WASHINGTON -- A spasm of shootings and a stabbing over the long Memorial Day weekend has many neighbors in Southeast scared and demanding the city do more to keep them safe.
"In this particular neighborhood, things have just gotten worse," said a young father who was too frightened to show his face, but worried and angry enough to push for solutions. He and his wife and son live in Anacostia less than a mile from two of the latest shootings.
"This year, I feel like I'm a prisoner in my own home. I can't go outside," he said. "I feel like any day I put my son down for a nap could be a day that violence breaks out."
On Memorial Day, four adults and a child were shot in Barry Farm. Just blocks away early Tuesday morning, two more people shot, one was killed.
Then there's 15-year-old honor roll student Maurice Scott, who killed this weekend while walking to the store, just steps from his school. Three other people, including a 9-year-old, were hurt in the incident.
"I want peace. Shooting free. People should be able to come out and play," said Rhonda Hines-Edwards, an advisory neighborhood commissioner, at the scene in Barry Farm where five people were shot next to a rec center.
The young father lives near the parking lot where activists say police harassed them without cause. The young father is white, has lived in Anacostia for two years, and sees things differently.
"How do I sell a home when 30 to 40 people are hanging out in front of my house, openly dealing drugs, obviously carrying weapons, getting into fist fights, having block parties that are 100 people strong?" he asked.
He said his fear has nothing to do with race. "Everybody on the block feels the same way. We feel like we're under siege, and we're living through constant hell," he said.
Earlier this month, Mayor Bowser launched her Safer Stronger DC Summer Crime Initiative, targeting neighborhoods particularly hard hit by violent crime. "Community safety matters," she said.
But many neighbors think the city needs to do much more.