Robberies, Shootings Prompt Emergency D.C. Crime Meeting
posted 6:27 pm Mon November 12, 2007 - Washington
Mayra Bonilla opened her mom and pop store, Continental Market, in mid-July. In the last six weeks, she has been robbed at gunpoint twice, once with customers in the store.
"They asked them to get on the floor. I gave up the money and I was traumatized."
Bonilla has the only corner store in the area without a Plexiglas barricade separating the cashier and the customers.
"Our kids should not have to go into these stores and point out through the Plexiglas what is it that they need. They should just be able to go grab whatever it is that they need," said Bonilla.
But it's not just at work. Bonilla says she was recently waiting at a bus stop when gunfire broke out a half-block away. She had to run for cover.
Crime data show Police Service Areas 302 and 304 in Northwest have seen a recent surge in violence, including several shootings on Halloween night and street robberies. Some Howard University students were robbed at gunpoint in the middle of the day during homecoming.
The local Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner says enough.
"there's been a very high spike in crime in a quiet neighborhood and we're trying to get a cap on it before it gets out of control," said ANC Commissioner Kwesi Danda Smith.
Smith is worried that crime cameras in more traditionally crime-plagued areas to the west are pushing the problem into more quiet neighborhoods.
The meeting took place Monday night at the Emergence Community Arts Collective in the 700 block of Euclid Street.
Latest Comment on Robberies, Shootings Prompt Emergency D.C. Crime Meeting
Tuckmeister
9:27 am on 11/14/07
Induce martial law. Have the national guard move in for 24 hour surveillance. Oh wait, I forgot. Bush has them in Iraq. Sorry.
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