Statement on the Triple Shooting/Double Homicide in Deanwood

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 5, 2019

Contact: Anthony Lorenzo Green, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, Single Member District 7C04

Statement on the Triple Shooting/Double Homicide in Deanwood

Last night, 3 people were shot, 2 were killed, in the Deanwood community. Even though this incident did not occur in my ANC Single Member District, any brazen acts of violence in our community affects us all. I send my condolences to the families that have been affected by gun violence in Deanwood. We must be committed as a village to ensure we’re all doing our part in reducing these violent acts.

Last week, I testified before the D.C. Council’s Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety on Mayor Bowser’s proposed FY20 budget for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). I demanded that instead of hiring more police officers, we must invest in more violence interrupters that have the credibility and relationships to holistically prevent crime from happening in the first place.

Deanwood, like many other black and brown communities in D.C., is a community that has been over-policed but our families and friends are still being shot, stabbed, and robbed in a place they call home. Most of the time, these acts are inflicted on our community by those from outside our resilient neighborhood. A greater police presence has not kept our community safe. A failed policing strategy of making people “feel safe” does nothing but create false hope and deception of what truly reduces crime.

3 years after the passage of the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results (NEAR) Act, which promotes an evidence-based, community-focused and public health- intervention and prevention model to reduce crime, the law is not fully implemented.

There is no information on why the Office of Violence Prevention and Health Equity has not been opened and implemented. There is no information on why MPD’s Community Crime Prevention Team (CCPT) Pilot Program has not been implemented. There is no information on whether the Homicide Strategy Elimination Task Force has even began to meet to develop a comprehensive plan to eliminate homicides in the District.

Our city under the leadership of Mayor Muriel Bowser and Chief of Police Peter Newsham has proven they’re only committed to pushing the failed “tough-on-crime” strategies in a throwback to the era of mass incarceration. Two days ago, a number of stop-and-frisk incidents were reported in Deanwood and across east of the river. The next day, more death. How many more lives must we lose before the mayor realizes that Chief Newsham’s strategy of making residents “feel safe” has failed?

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