LeDroit Park residents demand action to address repeated shootings

A Northwest D.C. neighborhood plagued by gun violence demanding more be done to keep families safe. Fox 5's Shirin Rajay live in LeDroit Park to explain what's led to this point. Shirin? Yeah, Marina, this neighborhood has been traumatized again and again for nearly two years. Surveillance cameras from right here, from where I am standing, have shown armed suspects, mainly wearing black, getting out and just opening fire. And what's really frightening for a lot of people that live around here is that a lot of these shootings are happening in broad daylight, just steps from people's homes. Take a look. Yeah, one shooting after another, all centered around 2nd and W Streets Northwest. This is a video from March of last year. The latest incident just a few weeks ago in October. Police reports obtained by Fox 5 document multiple incidents dating back to January of last year. In fact, two separate shootings in early 2025 actually hurt two men by gunfire. One shot in the hand, the other in the back. In another shooting this past May, police recovered 38 shell casings after four suspects reportedly opened fire. Five vehicles and a residential window, even a nearby Howard University building has been hit by gunfire on multiple occasions. MPD says it has stepped up patrols, added surveillance cameras, made 33 arrests in the surrounding areas this year, including arrests connected to at least two of the shootings. And with Seaton Elementary School just around the corner from where these shootings have been taking place, parents are especially concerned. One father says the city needs to look at what's working in places like New York and Baltimore. It's not just my concern for my own children and for the Seaton community. I mean, I think that this has become more urgent because of the presence of that elementary school there. I believe we need to do what Baltimore's been doing, which is to address root causes by offering a real carrot and a real stick to the vanishingly small number of people who are actually responsible for this kind of gun violence. It's a small number of people. The community knows who they are. The police know who they are. They just need to focus on those individuals rather than just trying to, like, beef up arrest numbers more generally. And I'm also being told that dozens of elementary school parents have now signed a petition, wrote to the city to actually do more to help them with this violence. Meanwhile, again, MPD has increased patrols. We've seen a number of them in the last couple of hours. They've added surveillance cameras and say that they are working with federal partners to combat this crime. Marina, Jim. Thank you.