The parents of a 10-year-old D.C. girl who was shot and killed while walking to an ice cream truck last summer are suing the District.
Makiyah Wilson, 10, was killed in a shooting that prosecutors have said was a gang-related retaliation. Four people, including her older sister, were wounded. On Wednesday, her parents, Donetta and Michael Wilson; her sister, Nyjhay Lewis; and Curtis Gilmore, one of the other injured adults, filed a suit against the District of Columbia Housing Authority.
Four men were captured on surveillance video pulling into the parking lot of the Richardson Dwelling, also known as Clay Terrace, on July 16 and firing wildly into a crowd of people. Among them was Makiyah Wilson, heading to the ice cream truck with a $5 bill in her hand. Seven people have been charged in her death.
Wilson’s parents say in the suit that the city, which operates Clay Terrace, is partially responsible for their daughter’s death by “failing to secure, guard, manage and otherwise monitor the area by providing adequate security or gateage.”
According to the suit, there are “dozens and dozens of calls for service” to D.C. police every year to Clay Terrace. Twenty-three homicides and hundreds of other violent crimes, they allege, were committed within 1,500 feet of Wilson’s address, and residents complained to management about violent crime in the area and asked for more security.
Even so, “the area is not secured or patrolled by any security personnel,” nor are there any gates to keep people out, the suit says.
Lawyer Brian McDaniel told WTOP that Wilson’s parents are seeking $30 million in a wrongful-death suit, while Lewis and Gilmore are asking for $5 million each in negligence suits.
