DC POLICE LAUNCH ASSAULT ON WAVE OF VIOLENCE

Excerpted from: ERRI EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT-EmergencyNet NEWS Service-Sunday, June 27, 1999-Vol. 3, No. 178 - 08:50CDT

WASHINGTON

By Steve Macko, ERRI Sr. Crime Analyst

Police officials in the nation's capital on Saturday took the extraordinary step of blanketing large parts of the District of Columbia with plainclothes and uniformed officers and requested US Park Police and National Guard helicopters to assist after days of violence that included the killing of a grandmother and the shooting of a mother and her baby on Friday night. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, formally of Chicago, announced that the equivalent of 300 more officers would patrol the troubled neighborhoods as part of the Washington's effort to quell the perception that violence in the nation's capital is out of control.

Four people were shot in Columbia Heights on Friday night when a gun battle between what police said were feuding Hispanic gangs broke out after a party at the Latin American Youth Center. Police said, two rival Hispanic gangs, well known to the police, were arguing. One gang calls itself "BU" or "Brown Union" and is composed of youths who operate in the Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods, but mostly around 14th Street and Park Road NW.

The other gang, which goes by the name "La Mara R" (mara is Spanish slang for "clique"), hangs out around 17th and R streets NW but roams around Adams-Morgan, Columbia Heights and the Cardozo neighborhood. The shooting began after members of the Brown Union accused members of La Mara of plotting to jump the brother of a Brown Union member. A Brown Union member then started shooting.

According to DC Met Sergeant Jose Bimbo, who was on the scene Friday night: "It was chaotic. There were people all over the place." The bullets hit four people -- two women and two men -- standing on the street. The four were all shot in the legs. They were taken to Howard University Hospital, treated and released. A mother and her 5-month-old boy were shot while sitting on an apartment building stoop in Southeast Washington when two masked men suddenly appeared and opened fire. A man sitting next to them was killed. The baby is in critical condition at Children's Hospital, and the mother is in stable condition at another hospital.

At least three shootings were reported in the District of Columbia by late Saturday night. In one, a man was shot in the foot at about 2200 EDT at Minnesota and Pennsylvania avenues SE. Later, a man was shot in the chest in the 4000 block of Livingston Road SE. Also, a man was shot in the leg at about 2335 EDT in the 4000 block of Minnesota Avenue NE, near the Minnesota Avenue Metro station.

DC Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer, the former head of the Illinois State Police, said that he required DC officers from day shifts that usually end at about 1500 EDT to stay four hours later and officers from the midnight shift to come in three hours early to get more officers on the street in the 3rd, 4th and 6th police districts. Gainer said: "We're going to supersaturate this baby," Gainer said.

The shootings in Columbia Heights and in Randle Highlands caught the DC Metropolitan police force by surprise on a night when there apparently was a shortage of officers on the streets. Gainer said: "I thought we had the right amount of people out, but even as late as 11 p.m., our priority calls were backed up because we had no cars available." A shortage of officers and vehicles on patrol has been a chronic problem for the department for years.

Ten years ago, when the crack cocaine epidemic pushed the District's annual total of homicides up to 434, there were about 4,800 officers on the force. Now, when the city has about 300 murders a year, the department has about 3,600 officers -- about 25 percent fewer.

The string of eight shootings Friday night did not surpass the number on some of the District's bloodiest nights in the late 1980s and early 1990s -- or even this year, when 12 people were killed over four days.

An angry Chief Ramsey told reporters at the 6th District: "Our goal is to dismantle the gangs in the District of Columbia ... This has gone on for far too long. It's time it stops, and it stops now. These people had better understand that. The days of them being able to just shoot up and down the streets is over. These little street thugs out there committing crimes randomly, shooting, causing injuries to innocent bystanders ... has to stop."

The first gunshots on a warm Friday night rang out about 2100 EDT in Columbia Heights, when the streets were filled with residents. Police officers said there were so many people outside, it felt like daytime. Gainer said: "The city was abuzz. It was as busy as I've seen it in the last year. Traffic was heavy, people were pouring out of restaurants and bars, and the hustlers were all out. We had our hands full."

The ERRI EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT is a subscription publication of the EmergencyNet NEWS Service, which is a part of the Chicago-based Emergency Response and Research Institute. This publication specializes in Law Enforcement/Fire/EMS/Disaster and Medical Issues.

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