leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible,” MPD said in a press release.
On the following day, Thursday, Aug. 25, Mayor Muriel Bowser “attended the first graduation of the District’s Peace Academy, where community members are trained to help settle neighborhood disputes before they become violent,” NBC 4 News reported.
2 Shootings in Chinatown
In bustling Chinatown Thursday evening, police were called to respond to multiple episodes of gun violence. As officers were investigating a fatal shooting of a 21-year old man at 7th and H Streets NW near Gallery Place Metro, the Chinatown arch, and Capital One Arena, they heard what sounded like fireworks just one block to the south. According to NBC 4, “two people were injured” in the second shooting. One female victim was “found shot in her abdomen” and was taken to an area hospital. The second male victim received a gunshot wound in the arm, but walked himself to a hospital. Both are expected to survive.
Commanders’ Running Back, Brian Robinson, Jr, Shot
Commanders’ rising star running back, Brian Robinson, Jr. was shot Sunday night. Twitter photo.
Gun violence was also inflicted last night, Aug. 28, against Washington Commanders’ rising star, rookie running back Brian Robinson, Jr., who was shot twice “in his lower extremities during a possible attempted carjacking or armed robbery” near the 700 block of H Street NE, according to the Washington Post. D.C. police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said the shooting took place shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday. Robinson was treated in a nearby hospital and is in stable condition. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
“I just got done visiting w/Brian,” Commanders’ coach Ron Rivera tweeted at 10:04 p.m. Aug. 28. “He is in good spirits and wanted me to thank everyone for their kind words, prayers & support…”
Police recovered a firearm near the scene of the shooting and are looking for two juveniles with “shoulder-length dreadlocks.” One was “wearing a black or brown shirt with yellow smiley faces,” according to the Post.
In their weekly Firearms Recovery Report for Aug. 15-22, MPD detectives and officers “recovered 89 firearms in the District of Columbia.”
