D.C. Councilman David Catania got emotional as the council passed the South Capitol Street Memorial Act Tuesday.
The bill, which Catania has been working on for the past two years, focuses on youth behavioral health and truancy. It’s named after the mass shooting on South Capitol Street that killed four in 2010.
On Tuesday, Catania thanked Nardyne Jefferies, the mother of one of the victims.
“After these tragedies happen, you can’t simply light a candle, walk down the street and call it a day, because the people who are harmed and wounded by these actions live with these wounds and they walk among the wounded,” Catania said.
Jefferies noted that Catania, as an at-large council member, doesn’t represent her ward.
“I just felt like he represented the whole entire District of Columbia and all of the victims in such a passionate way,” she said.
