Shots Fired at 14th and Florida Ave, NW at 8:30pm

Columns

by Prince Of Petworth August 6, 2016 at 9:18 pm 23 Comments

shots fired
Photo by FstrBtrStrngr

From MPD:

“At 835pm tonight, MPD units patrolling heard several gunshots in the area of 14th and Florida and 14th and Belmont…. Anyone with information relating to this is encouraged to call 202- 727 9099 or email me directly at [email protected]”

FstrBtrStrngr reports:

“gunshots 14th and Belmont NW. 6 of them. Big block party going on on Belmont.”

Another reader reports:

“gunfire at 14th and Florida NW- DC police on the scene but holy cow what a sound in the middle of a busy Saturday night”

Mark Lynn

This plus two shootings in Petworth today? This is why my husband and I couldn’t stay. After five years in Columbia Heights, we moved to the Braddock Metro area of Alexandria. While there’s occasional crime here, the stats are barely a blip, and even walking through the “roughest” sections, I never worry about my safety. This isn’t meant to judge anyone’s choices and certainly isn’t meant to judge those who have little choice in where they live. We’ve just hit a point where the stress way outweighed the benefits. PS: Red Derby, we miss you.
- anon
  
  hmmmm…..is your husband named ryan?
- intorno
  
  I don’t feel any stress living in the city. What makes you feel such intermittent experiences would impact any one random individual not involved in any drug deals or such?
  - Maiden of Mount Pleasant
    
    “What makes you feel such intermittent experiences would impact any one random individual not involved in any drug deals or such?”
    .
    Do the names Charnice Milton, Matthew Shlonsky, and Kevin Sutherland ring a bell? It’s not so much the violence as it is the tone deafness of the powers that be (Bowser, Lanier, Nadeau, Todd…) and what seems to be an environment that encourages criminals to do as they please because (a) they won’t be caught, (b) if caught, they’ll be released in no time and free to commit more crimes, and/or (c) DC’s justice (especially juvenile justice) system is a joke.
    - Bullwinkle
      
      Great comment. ++
    - JohnH
      
      While I certainly agree re: DC Justice System.
      .
      I think it’s pretty absurd to list 3 names that were killed as bystanders as a reason not to live in DC. Should we also not live in NW DC by the National Cathedral because we risk someone breaking into our house and killing us inside our homes like the Savopoulus family and their housekeeper? Listing off a few innocent people who were killed over the past few years across DC to justify your agument is pretty absurd, imo.
      - ExDCer
        
        Go back to school, JohnH. Your logic is deeply flawed. Targeted killings are different than incidental, random, in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time-killings. You’re trying to apply “could get hit by a bus” logic inappropriately,
      - Anon X
        
        John is right. The perception of being vulnerable and actually having a significant chance of being the victim of violent crime are two different things.
        
        The crime rate has ticked up a bit. But in 80s and 90s, you were still statistically unlikely to be the victim of a violent crime. And we have more people and less crime than that time period.
        
        I do, however, have to say that when I hear how walkable/bikeable/great using public transit is- I have to think those three things increases your chances of being a victim of violent crime, not to mention the probably equally likely victim of bad driving.
        
        I drive and uber pretty much everywhere. I don’t feel unsafe in the least. A huge portion of my friends do the same and probably only use public transit during busy daytime hours.
        
        So, yeah, that’s a great privilege to be able to mor have to take low cost transportation… But most of the people who can just pick up and move to Braddock road metro or somewhere similar are probably in a similarl financial position.. And, bonus, the city remains relatively safe even if you have to walk/bike/metro everywhere… Probability of being victim is low, even if perception of being a victim is high…
      - HaileUnlikely
        
        For a lot of people, though, the freedom to walk and bike everywhere is a key reason for living in the city, as opposed to living further out. If fear of being a victim of crime causes walking and biking to be stressful, or even results in people opting to drive or Uber instead of walking or biking, then that key reason for living in the city is effectively cancelled out. I’ve been walking a grand total of about 3 miles daily (home to metro, metro to work, work to metro, metro to home) daily for over a decade in DC. I’ve been robbed at gunpoint twice and hit the deck when shots not aimed at me (at least I don’t think they were!) rang out twice. I don’t enjoy walking any more. On one hand, four crimes and/or good scares out of about 10,000 miles of walking ain’t that bad – my risk of being a victim of crime in any given walking trip is very low, but cumulative exposure to risk really adds up. If I stay here for the rest of my life and continue walking about 3 miles a day for the next few decades, I’ll probably be robbed a few more times and be in the vicinity of a few more shootings. That realization f*cking sucks, quite honestly. It’s what I do because I have a fairly DC-specific job (and skill set – I would not be able to do similar work elsewhere) and driving or ubering to and from work would be extraordinarily expensive. But for me, the putative benefit of walkability has been mostly cancelled out by fear of crime.
      - JohnH
        
        ExDCer – as an FYI, one year later, they still do not have a motive for the Savopoulus family and their housekeeper.
  - INWDC
    
    Intorno, your comment makes you sound either completely oblivious or completely numb.
    - intorno
      
      I walk all over this city, and right through these 14th Street areas. Was violently threatened with death just a few weeks ago, but that was for a misinterpreted action I did, so I’m neither oblivious nor numb. It shook me pretty good.
      
      I just don’t see much connection between my everyday life walking around and such incidentsin terms of how likely it would be that something scares me away. It’s not an apathy toward solving this problem for the greater good.
      
      There are some times I’m nervous just by the surroundings, like walking through North Cap and New York Ave after dark. But I don’t feel scared in normal situations.
  - Anon
    
    I’m with intorno here. Guess I’m not remotely worried that I’ll be one of 700,000 people shot randomly on the street. But you guys keep keeping it tight out there. Braddock metro VA is beautiful, or something.
    - urbanengineer
      
      So you’ve become desensitized to shootings in your neighborhood. Good for you.
  - Mark Lynn
    
    Hmmm. Wasn’t ever involved in drug deals, but I was mugged at gunpoint once–stared right down the barrel after a friend was pistol whipped–and threatened multiple times. One guy, yelled that he would kill me if he ever saw me again because, you know, I was calmly biking up 16th Street. Another giant man yelled, “What are you looking at, faggot?” when I walked past him and…wait for it, wait for it…his toddler son. So I think I had reason to be on guard.
- TJ
  
  Washington is a much safer, enjoyable place to live than it was in the 1990s. You should have tried it then.
madmonk28

I want to go on record as being opposed to both the shootings and Northern Virginia.
- Sparta
  
  +999
- Anon H St
  
  Seconded!
Anonynon

So who’s idea was it to block off belmont and have a block party? I live one street up….never saw any advertisements for a block party nor any invite. I don’t get what this party was and why there wasn’t cops just sitting there ahead of time as it looked like there was an influx of people there. 8:30 PM good grief.
- mdtodc
  
  Ya, basically what S said below.
S

The Belmont block party is a yearly tradition, but over the years has not been policed and has deteriorated from a kid and community friendly event to everyone just getting high/drunk and violent on the street. No police presence on the street before the shootings.
Block Party

I live on that block and there were cops there in the afternoon. Granted, one was inside my apartment building sitting on the steps busy on his phone.

Subscribe to our mailing list