Families in Northeast D.C. are reeling from shock and fear after a mass shooting Wednesday evening killed a man and left five other people hurt, including a 9-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy.
Gunfire erupted on 21st Street in the Carver-Langston neighborhood. Police are still searching for two shooters and a light blue Toyota sedan with no front tags, dark windows and black rims. The shooters jumped out of the car and fired into a crowd, police said.
The mothers of two shooting victims told News4 they’re devastated.
Aubrey McLeod, of Largo, Maryland, was the man who died, police said. He was the father of three children, who are 2, 3 and 8, his mother said.
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The mother of the 12-year-old boy who was shot and wounded said her son was shot, he tried to run home for help and then he was hit by a car.
“He’s definitely in a lot of pain. He has a lot of burns across his body from when he was hit by the car,” she said.
The mother said her son was released from the hospital Thursday morning but still has a long road to recovery. She said she’s looking to leave the neighborhood and find a new home as soon as possible.
“I have to go. I can’t. It’s not safe for my children,” she said.
Metropolitan Police Department statistics for the half-mile radius where the shooting occurred show that in the past year there have been eight homicides, 45 assaults and 147 stolen vehicles.
“This is another example, and I’ve been through it before in this space of violence, that we cannot, we just cannot accept in our communities,” Chief of Police Pamela Smith said Wednesday night. “My condolences go out to the families and friends who were impacted by this senseless gun violence.”
The mother of the 12-year-old who was shot said the arrests of the shooters can’t come soon enough. She said she couldn’t understand why they opened fire though they saw children in the crowd.
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“If you saw these children outside, why even follow through with what you obviously had planned? It doesn’t make sense. Like, our kids aren’t safe because you guys are acting crazy,” she said.
The mass shooting comes just four days after the District opened its brand-new crime center. Officers are able to monitor security cameras for around the region in real time. Police say that’s how they obtained images of the getaway vehicle quickly.
