D.C.’S increasing homicides should serve as a call to action for U.S. leaders

Three days into 2021, Kaailyah Rainey was with her mother on the way home from a family party when someone started shooting in the 3800 block of Wheeler Road in Southeast Washington. A stray bullet shattered the window of their minivan and killed the 22-yearold. Rainey, a vibrant young woman who had been working toward a degree in childhood education, was the District’s first homicide victim of 2021 but far from the last in a year that has proved especially bloody.

There were at least 227 homicides in the District in 2021, up 15% from the 198 killings in 2020. Recent years have seen a steady increase in the number of killings, and this past year was the first time since 2003 that homicides exceeded 200.

Behind the grim numbers and - too often overlooked are the lives needlessly lost. They include 6-year-old Nyiah Courtney, hit by a stray bullet while walking with her parents in July. James “Jimmy” Beckham, 69, a loving man with a large family, shot to death and found in his car. Jeremy Black, 53, a Peace Corps worker walking from a dinner date with his wife when a gun battle broke out and he was killed in the crossfire. Kassius-kohn Glay, 16, a tech whiz with good grades, shot in broad daylight. Nikiesha Thomas, 33, a social worker helping vulnerable children, shot to death, allegedly by an ex-boyfriend. Larelle Washington, 17, who hoped to be a Marine, was shot while walking home from school.

Shootings and killings are spiking in many other major cities. Varying explanations have been offered, ranging from the stresses and deprivations caused by the pandemic to officers backing away from proactive policing because of the national protests that followed the murder of George Floyd. Undeniable, though, is the proliferation of firearms and the role they play in escalating seemingly minor disputes - a bump in a hallway, a diss on social media - into unnecessary tragedies. D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee, like his predecessors, has called for more accountability in the criminal justice system in dealing with people charged with gun crimes. Those concerns demand serious examination and answers.

The solution also requires attacking the poverty, inequality and addiction that are among the root causes of crime. Violence, advocates argue, must be treated as a public health emergency, with emphasis placed on violence interruption or reduction strategies and with programs geared toward youth development. According to a report by the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, the District devotes considerable resources to numerous social and criminal justice reform programs, but the picture it paints of the District’s effort is less than flattering. It reviewed more than 100 programs and found there was often overlap and little evaluation about the efficacy of programs. “Resource rich and coordination poor,” was the study’s conclusion. The names and stories of those lost to violence should not be forgotten. They are a call to action to Mayor Muriel Bowser, D, and the D.C. Council to put a stop to the killing.