D.C. Residents Demand Answers After Teenager Is Fatally Shot

Just before 4 a.m. last Saturday, a man emerged from a residence in Washington, D.C., when he heard noises and saw someone who appeared to be “tampering” with cars, the Metropolitan Police Department said. After an “interaction,” the police said, the man fatally shot a 13-year-old named Karon Blake.

While little has been said about what happened during the encounter between the man and the middle school student, the case has renewed concerns about armed citizens taking matters into their own hands as self-appointed enforcers of the law. And questions have been raised as to why the man has not been publicly identified or arrested.

City Council members have spoken out. Officials at Brookland Middle School, where Karon was in the sixth grade, offered condolences and mental health services to his fellow students. The police said they were investigating and working with the U.S. attorney’s office to review the case for potential charges.

“It’s a horrible situation and we have a 13-year-old that died and we don’t have all of the facts,” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said at a news conference on Wednesday when she was asked about the level of anger in the community. “And the people who are responsible for gathering the facts and making charging decisions are doing it just as fast as possible.”

In an earlier news conference, on Tuesday, Chief Robert J. Contee III of the Metropolitan Police Department said that the case represented the “tragic death of a son of our city,” but emphasized that the department could not release details about what happened until an investigation was completed.

“We shouldn’t allow this matter to divide our community,” Chief Contee said. “We have people demonizing both sides and we don’t even know all of the facts.”

Misinformation about the shooting, including images of “people that have no connection to this case,” has circulated widely on social media, the chief said, as have suggestions that race played a role.

“There has been too much misinformation swirling around this incident,” he said.

It was not immediately clear what type of gun was used. Chief Contee said that no weapon had been recovered. He described the adult involved as an African American man who has a license to carry a concealed weapon and owns a registered firearm. At the news conference on Wednesday, Mayor Bowser confirmed that the man is a D.C. government employee and said that he had been placed on administrative leave.

The man called the police after the shooting and was performing CPR when officers arrived at the scene, Chief Contee said. The man then gave the officers a brief account of what had happened, the chief said.

Investigators are examining surveillance video. If there was criminal intent and a crime occurred, a grand jury of D.C. residents would examine the case, the chief said.

The chief declined to answer questions about where on his body Karon was shot and how many times, and whether the man’s vehicle was among those allegedly being tampered with. A local law says nondeadly force can be used to protect personal property from theft or damage.

The police said in a statement on Saturday that officers responded to the shooting on Quincy Street, in the Brookland neighborhood of Northeast Washington, at 3:56 a.m. The man “heard noises and observed someone that appeared to be tampering with vehicles,” the statement said, adding that he “went outside, armed with a registered firearm, to further investigate.”

“There was an interaction between a juvenile male and the male resident,” the statement said. “During the interaction, the male resident discharged his firearm striking the victim.”

Karon was taken to a hospital, where he died from his wounds, the statement said.

Community leaders and activists have raised concerns in the days since the shooting. A D.C. Council member, Christina Henderson, said she was working to ensure the public school system had mental health support. “Property is not greater than life,” she wrote on Twitter. “Karon should be alive today.”

Zachary Parker, a D.C. Council member who represents the neighborhood where Karon lived, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that he had “deep concerns about neighbors taking justice into their own hands.” He met with hundreds of community members on Tuesday about their concerns and requested the release of video related to the case.

A woman who identified herself as Karon’s aunt stood up to address the crowd.

“My family is not going to say anything at this moment,” she said, according to Fox 5, “but we thank you guys and I want you all to pray for my nephew. We want justice. He’s 13. He’s a baby.”

Kerry Richardson, the principal of Brookland Middle School, informed parents about Karon’s death in a statement on Sunday, calling it a “devastating loss.”

The Black Swan Academy, a nonprofit that prepares young Black people for civic leadership roles, described the shooting as “vigilante behavior” in a statement on Tuesday.

“Black children deserve to live,” it said. “They deserve to be able to make mistakes and learn from them.”