Crime

“we’re just supposed to get up today and go for a walk on these pleasant streets and ignore the bullet holes from 12 hours prior”


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Last night just after 9pm readers reported hearing up to 30+ gun shots fired:

“several different types of gun shots heard near Parkview Rec Ctr, anyone else hear ’em?”

A frustrated resident writes this morning:

“There was a shootout on the 600 block of Otis Place NW in Park View yesterday evening. Our neighbors heard what sounded like a semiautomatic weapon going off, moving up the street toward Bruce Monroe Elementary and the Rec Center. Police showed up and closed off Otis and Park Place to traffic while they searched for bullet casings. It’s a miracle no one was hurt.

It’s the second shooting outside the elementary school in the span of a couple of months. The last one in October took place in the middle of the day.

I feel insane because it feels like nobody wants to acknowledge that a major shooting incident happened here.

It’s surreal. Not a peep from our councilmember, Brianne Nadeau. Our ANC posted that he spoke to MPD, but it seems like they just threw their hands up.

No DC alert, either. I’ve been signed up for the emergency alerts for years. I get texts almost every day, from shooting incidents to road closures in the area. But I have never once gotten an alert about the half-dozen shootings that I *know* happened on our residential block while my neighbors or I have been home. If we weren’t home when it happened, when would we find out that there was a shooting? Seeing the bullet holes in the cars on the street? How many shootouts like this are happening in our neighborhoods that we’ll never hear about?

Ed. Note: The DC alerts tend to only go out when there is a victim and it doesn’t appear, thankfully, anyone was injured last night.

Last September, our former ANC referred me to two MPD officials from the 4th District for information about a shooting that happened on Otis Place. They shared basic, unhelpful information and never even acknowledged or responded to my follow-up questions.

I just feel so helpless. We love living here but it’s nuts that we’re just supposed to get up today and go for a walk on these pleasant streets and ignore the bullet holes from 12 hours prior.”