Loved Ones Mourn Retired Bus Driver Killed in Northeast D.C.

Friends and neighbors mourned on Friday night the woman police say was killed by a family member who then barricaded himself inside a D.C. home for more than 24 hours.

Loretta Carswell, 63, was shot and killed the morning of Friday, August 21 by her cousin Roosevelt Robinson, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. Robinson, 67, shot Carswell about 11 a.m. outside her own home, on the 3700 block of 18th Street NE, police said.

After shooting Carswell, Robinson ran down the street in the Brookland neighborhood, fired more shots and fled into a house at the intersection of 18th and Otis streets NE, police said. He barricaded himself inside the home until about 5 p.m. Saturday, August 22, when he was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

Carswell was remembered at a vigil in Northeast D.C. Friday night as a pillar of the community.

"Loretta was my best friend. She was my sister, she was my neighbor. We all grew up together," Treme Gilliam said.

Carswell had worked as a Metro bus driver for 23 years and had retired just three years ago, friends said. She didn't have children of her own but was known for taking care of youth in the neighborhood.

"She was such a loving, good-hearted person," ex-classmate and friend Alvin Tobe said.
 

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