It was a violent weekend in the District: Four shootings ended three lives and left five others injured.
And, during an event Monday for D.C. police’s Cadet Corp Program, Mayor Muriel Bowser was blunt about what’s necessary to prevent more of the same.
“We as a nation have to get serious about illegal guns and gun violence,” she said.
“… We continue to be concerned about illegal guns coming across our borders from our neighboring states,” she continued, “and we know what that is going to take is a real push against the NRA, a real push for our Congress to focus on background checks, straw purchasing and gun loopholes, which we know is impacting us — especially … from Maryland and Virginia.”
Five were wounded Saturday in three separate shootings — which occurred in the span of one hour.
A woman was wounded around 4:18 p.m. in the 3800 block of Minnesota Avenue Northeast. (Police have posted surveillance video of a suspect.) A man was wounded at 4:23 p.m. in the 2500 block of Elvans Road Southeast. Then, just after 5 p.m., two were killed and one was wounded in a third shooting in the 6000 block of 13th Street Northwest.
Newsham said that third shooting did not appear to be random.
“I can tell you this: We are going to be up there in that community knocking on doors today to see if anybody has any information,” he said.
On Sunday, one was killed and two were injured in the 200 block of Okie Street Northeast, in D.C.’s Ivy City neighborhood.
“That was a situation where a person was being robbed by two other individuals,” Newsham said. “The victim of the robbery was able to wrestle the weapon away. And then he shot the two robbery suspects.”
Killed was 20-year-old Daniel Jackson of Southeast D.C. Dominique Davis, 21, also of Southeast D.C., was arrested and charged with assault with intent to commit robbery.
Both Bowser and Newsham cited the growing prevalence of “ghost guns,” which are assembled from parts, have no serial numbers and thus allow users to bypass such requirements as background checks.
“We’ve seen an increasing number of ghost gun recoveries over the last couple of years — pretty dramatic increases,” Newsham said. “I mean, it’s a small percentage of the overall guns that we recover, but the number is increasing. So, it’s something we certainly got to keep an eye on.”
Anyone with information about any of these shootings should call (202) 727-9099, or text D.C. police’s tip line at 50411.
WTOP’s Kristi King contributed to this report.
