WASHINGTON — A 14-year-old boy was shot to death at a Metro station in D.C.'s Brookland neighborhood on Thursday afternoon, the Metropolitan Police Department said.
Around 4 p.m., a group of teenagers were involved in an altercation on the Metro station platform. At some point, a suspect who was not involved in the altercation pulled out a gun and shot one of the teens involved in the fight.
It wasn't known how many shots were fired.
Special Police Officers were at the station at the time of the shooting. DC Police said they helped others take cover during the shooting and then tried to help the boy who was shot.
DC Fire and EMS arrived on scene, and the boy was pronounced dead.
He was identified as 14-year-old Avion Evans of Northeast, D.C.
The Brookland-CUA Metro station closed immediately after the shooting. The station has since reopened and resumed normal service operations.
“It makes me scared," a concerned woman, Valerie Vance said. “We crying out for help now.”
As the search continues for the shooter, we are hearing passionate calls for change from people who live in this community who say they tired of this violence.
“It’s very frightening," a man who has lived in the area for 10 years, Abdur-Rahman Muhammad said. "We had a murder on Catholic’s campus also last summer and just last week the CVS was burglarized, they ran a vehicle through the front door to try to steal the ATM.”
There was a plea for change outside the Metro station as people who live nearby gathered.
“I’ve seen this neighborhood turn into a hellscape," Muhammad said. "This used to be one of the safest neighborhoods in Washington, D.C.”
Muhammad is frustrated with ongoing crime in his backyard — his frustrations fueled a passionate petition to DC Police during a press conference.
“If these kids engage in criminal activity and you lock them up, you got to keep them locked up… Period,” Muhammad said.
“The mayor the day before yesterday, I’m sorry, introduced legislation specifically related to juveniles and how we will move forward in that space with ensuring that juveniles, who commit the same type of crimes that you just alerted to will be held accountable, the mayor supports it," Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said.
Mohammad’s message echoed by other neighbors who said enough is enough and young teens behind the trigger should face more serious consequences.
“When we were coming up it was morals, it was values. Parents had a handle on their children," Vance said. It was called respect, these kids don’t have no respect and if they don’t have respect for themselves then how they going to have respect for the adults.”
“Very frustrating and unfortunately, I may have to leave this area because it’s looking like it’s time to go," Muhammad said. "This is scary.”
Anyone who can identify the suspect is asked to contact police. In response to these calls for change, police did mention an increase in their presence here at the station and at the university.
>Watch Thursday's full news conference below:
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