Back in November 2015, Jasmine Light wanted to change the course of her life. And she did so when she walked through the doors of a workforce training center off Kenilworth Avenue in NE. The organization is called Amala Lives, which means Hope Lives.
“That trauma just smells so familiar,” said Brandi Forte, the center’s Founder/CEO. “It's like a wound that never healed just keeps opening back up." Forte's husband Juan Roberts was murdered in Petworth, the 900 block of Shephard Rd, NW back on November 5th.
Now, a young woman she mentored was just killed. “She wasn't an at-risk youth,” explained Forte. “Her deck of cards were just terrible but she made the best of it."
Jasmine Light had plans to be a chef, and even created a vision board months into the training program. She got certified as a food handler, landed a job, reconnected with her only living brother and was about to graduate from the Art Institute of Washington. She had come a long way for a motherless child on the street.
But sadly, that’s the end of her story. Police say she was gunned down at 16th and U Streets, SE. Detectives call it a drive-by at the same time the mayor was blocks away talking about violence on the streets and the murder of 14-year-old Steven Slaughter.
“The press conference and those young people being shot was divine intervention. God has his own way of waking us up and bringing it to us,” said Forte. “Okay, you want to bring cameras, we're going to walk the block and see what they need. We have all this money, we’re building condos and buildings and business but what about the people? There’s a spirit of disrespect and rage and pain with these young people and trauma and they’re just replicating that with murder.”
In the meantime, people like Jasmine who had experienced all that trauma and was trying to turn her life around, gets caught in the crime. “That’s all she wanted (a better life) and it was snatched away from her," said Forte.
Police released video of the getaway car. If you can identify the vehicle please call DC police at (202) 727-9099.
