While details remain murky about what led to a drive-by shooting early Monday that left 13 people wounded, Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) appeared this morning outside the subsidized housing development on the block where the incident went down to give an update on the situation.
"I waited a day," said Wells, standing outside Tyler House, a 284-resident subsidized apartment building on the 1200 block of North Capitol Street. "It is extra important for the police to get on this."
But what precipitated Monday morning's violence remains unknown, even as police continue their search for a pair of sedans from which the bullets were fired. A widely distributed surveillance video shows two cars rolling by a group of people gathered on the block until they are sent scrambling, but the makes and models of the cars are unclear from the grainy footage. The Metropolitan Police Department is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to the arrest of those responsible.
Wells also spoke about the effects two nightclubs, Fur and Ibiza, have on a neighborhood that is increasingly being swallowed by the expanding clump of glass-and-steel high-rises known as NoMa. Fur Nightclub, which is about a block away from Tyler House, closed at 2 a.m. on Monday. The gunfire started at 2:07. And while D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said yesterday that there was no known connection between the nightclub and the shooting, Wells is taking a more aggressive line.
"The general impression is that the time is not coincidental," he said. "People gather over here after the clubs close. I'm definitely going to do my best to remove the nightclubs."
Wells wrote on his Twitter account ahead of the appearance that he would be joined by "relevant D.C. agencies." But this announcement went unfulfilled, as Wells was not joined by other representatives of the city government. A spokesman for Mayor Vince Gray dismissed Wells' action today as "grandstanding," according to The Washington Post's Tim Craig. Last month, Wells formed an exploratory committee looking toward next year's mayoral election.
The councilmember's outlook on the nightclubs was shared by Lonnie Duren, the chairman of the Sursum Corda Cooperative neighborhood group. Duren also bemoaned the fact that a Boys and Girls Club at 128 M Street NW is set to close its doors at the end of the month, depriving the neighborhood's youths of a safe and responsible facility.
"This has been an ongoing thing," Venus Little, the president of Tyler House's tenant council, said about violent crimes outside the building. "I'm living it. I'm seeing it. We need some help in regard for people to feel free to come outdoors without being wounded by a gun or a knife."
As for whether the nightclubs played a role, Little seemed hesitant to draw a direct line. "I think it's the people, not the nightclubs," she said.
Tyler House sits on a block that very well represents a visual definition of the the changes that part of D.C. is experiencing. Behind it, North Capitol Street still looks largely as it did when the neighborhood was zoned residential. Just a few blocks south, the skyline is filled with construction cranes raising up flashy new apartment buildings and office towers. Within a few years, the neighborhood, which currently is home to just 3,000, will have as many as 15,000 residents, Wells said.
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Wells: Drive-By Shooting Is City's 'Top Priority'