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Vol. 57, No. 33 • June 2 - 8, 2022
District Parents Still Reeling from Uvalde Mass Shooting Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer For Ward 4 parent Amber Golden, the mass shootings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and the Buffalo massacre days before which left nearly a dozen Blacks dead, evoke memories of smaller, yet similarly tragic events that have rocked her and her family over the last few decades. In the 1980s, while a student at what was then known as Wilson Senior High School in Northwest, Golden learned that someone had shot and nearly killed her friend at the bus stop they frequented. A few decades later, after a Florida jury’s acquittal of George Zimmerman drove her to tears, Golden tightly hugged her son upon his return home shortly after a sniper killed four people near the Van Ness Metro Station. When it comes to the issue of school safety, Golden said
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5 Members of the Buffalo Soldiers of Maryland along with their Buffalo Thunder head on U Street to the African American Civil War Memorial for an annual ceremony held every Memorial Day. (Roy Lewis/The Washington Informer)
D.C. Residents on Edge About Gun Violence U.S. Mass Shootings, Homicides Fuel Jitters James Wright WI Staff Writer As District residents observed the recent mass shootings by individuals with firearms in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas and continue to see a soaring homicide 3 The community in Ward 8 gather to protest gun violence. (WI File Photo/Robert R. Roberts)
rate due largely to gun violence, many remain anxious about whether their lives are secure in the city. “This city is not safe,” said Shekita McBroom who represents advisory neighborhood commission 8E01 in Ward 8. “Honestly, no city is safe these days
considering what is taking place,” she said. “Innocent people in Buffalo and babies in Texas were killed for no reason at all. People are telling me that their children are afraid to go to school and their parents are afraid to send them there. It's very scary now.” The Gun Violence Archive (GVA) in Northwest reported 227 mass
DC GUNS Page 9
Teens Talk Safe Spaces at Creative Suitland Arts Center William J. Ford WI Staff Writer
Mykai Matthews-Nell enjoys playing basketball and dancing to hip-hop. While she said her family’s love matters more to her than anything else, the 13-year-
old middle school student also values her bracelets. “I have 12 bracelets on my right arm and 38 bracelets on my left arm,” she said Saturday, May 28 at Creative Suitland Arts Center. “The ones on my right arm are pearls.
The ones on my left arm are beads. Just something I like.” Mykai and other teenagers, ages 13 to 17, will spend part of their Saturdays for the next 20 weeks participating in a
TEENS Page 40
SPELLING BEE Page 12 Celebrating 57 Years of Service / Serving More Than 50,000 Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area
