Living in a Crime Scene

The shootings escalated last night. I was in my room at about 11:00 when I heard about 30 shots fired. It sounded like more than one gun was involved. I ran into the middle of my apartment (away from the front windows) and met my equally freaked out - and equally frustrated - roommates. After a few minutes, we went downstairs to check on the summer counselors.

The police came. It took them about 5 minutes (which in my view is way too long. I think that, since there has been so much gun activity on this particular block in the past week, they should have someone really close by, in case it happens again).

At this point, I was very, very, frustrated. The other nights that the cops have come by, they've spent maybe 10 minutes on our block and then left again. They hardly talk to anyone. This time, I was determined that they'd stop and actually talk to the residents. So I threw on my flip-flops and went out the door, thinking I'd talk to an officer and voice my growing concern.

It turned out, though, that they didn't need my encouragement to take the case more seriously. I saw a car in the middle of the road, outside of my next-door neighbors place. It's tires had been shot out and one of the windows was shattered. I saw one cop go up to another and tell him that the "victim had been shot in the back left shoulder." From the conversations around me, I gathered that it was a woman who had been shot and then had run up the street and found the police. At this point, she was sitting in the officer's car, but within a few minutes an ambulance arrived to take her to the hospital.

The cops began putting up crime tape. It stretched from the end of the block (at T street) to just past my place. They also put tape around the front porch of the next-door apartment. One cop was carefully examining that front yard, obviously looking for shells. I guess they think the shooting was coming from that porch or yard.

Mama D and I were standing together and talking. She is determined to get out of the neighborhood, but doesn't know how she's going to do that. More than one neighbor referred to the block as a "war zone".

Later in the evening, around 12:30am, one of the cops came to talk to us. He took our statements, and then stuck around to answer questions. He told us that the 1/2 block that we are on is a major, major drug center (duh). He confirmed our suspicion that there is a stash in our back yard. He said the gunfire had been drug related - turf war, basically.

So....in the past week, there has been gunfire 5 nights. We're going to move the counselors upstairs tonight, so no one is sleeping in the front rooms on the bottom floor (where stray gunfire might easily go). If this thing doesn't die down, I think we're going to look for somewhere else to stay for a little while.

I do not think it is an accident that the very 1/2 block that Little Lights has a house on is one of the areas that needs the most prayer in this city.