At the Cre8tive Korner Early Learning Center on Alabama Avenue in Southeast D.C. on Thursday, teachers loaded a group of 2-year-olds into a red six-seat buggy and set out for a walk to take in the fresh air on what was one of few mild-weathered mornings this month.
Sadly, the children and their teachers wouldn’t make it far before shots rang out.
“Everything was calm and clear. Then all of a sudden, there was a hail of gunfire, in which they were caught in the middle of,” said Tarsha Rice, the center’s director.
The class had walked outside just as a shooter chasing another man fired a shot on the sidewalk nearby, according to police. Meanwhile, the teachers, according to school owner Juanita Barnes, tried to shield the children from gunfire as they ran back to the day care’s doors.
“They put their own lives at risk to make sure that children weren’t injured,” Barnes said.
When they got inside, they soon realized one of the children, a 2-year-old girl, was struck by a bullet. What appeared to be an impression from the bullet can be seen on the back seat of the buggy where the girl was sitting.
The girl was one of four victims of the shooting, according to D.C. police. Officers said three suspects with guns fired on three men in the area of Savannah Terrace in Southeast, killing two and leaving a third hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening.
In a police news release Friday, the two men who were killed were identified as 29-year-old Lamont Street, of Capitol Heights, Maryland, and 50-year-old Jermaine Proctor, of Southeast D.C.
Rice said their first concern was the little girl who was injured, and she said as of Thursday evening the girl had been taken to the hospital and was “stable and doing well.”
What happened has shaken the day care center community, including the teachers who were caught in the crossfire.
“We are victims in this. Our children and staff were literally out taking their morning walk, as they usually do in normal fashion,” Barnes said. “The streets were quiet and out of nowhere — the gunshots.”
Not the first time
For the day care community, this was the third instance of gun violence that has hit close to home.
On July 4, former student, Ahsan Julian Payton, 6, died after gunfire erupted during an Independence Day celebration in Temple Hills. In May, a student at the center, Ty’ah Settles, 3, was killed in a shooting a few blocks away on Harford Street in Southeast.
“Now, for the preschool class, they’ve lost a friend. And now a friend has been injured,” Rice said.
“It’s just like, you know, the trauma is continuously hitting the staff here,” said Laqueda Tate, an advisory neighborhood commissioner who represents the neighborhood in which the day care sits.
Tate arrived at the center shortly after the shooting and said what happened has left her “heart definitely heavy.”
Barnes, the owner of Cre8tive Korner Early Learning Center, was born and raised in Southeast D.C. and started the day care in 2009. As a law enforcement officer, she said she was encountering many kids who ended up on the wrong side of the law. Barnes hoped to bring about positive change for young people and keep them from a life of crime by opening her business.
Barnes told WTOP it helped fill a big need for child care east of the Anacostia River, but sadly she feels this shooting and others nearby could result in her shutting her doors.
“If, you know, the parents choose to remove their kids from the center… at this point, I just don’t know how we’re going to be able to sustain any longer,” Barnes said.
She said the center has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars making safety improvements, including installing bulletproof glass and adding extra lighting.
Work was also set to begin building a playground at the day care center for outdoor time, so the children and staff didn’t need to depend on walks to a nearby tot lot.
“Just to try to make the children feel safe,” Barnes said.
For now, she said the walks from the center will cease.
‘Everyone can’t stay at home’
Barnes said day care centers such as hers need help from the city to remain open and provide a safe place for working parents to leave their children.
“We need help east of the river, ” she said. “We desperately need help east of the river — we need resources.”
Barnes also called on city leaders to provide more recreational activities for kids and consider partnering with day cares in the process. She also called on the police to increase their presence in the neighborhood.
“Get to know the people that you protect, stop just pulling up when crime happens but get to know, you know, Miss Johnson who sits on the porch or her three grandsons that come to her house in the summertime. Like, just increase your presence, increase the awareness and rebuild that rapport and trust that is just no longer there,” Barnes said.
As the community continues to struggle with violence, Rice said she fears for the neighborhood if change doesn’t come that curbs crime.
“Crime and death will continue. Innocent lives will be lost,” she said. “They will continue to be lost. Families will continue to grieve, loss. Businesses will suffer.”
Barnes believes she must now begin looking for a place to move the facility, with the hope that they can find somewhere safer nearby.
Tate, the ANC commissioner, said she will begin to work to help Barnes find a new location and encouraged developers and property owners who may be able to help to reach out to them.
Tate and Rice also said the day care needs assistance with transportation to safer parks and playgrounds for the children.
“There are still parents that have to go to work, so unfortunately, everyone can’t stay at home tomorrow,” Tate said. “Everyone can’t stay at home the rest of this week.”
For now, Barnes said they are trying to figure out what’s next, and their priority is supporting their staff and the children impacted by what took place.
“We continue to stay here because we have a true vested interest in this community,” Barnes said. “We want to provide quality care, which is what we do. We are one of the very few centers in this area that provides quality care to the kids. We all genuinely care about this community.”
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