WASHINGTON — A young, off-duty D.C. police officer who was shot in the neck at a block party early Sunday morning is still in critical condition, her mother said.
Now, her police academy class is asking for help.
A GoFundMe set up by fellow cadets for 22-year-old officer Charlee Brown has collected more than $7,000 some three days after the mass shooting on Dubois Place in Southeast on Sunday.
Latasha Brown said her daughter was not in the crowd of hundreds when at least four shooters opened fire at the block party. She just happened to be in the area, her mother said.
Latasha Brown said doctors told her that they expect the newly-graduated officer will survive, but Police Chief Peter Newsham said Monday that she arrived at the hospital with a "very critical" gunshot wound to the neck, although her condition "has improved."
Gregg Pemberton, president of D.C. Police Union, told WUSA9 that not even her colleagues can get into the hospital to check on the officer because of restrictions in place to control the coronavirus pandemic.
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According to her colleagues at the police academy, the 22-year-old is a D.C. native, a recent college graduate and a brand new officer.
Police are still searching for the four different shooters who exchanged gunfire into a crowd of hundreds of people at the long-running block party.
Christopher Brown, 17, a young father with another child on the way, was killed. Besides the teen and Ofc. Brown, 20 other people were shot, and two more people, including a pregnant neighbor, were injured running away from the gunfire, according to police and neighbors.
Mayor Muriel Bowser has expressed concern about large gatherings like the block party, but said the focus should be on the shooters. The reward being offered for information that leads to their arrest and conviction has just been upped to $75,000.
The organizer of the GoFundMe campaign said the money raised will be deposited to a Police Federal Credit Union account and given to Ofc. Brown.
