WASHINGTON — D.C. police are still searching for at least four people who shot up an unpermitted block party at 33rd Street and Dubois Place, Southeast early Sunday morning, killing a teen and wounding at least 21 others. Injured neighbors are urging the shooters to turn themselves in.
Every weekend, DC Police Chief Peter Newsham said he's been getting a long list of planned events that could potentially violate the current ban on mass gatherings because of the pandemic. But breaking up a party comes with its own set of issues, including questions about overzealous policing.
On Tuesday, two-and-half days after the mass shooting, police were back at the scene, still finding spent bullet casings; at least three were found within a one-block radius, including one discovered and reported by WUSA9.
Police said a minimum of four different shooters exchanged gunfire, firing more than 100 rounds into a crowd of hundreds of innocent bystanders. An off-duty police officer was critically injured and 17-year-old Christopher Brown was killed.
Two volunteer violence interrupters knocked on doors in the neighborhood Tuesday, urging people to put down their guns and pick up their kids. They said far too many children have died already.
"Everyone keeps saying snitching this, snitching that," Sade Wright, of the Wright Family Foundation, said. "If you really about the streets, you know kids don't get hurt, you know women don't get hurt. And you don't shoot in crowds."
Some in the neighborhood said the police should have shut down the massive block party as soon as they heard about it. Others place blame on the organizer, who advertised the long-running event online in the middle of a pandemic.
"The event should have never happened in the first place," said a man who identified himself as Brown's uncle, but would only give his name as "E" because he works for the city and was concerned he was not allowed to talk. "You get denied a permit, you weren't supposed to have a gathering over 50 people anyway."
But Mayor Muriel Bowser-- and many others -- said it's the shooters who are responsible.
"You shot into a crowd of 300 people? Turn yourself in," Brown's uncle E said. "It's ridiculous. Stop it. Stop all of this man."
WUSA9 is still waiting for details on a vigil, and how the family plans to remember 17-year-old Brown, a young dad who was expecting his second child to be born soon.
There's a $25,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest of an involved party.
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