She’s a mother who lost a teenage daughter to random gun violence, and her message to D.C.'s young people is simple.

       “There are other ways to deal with conflict,” Que Wallace told teens gathered at a summit at Eastern Senior High School in Northeast Washington to discuss crime and policing. “You don’t have to pick up a gun and shoot nobody.”

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       Wallace joined D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III on Saturday to kick off day-long sessions with students to discuss reshaping law enforcement and confronting crime that too often claims lives of people their ages.

       “When we’re talking about you, you should be part of the conversation,” Contee told the group, saying the floor was open and they had his attention. “If you want to see policing different in your community, then what should it look like?”

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       The summit called “Elevating Youth Voices” was organized by police and the Rethinking DC Youth and Policing Program at George Washington University. Opening speeches were broadcast over social media, but authorities cut off public access to group sessions in which kids spoke, citing privacy concerns.

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       At the end, students from each group summarized their discussion, though their presentations were briefly interrupted when a few teens from a group that opposes police in schools began shouting and were escorted out.

       Many of the teens who spoke also echoed concerns about police being in schools, and called for police to be better trained and to be more involved in their communities. Others talked of racial profiling by police.

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       “They are not really there to help people and protect people,” one student and group leader told Contee. Another said, “We don’t want people to fear the uniform.” A third said his group had talked about “how we see police, and it wasn’t good.” Others talked about bullying and fights in schools.

       Youth violence has been a particular concern over the past several years in the District.

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       On Tuesday, police arrested a 15-year-old Eastern High student charged in a killing in Virginia, and separately on the same day, they arrested an 18-year-old Eastern student who they said tried to enter the school with a gun in his backpack. That young man told police he carried the gun for protection because he had been robbed three times this year, according to court documents filed in the case.

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       And on Friday afternoon, police said a 17-year-old boy was shot and critically wounded at Capitol Avenue and Mount Olivet Road in Northeast Washington, a half-mile from the KIPP DC College Preparatory Public Charter School he attends. Four months ago, a 15-year-old boy was fatally stabbed during afternoon dismissal from the KIPP charter school.

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       D.C. Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie (D-Ward 5), who is giving up his seat to run for D.C. attorney general, which prosecutes much of the youth crime in the District, took to social media Friday night to implore, “We must demonstrate to children and young adults that there is hope, that there is value to life.”

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       More than 200 people have been killed in the District this year, the most since 2003, and eight of the victims were juveniles. Police said in October that 24 juveniles had been arrested on murder charges in past two years and that 78 juveniles have been arrested in carjackings this year.

       In an interview Saturday, McDuffie said the violence “is not small isolated events. It is happening in places across the District. This is a public health emergency, and we need to address it as such.”

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       At the summit, Wallace, whose 17-year-old daughter Jamahri Sydnor was fatally struck by a stray bullet in August 2017, spoke of the heartbreak of losing a child. Wallace, who at the time was D.C. police sergeant investigating child abuse cases, told the teens the “decisions you make today impact the lives of everybody.”

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       Sydnor was about 10 days from enrolling as a freshman at Florida A&M University when she was struck by a bullet as she drove along Saratoga Avenue in Northeast Washington, returning home with her young nephew from getting a haircut for an upcoming wedding.

       Police said gunfire came from two assailants who hid in bushes and emerged to shoot at a group across the street. Wallace said her daughter was turning off a song on the radio with inappropriate lyrics she didn’t want her nephew to hear.

       “When she leaned forward,” Wallace said, “she caught a bullet in her head.”

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       Trials for three men arrested in connection with the shooting have been on hold due to covid delays.

       Wallace, who retired from the police force after serving three decades, said the lives of her and her family “have been changed forever.” But so has the lives of the suspects, she said, and for what?

       “They may seem like big guys with guns in their hands,” Wallace said. “But an innocent life was lost.” She added, “Maybe something you hear today will change the conversation you have going on in your head. All I’m asking you to do is think about your decisions.”