WASHINGTON — Two Dunbar High School students have been charged with assault with intent to kill stemming from a shooting in Northwest D.C.on Friday. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves announced the charges Tuesday against Saki Frost and Azhari Graves.
A stray bullet from a shootout outside the school, near the intersection of Kirby Street Northwest and Morgan Street Northwest, went through the window of the school and struck a 17-year-old girl while she was in a classroom.
Police say the girl had a minor graze injury and is expected to be OK. However, charging documents say "the graze was deep enough the skull was visible." She went to the hospital for a CAT scan and it was determined she would not need surgery.
According to the documents, the girl, who is a student athlete, was running late after getting a new ID card and was only in the class about 10 minutes, and had not yet taken a seat, when she felt a pain in her head and realized she had been shot. A basketball coach applied pressure to her wound until medics arrived.
The student told police she did not hear the gunshots, and did not know of any rumors of violence beforehand, the documents say.
A teacher who was in the classroom at the time the student was shot told police she was talking to the girl when they noticed a large group of people gathered at the basketball court across the street. The teacher told police they heard gunshots and everyone scattered from the basketball court.
Meanwhile, detectives worked quickly to review video from surveillance cameras in the area and interviewed witnesses.
One witness told police he saw a group of young people hanging out in the alley that runs between Morgan Street and New York Avenue Northwest. The witness saw the group exit the alley and run toward Kirby. He heard several people say, "Get ready they're coming around the corner." The witness said he went inside and heard gunfire, court documents say.
When he came back outside, he saw five people get out of the Chevy Cruze that looked to be hit by gunfire and had damage to the front end. Several people ran away from the car. The witness also gave police surveillance video of the shooting.
The documents say surveillance video from the alley shows about 15 people running out of the alley including two people armed with guns. The two armed people were later identified as 17-year-old Saki Frost and 18-year-old Azhari Graves, both senior students at Dunbar.
WUSA9 is identifying the 17-year-old suspect because he's being charged as an adult.
Investigators later learned the Chevy Cruz seen on surveillance video was taken in a carjacking the day before.
Detectives continued to interview witnesses and review surveillance videos from a number of sources, showing the moments before, during and after the gunfire. After the shooting, surveillance video captured a black Infiniti registered to Graves' mother drives into an alley and meets up with Frost, and drives away, according to the documents.
Officers put a call out to officers to be on the lookout for the Infiniti.
Around 6 p.m. Friday, MPD officers spotted the wanted car parked behind King Green Leaf Recreation Center in Southwest D.C. The officers spotted Graves and and Frost nearby, and they were both taken into custody. Officers said all the videos they reviewed from the neighborhood and witness statements helped them make arrests.
Graves appeared in court on Saturday and was ordered held without bond. Frost, who is being charged as an adult, was in court Monday morning. He was also ordered held without bond.
Both Graves and Frost are scheduled to be back in court on May 28.
No more arrests have been made, but the investigation continues.
“The number of children with guns who are not where they are supposed to be is alarming to us," Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday, addressing neighbors' concerns about they alley where the shooting occurred.
Some neighbors claimed young people linger there often, and despite safe passages initiatives, DC police haven’t stopped it. The mayor responded she would "get to the bottom of it."
Anyone who may have additional information for investigators should call police at 202-727-9099.
RELATED: 2 arrested in connection to shooting that wounded student while inside Dunbar High School in DC
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