I have a little list

I don’t know about you, but I’ve kinda lost track of all the gunplay incidents recently. So I decided I’d try to make a little list since the beginning of the year just including incidents in PSA 308. I started with the police stats and then added reports of other shooting incidents that have been reported in the blogs, but which didn’t appear in the police listing. This covers only the incidents involving shootings and/or guns and does NOT include the home invasions of a few weeks back. Nor does it include other crimes such as auto theft, burglary, theft from auto, etc. Still, when you put it all together, it’s a pretty impressive list. Feel free to comment with additions or corrections; I make no claim that this is complete or totally accurate. The numbers in parens refer to the police case number.

• Sunday, 1/28, shots heard about 1:00 am, near 1500 block of 6^th Street--location uncertain, also witnessed at 9th and O about the same time (not in police stats)
• Saturday, 1/27, shooting murder at Kelsey Gardens, 1500 block of 7^th St. (7012719)
• Saturday, 1/27, murder on 11^th Street by beating; suspect arrested. (PSA 307)
• Saturday, 1/27, gunfire 500 block of N Street, bullet entered 2^nd floor of residence nearby (not in police stats)
• Tuesday, 1/23, assault with deadly weapon (gun), 400 block of N Street (7010666)
• Tuesday, 1/23, assault with deadly weapon (gun) man hit, 5^th and Ridge (7010740)
• Tuesday, 1/23, shots heard fired 1500 block of Marion St (not in police stats)
• Tuesday, 1/23, shots heard fired 7^th St. near Conv. Center (not in police stats)
• Saturday, 1/20, assault with deadly weapon (gun), 5^th and N (7009076)
• Saturday, 1/20, assault with deadly weapon (gun), 1200 block of 7^th Street (7009014)
• Saturday, 1/20, assault with deadly weapon (other), 1600 block of 8^th St. (7009211)
• Saturday, 1/13, car shot up in Giant parking lot (not in police stats)
• Saturday, 1/13, gunshots heard 1400 block of 9^th St. (not in police stats—maybe same as incident above)
• Tuesday, 1/9, gunfire, 1200 block of 5^th Street. (not in police stats)
• Tuesday, 1/9, assault with deadly weapon (other), 7^th and RI Ave., (7003917)
• Thursday, 1/4, assault with deadly weapon (gun), 1300 block of 7^th St., (7001462)
• Wednesday, 1/3, assault with deadly weapon (gun), 600 block of N St., (7001443)
• Wednesday, 1/3, assault with deadly weapon (gun) man hit, 1300 block of 5^th St. (7001306)
• Monday, 1/1, assault with deadly weapon (gun), 1300 block of 8^th St. (7000004)

TV Coverage of Shootings

Channel 4 news at 6:30 had a segment on the 4 murders in DC over the last 24 hours, including the 2 in Shaw. There was an arrest in the beating death on 11th Street, which doesn't seem related to the rash of shootings in the neighborhood. No mention in the segment that there has been such a binge of shootings around here. Fox News also did a segment, with an interview of Kevin Chapple.

Watch-Your-Car Program

MPD 3rd District Officer Marco Santiago has circulated a notice about something called the "Watch-Your-Car" program, which I had never heard about before. Basically, it tells the police where your car should normally be and permits them to stop and ask for registration and ID if it's seen being driven between 1 and 5 a.m. I don't know how effective this has been in fighting car theft, but it seems to me that it can't hurt. Auto theft is, unfortunately, pretty common in this part of the city.

Details are available here, and you can register on line. Sign me up!

MPD Community Meeting; Recent Home Invasions

Cary has posted a very good summary of the PSA 308 community meeting on the Mt. Vernon Square blog. Just a couple of comments on the meeting:

• I was a little disappointed to hear that the Adopt-a-Block program won't apply to every block. Lt. Neal said there weren't enough officers to go around, so if your block isn't considered a "bad" block, yours may not get adopted. I think one of the benefits of this program is that people would have an officer whom they know and can contact without going through the full system. Couldn't an officer adopt more than one block?
• Some of the frustration that residents feel about police response appears to stem from the way the 911 system is set up, rather than lack of responsiveness by officers. Officer Barnes noted that the system is not run by the police department and they can't respond until the call gets assigned to someone. The Mayor's community outreach person, Sean Howard, was at the meeting and said this problem would be examined. One resident said she calls 311 (the non-emergency number) and gets better response than from 911. On the other hand, I've heard other people say they got no response from 311, so who knows.
• The police seem to have a pretty good understanding of the dynamics of the gang shootings and at least have some plans for dealing with them. The description of what happens to juveniles who are detained was very informative, but not exactly reassuring.
• Oh, and no one screamed or shouted at anyone during the meeting. A refreshing change.

At the end of the meeting Marco Santiago noted that there has been a series of home invasions in the general area recently. Here's the police advisory on that:

The Metropolitan Police Department’s Burglary Task Force is investigating a series of burglaries and robberies that have occurred in occupied premises. The Metropolitan Police Department also seeks the public’s assistance in attempting to locate and identify suspects possibly responsible for these crimes.

At approximately 7:57 p.m. on Wednesday, December 27, 2006, a lone male, armed with a handgun, entered a home, through an unlocked back door, in the 1800 block of 4^th Street, N.W. Once inside he robbed the occupants of a camera, jewelry, cell phone, blackberry and a handbag. There were no reported injuries. The suspect in this case is described as a black male, 25 to 35-year-old , 6’2” tall, 180 to 185 pounds with a medium complexion. He was wearing dark clothing and armed with a handbag. [Handgun?]

At approximately 9:15 p.m. on Friday, December 29, 2006, two subjects, one armed with a handgun, entered a home, through an unlocked front door, in the 1500 block of Vermont Avenue, N.W. Once inside they tied up the occupant before taking a wallet with cash and credit cards, two cameras, cell phone and keys to a yellow Hummer. The suspects took the Hummer but abandoned it at 12^th a and Streets N.W. There were no reported injuries. The first suspect in this case is only described as a male approximately 6’2” tall, wearing a mask, dark clothing and armed with a handgun. The second suspect is only described as possibly being a female, approximately 5’3” tall and wearing a mask and dark clothing.

The cases are under investigation by detectives from the department’s Third District and department’s Burglary Task Force Unit. A nyone with information about this case is asked to cal police at 202-727-9099. The department currently offers a reward of up to TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for any robbery committed in the District of Columbia.

Also, see Jennifer's comment on the previous post about another incident on Warner Street that seems to fit this description.

Another "Incident"?

Wondering if there has been another shooting. I was on the 400 block of O around 4:45 p.m. when I see 4 young guys coming out of 2nd NW going toward Bundy School. Suddenly there are cop cars everywhere, and one of the cops puts two of the guys up against the car. Looks like there are more flashing lights at 5th and N. Anyone know anything more?

Police Adopt-a-Block Program

Commander McCoy of the Third District MPD has circulated an announcement about a new "Adopt-a-Block" program instituted by incoming chief Lanier. According to the announcement, "PSA Lieutenants will assign a block to each officer within their PSA for adoption. This will be accomplished by Saturday January 6, 2007." Haven't seen any details or flyers yet, and of course, it remains to be seen if this will really be thoroughly implemented and accepted by line officers. Still, I think it's a promising beginning and deserves support.

The monthly PSA 308 community meeting is scheduled for 6:30 on January 11 at the United House of Prayer for All People, 630 M Street. This might be a good opportunity to get some more information about this program and what the MPD is doing about the recent wave of violence in the neighborhood. Lt. Neal is listed as the contact--wonder if that means he's been reinstated.

ANC Deadlock

Oh, boy.

A few highlights, if you can call them that, from tonight's ANC meeting. (This reflects my recollections; check the other Shaw blogs for their versions as well.)

The meeting opened with a bang when Chair Doris Brooks announced that videotaping or recording would not be permitted. A somewhat chaotic shouting match ensued with attendees pointing out that recording a public meeting is permissible by law. Someone said call the police, and an officer arrived but took no action. So several people recorded the proceedings--check your local listings. [At the end of the meeting, Gottlieb Simon, who runs herd on the ANCs for the DC government, allowed as how taping had been ruled permissible, but the ANC bylaws could set guidelines so that it would not become disruptive to the conduct of the meetings. Since our ANC bylaws apparently do not mention this, there is nothing to prohibit recording.]

As anticipated, the election of officers deadlocked 2-2, so the status quo from December continues with Doris Brooks as Chair and Treasurer and Barbara Curtis as Vice-Chair and Secretary. (There was a bit of confusion over who was elected to what, but Parliamentarian and Executive Assistant Thorpe got it all straightened out as planned.)

Pretty much everything else deadlocked too, starting with approval of the minutes, which like the other documents presented for approval, were distributed to Alex Padro and Kevin Chapple (whose name Ms. Brooks consistently mispronounced) only at the beginning of the meeting. Mr. Chapple moved that approval of the minutes be tabled to allow the commissioners and public to read them. Deadlock. Same with the by-laws. And the quarterly report.

During discussion of the meeting locations, Mr. Chapple moved to allow at least two of the year's meetings to take place at a location to be selected by Mr. Padro so as to make meeting more accessible to other parts of the ANC. No dice. Ms. Brooks' response was to repeat the motion as it stood.

Discussion of the budget also reached an impasse, although the provision alloting funds for grants was deleted when Ms. Curtis, possibly in a moment of confusion, voted to support a motion from Padro and Chapple. (A couple of other times she seemed to raise her hand in favor of one of their motions only to get a nudge from the chair and change her vote.) So the budget was left with nothing decided except for money for postage and a post office box. A proposal by Mr. Padro to spend funds on distributing the meeting agendas and to institute an ANC website got enthusiatic applause from the audience, but got nowhere. Attempts by attendees to get a reason for the opposition to a website were stonewalled.

Throughout, Mr. Thorpe provided sotto voce prompts to Ms. Brooks, who despite decades as an ANC commissioner, appeared unprepared to conduct the meeting. Several times, attendees objected to the inaudible exchanges between Thorpe and Brooks as inappropriate in a public meeting, but these complaints were brushed aside. Indeed, most of the discussion among the commissioners took place between Padro and Chapple on one hand and Thorpe on the other. For all intents and purposes, Mr. Thorpe is still definitely in charge. No surprise there.

But they did manage to unanimously approve the Chinese New Years parade for February 18. And Fenty's Ward 2 community outreach coordinator, Sean Howard, made a brief presentation. He can be reached at sean.howard@dc.gov. God knows what he thought about all this.

As often happens, the meeting degenerated into a chaotic shoutfest at the end. I never heard an official adjournment, but people just sort of got up and left.

Lordy, lordy, what a dispiriting spectacle! Is there really any reason for these things to be so petty and spiteful?

Oh, by the way, there was another shooting at 5th and N this afternoon. Apparently a kid was hit--a few details here.

January ANC2C Meeting

A reminder that the first ANC meeting of the new term will take place on Wednesday, January 3 at 6:30 p.m. at the Africare Building (440 R Street NW). These meetings have a lot to do with what happens in our neighborhood, so plan to attend if you can.