On a rainy Friday afternoon, residents of Alpine Street in District Heights clustered around white and pink balloons and a display of candles to mourn a best friend in the community: Danger the dog.
“Long live Danger,” David Johnson, 18, said of the Parson Jack Russell Terrier he was gifted by his mother, Regina Johnson, 59, from a shelter for his 14th birthday.
Wp Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight
Two of Danger’s four-legged friends, chihuahuas named Blake and Dallas, roamed the grass near a curb where on May 4, multiple people had jumped out of a van and sedan that had sped onto the street and opened fire on children playing with Danger.
A 4-year-old boy was shot in the arm and a 14-year-old boy was shot in the leg, police said. Both suffered non-life threatening injuries. Ten-year-old Danger was killed.
The drive-by shooting, caught on camera from a nearby apartment, rattled Woodland Springs residents, who said more police presence and community engagement could have prevented the shooting. Amid ongoing violence throughout the area, residents at Danger’s vigil called on officials to pour more resources into the area while also working together as a community to make it safer.
Advertisement
“It’s an everyday challenge,” Joshua Miller, 33, who lives in Woodland Springs, said. “We just want the safety that everyone else in the county has.”
‘It’s like target practice’
Moments before the shooting, Regina Johnson was preparing her 2-month-old granddaughter a bottle in the kitchen while talking on the phone. David Johnson placed the baby in his arms in the bedroom. Next came a "popping and a shooting” noise as children’s screams came through the window, Regina Johnson said. They went outside and saw a 4-year-old boy had been shot.
Then children began crying that Danger was “hit.”
Detectives release video of brazen shooting in the City of District Heights. More info: https://t.co/cdc9uAe67r pic.twitter.com/HZZS1kuLxP
— PGPDNEWS (@PGPDNews) May 6, 2022
Prince George’s County police have made no arrests in the shooting and said the investigation remains ongoing.
Regina Johnson said a bullet had gone through her kitchen window and into a wall about a year before the shootings. Miller said there was another shooting in the neighborhood less than two weeks after Danger was killed and the boys were hurt.
Advertisement
“It’s like target practice,” Regina Johnson said.
According to data from Prince George’s County police, as of May 19, there have been 18 shootings this year in their jurisdiction of District Heights, which has its own police department, compared to 10 shootings this time in 2021. Of the 18 shootings, five have been fatal compared to one fatal shooting this time last year. District Heights police said they have responded to eight contact shootings so far this year.
Johnathan Medlock, the former mayor of District Heights who was recently appointed to serve on the Prince George’s County Council, said increased police patrols have been brought to the Woodland Springs area to mitigate crime.
But Medlock, who lives in a townhouse some feet away, said a solution to gun violence requires resources to address the causes before shootings happen. Medlock said he is spearheading a program to provide behavioral health “wraparound” services for youths throughout the county, making it one of his top priorities as a council member. In the form of mobile clinics, Medlock said he hopes resources can reach those who might lack transportation or financial support to access the help they need.
Advertisement
With increased attention on District Heights, a spike in crime is not isolated to one city and “community safety as a whole is a team sport," Medlock said.
“This is not a District Heights thing,” Medlock said. “It’s a Prince George’s County, Maryland, U.S. [United States] problem that we are having.”
About a-mile-and-a-half away, an early-education and day-care center is shutting its doors on July 1 due to “the recent spike in violent crimes within the shopping center, lack of support from the management company and no visible security presence,” the owner wrote in a letter to parents on May 6.
SKC Early Education Centers on Silver Hill Road, situated in Penn Station shopping center, with tinted windows and a security code to buzz in, has been a community staple for seven years.
Police release video in District Heights shooting that injured two boys
Cameo Brown, a grandfather who drops off and picks up his 2-year-old grandson at the learning center, said he will now have to rearrange his schedule to commute to the next-closest center in Largo. The grandfather has been coming to the shopping center for about a year and has seen “blood up and down, in front of the school.” He also said there was a shooting in the middle of the day at 3 p.m.
Advertisement
On a recent Wednesday, he pointed to the surrounding liquor stores and restaurants.
“And there’s still no police out here,” Brown said. “When is enough, enough? We gotta wait until we lose a life, or several, or wait until one of the kids gets killed?"
Nicole Wellington, 34, sought out a learning center and day-care for her 4-year-old daughter three years ago and found a home in SKC. But within the past year, the mother has noticed fights breaking out in the shopping center, broken alcohol bottles and a trail of blood in front of the day-care.
“I had to tell her it was paint,” Wellington said of the blood outside the center.
She doesn’t blame the learning center for closing.
The owner of SKC and the property management company did not respond to requests for comment.
Wellington, a lifelong resident of Prince George’s, remembers going on trips with her mother to the department stores and shops that once lined the shopping center without any issues. In the surrounding area, which is centrally located near Suitland, Forestville and the District, Wellington said resources like grocery stores and shopping centers aren’t as available or of the same quality compared to other parts of the county. To see the decline amid the violence, points to a greater issue, she said.
Advertisement
“It feels very targeted," Wellington said. “As if they’re saying to people, because you live in this part of the county, you don’t deserve the same amenities as everyone else.”
John Erzen II, deputy chief of staff for Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, said in a statement that the police department is working directly with the property manager and the private security company at Penn Station to address crime and quality-of-life issues.
“As of now, patrol efforts and communications have increased, and a plan has been put into place to ensure that complaints of the community are heard,” Erzen said Monday.
“We agree that more must be done to bring resources and amenities into our communities, especially those inside the beltway," he added.
Erzen said Alsobrooks “remains focused on bringing retail and entertainment venues into these communities.” And he said her Hope in Action team, an anti-violence project, is working to bring more activities geared toward youths into the community.
‘Put the guns down, pick your kids up’
The Woodland Springs area of District Heights, made up of brick apartment buildings, is a lower- income community with some subsidized housing.
Advertisement
Tracey Dumas, 56, has lived on Alpine Street for about nine years. She was once able to sit on her front porch, hearing the faint echo of sirens in the distance. Now the crime is on her street. The buildings, home to grandmothers and grandfathers, have since grown more populated with young families, Dumas said. Dumas walks with the children to and from District Heights Elementary school across the street.
“Right now we’re working with one playground,” Dumas said. “Maybe we can have more things to do with the kids in the afternoon when they’re home from school.”
Miller, a full-time hospitality manager, has been working to improve the area, connecting neighbors and community members with resources for career readiness and job placement. He also has been brainstorming more activities to keep the neighborhood kids occupied, such as movie nights and upcoming pool days for them during the summer.
Advertisement
But, Miller said, the neighborhood remains in need.
“In the city of District Heights, there are two communities. We have a housing community and then we have the apartment community. This is the apartment part of the city," Miller said of Woodland Springs. “We don’t get treated fairly.”
Ronald C. Tarpley, the city’s acting police chief, said at the vigil that the department wants to ensure all parts of the city are receiving the same type of service.
“So the same way we give attention to one side, we give to this side,” Tarpley said. “Every part of the community should be able to walk out here, without fear of being shot or any type of other violence.”
At Danger’s vigil, organized by Hope in Action, Jawanna Hardy, a community organizer on the Hope in Action team, listened to individual concerns and facilitated conversation around what people want and need to feel safer.
Advertisement
From a megaphone, she shouted, “Put the guns down, pick your kids up!”
Aisha Braveboy, Prince George’s County state’s attorney, spoke with residents at the vigil and condemned the shooting.
“We recognize that we need to continue to support our community and to show up,” said Braveboy, who with Medlock last summer hosted a “Hoops up, Guns down” basketball tournament and job fair at Woodland Springs. “This is my community too.”
Before the vigil ended, community activists Antonio Mingo and Kenneth Clark handed out more than 200 pounds of organic food.
Hardy passed around a black marker and white poster boards. Neighbors wrote down the changes they would like to see: More security. Better playground. More communication between community and city officials. Mentorship coaches Community engagement. Children activities.
For Regina Johnson, she is interviewing for jobs and seeking an emergency voucher to move away from the block she has called home for nine years. She hoped to spread Danger’s ashes in the grass outside the apartment but was told his were cremated with other animals.
“We just want to get to a better place, and maybe get another dog,” Johnson said.