Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) The percentage of people being murdered in D.C. in 2015 continues to climb, and a number of recent murders in Shaw have people in the neighborhood concerned.
“In our neighborhood, unfortunately, for many years we had violence, especially gang violence and drug violence, down to a dull roar because we’d been working so hard for so long. There’s been about $3 billion worth of government and private investment in the neighborhood, and we’ve put thousands of new people into the neighborhood and hundreds of new businesses,” said Shaw’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Alexander Padro.
While the violence is troublesome, Padro said, so far, people have continued to shop and dine in Shaw. In the long term, Padro says this will all blow over, and Shaw will continue to expand.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has laid out a plan to get the murder rate down that includes increasing police presence in high crime neighborhoods. Hundreds of extra officers were patrolling Shaw after the deadly weekend in August. She and the police department are also offering more money for people who turn in tips that lead police to illegal guns.
Lifelong Shaw resident Wilbur Macall said the mayor and Police Chief Cathy Lanier aren’t the ones who can stop the killings of people like his son who was shot to death near Dunbar High School more than a decade ago.
“Brothers like me, fathers, and grandfathers like me that live in this area that know these kids, that not scared of these kids can do something about it,” Macall said adding they are the only ones that speak their language.
According to Macall many kids do whatever they want because they think nobody cares about them, but he believes the men in his neighborhood can show them they are cared about.
He said police need to have their backs as residents do their part to quell the violence, but so far that hasn’t been the case. After his son was killed, he said he asked the police department how he could help find the person who pulled the trigger, but police never got back to him.
Copyright 2015 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (Photo: Steve Burns/WMAL)
