WASHINGTON — Investigators believe that the woman that was shot outside the Good Hope Marketplace in Southeast D.C. was an innocent bystander.
According to the police incident report, the victim was sitting in her car in the parking lot on the 2800 of Alabama Avenue Southeast when she heard the gunshots just before 4 p.m.
The woman felt pain in her back and attempted to flee to another area of the parking lot. Police documents indicate that when officers arrived on scene, they determined she had been shot multiple times in the back.
A video captured by a witness shows the first responders assisting the victim outside the Safeway. Other people that were at the scene say the shots started at the Capital One Bank and that the gunman was recklessly showering the parking lot with bullets in an attempt to shoot a man that was seen running away. Four other vehicles were also struck, according to the incident report.
"For someone to recklessly, brazenly, unload a weapon in broad daylight in a crowded parking lot is beyond me," says Kelvin Brown, the ANC Commissioner who represents the area. Brown has requested a public safety discussion with D.C. officials including the District Council, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), and the Office of the Attorney General following a series of violent crimes in broad daylight.
Brown says some residents, have suggested changes they would like to see, "They want to see more community-oriented policing. They want MPD out of their cars in the community interacting with residents on a daily basis." The ANC Commissioner says he understands MPD's staffing limitations.
Community activist Ron Moten also wants to see changes. The founder of Don't Mute DC says he is hosting a community conversation tour to address what he calls a "state of emergency" and a lack of accountability for youth.
"We don't want to go to mass incarceration, but we can't go to this 'idiotology' to think that someone does a drive by shooting and is out this morning without a plan in place on how to deal with it," said Moten to WUSA9.
Moten's next event will Sunday, Mar. 5 at 2 p.m. at the Cleveland Park Library.
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