A dozen people were wounded in shootings over the weekend in the District and one neighborhood endured a carjacking spree amid a resurgence of crime after the summer’s federal crackdown.
A 5-year-old boy was among the victims in eight shootings that erupted between Friday evening and early Saturday, police said.
No one was killed in the weekend violence. But shootings, such as a gunfight near Howard University that left five wounded, prompted D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday to call for permanent juvenile curfew zones throughout the city.
“What we saw over the weekend was unacceptable, but sadly, it was predictable with young people wilding out because they got the message that they could and they are,” Ms. Bowser said. “We have to make sure that we’re being real clear about this kind of congregating and the use of guns and about accountability.”
The D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety will hold a hearing Thursday about putting the curfew zones into law.
The zones, which allowed police to detain any unaccompanied minors during overnight hours, recently expired after being implemented on an emergency basis.
But a curfew zone wouldn’t have prevented a 13-year-old boy from being one of the victims in the shooting near Howard University since it occurred early in the night. University officials said two people were arguing before the gunfire was heard at about 8:25 p.m. Friday in the 600 block of Howard Place NW.
Police said three men, a woman and the 13-year-old were injured in the shooting and none had ties to Howard University, which celebrated its homecoming over the weekend.
Two suspects were arrested and three guns were recovered, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said. Police did not identify the suspects.
“We’re not going to tolerate individuals coming into our cities with firearms, and don’t think for one second that we’re not going to look for you and search for you and find you. And when we do, we will hold you accountable,” Chief Smith said.
The violence had started hours earlier, when two juvenile girls showed up at a hospital at about 5:35 p.m. Friday, police said. One had been shot and the other injured in a fall in the 800 block of Yuma Street SE.
Roughly 15 minutes later, police responded to a shooting in the 200 block of 50th Street SE. Officers found a teenage boy suffering from a gunshot wound at the scene.
Authorities described the suspect as a Black male with his hair in a bun. He was last seen wearing a blue winter jacket.
Metropolitan Police officers were called at about 7:30 p.m. Friday to a shooting in the 3100 block of 16th Street NW. A man with a bullet wound was spotted in the area, but no information on a potential assailant was shared.
By 8:20 p.m., police said a 5-year-old boy had been shot in the face in the 1900 block of Savannah Terrace SE. The boy was conscious and breathing when officers arrived.
Friday’s last shooting occurred shortly before 10 p.m., when authorities found two men with gunshot wounds in the 1700 block of Benning Road NE. Police described the suspect as a Black man wearing a puffy black coat and light-colored pants.
Gunshots were heard again early Saturday. Police said a man had been shot several times inside an apartment building in the 3200 block of Hiatt Place NW.
Officers arrived at the building at about 2 a.m. to find the victim struggling to breathe and fading in and out of consciousness. Police described the suspects as two Black males — one who is heavyset with a dark complexion and last seen wearing a ski mask, and the other who was said to be 5-foot-6 with a medium complexion and was last seen wearing a black Moose Knuckles jacket.
The chaos continued Saturday night, when three carjackings rocked the Shaw neighborhood. Metropolitan Police said juveniles surrounded a car at about 7:15 p.m. by the corner of Seventh Street and Rhode Island Avenue NW.
The driver got out of the vehicle and was assaulted by the youths, who attacked the victim again as they tried to run away, police said. Two carjackers commandeered the car and crashed it in the 600 block of Rhode Island Avenue NW.
Barely 10 minutes later, a group of carjackers busted out the window of a parked car with a victim inside. They attacked the victim in the 1500 block of Seventh Street NW before running away.
Car thieves struck once more late Saturday, when about seven or eight people started banging on a vehicle at a red light near the intersection of 12th and Q streets in Northwest, police said. The victim exited the car to confront the suspects but was attacked by the group.
Authorities said the robbers hurled bricks at the vehicle and then tried to steal the car, but it became too damaged to drive after the attack.
Police said they were investigating whether the three carjackings were connected.
The weekend crime spike comes more than a month after President Trump’s federal crime emergency ended in the District.
The 30-day period was marked by a deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops and droves of FBI, DEA and immigration agents patrolling the streets with D.C. police officers.
Homicides, carjackings and robberies plummeted during the surge, and Republicans in Congress used momentum from the crime drop to propose laws altering the District’s public safety system.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.