A man holding hands with a 5-year-old and carrying an infant in a car seat was fatally shot outside an apartment building Friday morning in Northeast Washington, D.C. police said.
Sedrick Miller, 42, of Northeast, was shot about 8:30 a.m. in the 2300 block of 18th Street NE, near New York and Montana avenues, along the border of the Langdon and Brentwood neighborhoods, according to the police.
“This is a really disturbing event, and we really need the public’s help in this,” Cmdr. William FitzGerald of the D.C. police said at the scene.
FitzGerald, who oversees the 5th Police District, said the victim “was walking down the street” – the infant in the carrier, the second child in his grasp – when “a male approached him and fired several times.”
The relationship between Miller and the children could not immediately be determined. FitzGerald said the children were safe and with their mother.
“Who knows the long-term effects of this,” FitzGerald said.
Police had only a scant description of the gunman, saying he was wearing a black mask, gray sweatpants and a light-colored sweatshirt. No arrest had been made as of late Friday morning.
D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie, D-Ward 5, posted a letter on Twitter on Friday saying “we must double down on our efforts” to find violent criminals “and keep them off our streets.”
“The entirety of our government, not just the police, must work together to ensure public safety and address the root causes of violent crime,” wrote McDuffie, who represents the area where the shooting occurred.
The council member is relinquishing his seat and is running for D.C. attorney general. If successful, he would take over prosecuting juvenile crimes and some gun offenses. In his letter, McDuffie said that “no family and no community should ever witness this type of horrify violence.”
Friday’s shooting is at least the third this year in which a person was fatally shot in front of children in the District.
In January, police said a gunman shot 27-year-old Sierra Johnson in a vehicle on Georgia Avenue in Northwest Washington as her 2- and 4-year-old children were in the back seat. The children were not harmed. Police arrested a man and charged him with second-degree murder. Authorities described the motive as domestic-related and said Johnson was pregnant at the time of her death.
In February, Pamela Thomas was fatally struck by a stray bullet while riding in the back of an SUV with her 8-year-old son. Thomas was on her way to a birthday party.
Police also have identified a man who was fatally shot Thursday in the 1700 block of Gales Street NE, in the Kingman Park neighborhood.
The victim was identified as Artavarn Wagner, 44, of Alexandria, Va.
That shooting occurred about 6 a.m. in an alley, police said. No other details of the shooting were made available.
The Washington Post
