WASHINGTON: A 6-year-old woman was killed and 5 different folks have been wounded when a gunman opened fireplace Friday night time in a Washington, D.C., neighborhood, simply toes from the place law enforcement officials have been stationed.
The gunfire erupted shortly after 11 p.m. on Friday, July 16, 2021, within the Congress Heights part of southeast Washington.
Cops who have been close by responded to the scene about 34 seconds after the primary gunshot was heard and rushed the woman to an area hospital in a police automobile, the place she was pronounced useless, Metropolitan Police Division Chief Robert Contee mentioned.
Police recognized the woman as Nyiah Courtney. Three males and two ladies suffered nonlife-threatening gunshot wounds.
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“We are going to do no matter it takes to shut this case in a swift {and professional} method,” Contee mentioned at a information convention on Saturday.
Officers consider the gunshots — in what Contee known as a “brazen” capturing — got here from a passing car. Police have been anticipated to launch video of the car later Saturday and have been providing a reward of as much as $60,000 for info that results in an arrest within the case.
“She was beginning the primary grade this fall and now that will not occur and admittedly that’s unacceptable to me and it needs to be to each resident,” Contee mentioned of the kid.
Neighborhood members confronted Mayor Muriel Bowser and different metropolis officers on the information convention, demanding they take rapid motion towards close by liquor shops they declare are attracting violence within the space. They described a number of different latest shootings in the identical space.
Bowser and Contee mentioned the group additionally wants to assist police attempt to drive down violence within the neighborhood.
“The cowards who dedicated this crime got here into this group, with none regard for human life, with out regard for Nyiah’s life and opened fireplace,” Contee mentioned. “That can’t and won’t be tolerated. It’s time for us to say sufficient is sufficient.”
Washington, like many different giant cities within the U.S., is seeing a spike in violent crime and homicides. Homicides within the district are rising for the fourth consecutive yr, with over 100 killings already reported in 2021.
Whereas it’s typical to see a surge of crime in the summertime months, the nationwide spike in crime this yr defies straightforward rationalization. Specialists level to plenty of potential causes: the pandemic that has killed greater than 600,000 folks within the U.S., worries in regards to the economic system, giant gatherings after months of stay-at-home orders, intense stress and even the recent climate.
