‘I want my child back': Surge in D.C. shootings left 20 dead in May

Washington Post

2 days ago

A 19-year-old man about to start online college courses was gunned down on a Southeast Washington street; another man, 31, attending an elementary school track meet, was fatally shot on a Northeast sidewalk; and another, 59, eating dinner in his Northwest apartment, was hit by a stray bullet that came through a window. His mother walked in and found him slumped at a table, dead.
They were among 20 people slain in the District in May, all by gunfire, in a surge of violence that brought the city's 2025 homicide toll to 69 as of Saturday, the last day of the month. After a long stretch in which the pace of killings in D.C. was lower than in 2024, the spike in violence last month meant that the body count as of May 31 nearly equaled the District's 73 homicides in the first five months of last year.
'We are seeing far too many interpersonal conflicts being settled with guns,' D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said at a news conference in late May, echoing a refrain heard from many of her predecessors during periods of increased shootings in the past. 'We're asking: Put the guns down. This is not the way to resolve disputes.'
The May violence, including 18 killing in 18 days, also claimed the lives of Israeli Embassy employees Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, who were about to become engaged. Moments after leaving a reception at the Capital Jewish Museum, authorities and witnesses said, the two were shot by a gunman who shouted, 'Free Palestine!'
The surge in homicides came as the District readied to host WorldPride, the largest LGBTQ+ festival in the world, which organizers anticipate will bring millions of visitors to the nation's capital. In addition, a huge military parade and related events are scheduled for June 14 to commemorate the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary.
'D.C. is no stranger to high-profile gatherings, and we have a proven track record of hosting them safely and successfully, and this year will be no different,' Smith said. 'But we all know that public safety is a shared responsibility.'
Overall, violent crime was down 22 percent citywide compared with last year, when it was already at a 30-year-low, according to D.C. police and Justice Department data. Last year and this year represent a reversal from 2023, which saw a generational spike in violence.
In a recent Washington Post-Schar School poll, half of D.C. residents said crime is an 'extremely serious' or 'very serious' problem in the city, but that was down from 65 percent last year and 56 percent in 2023. In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a task force on crime prevention and maximizing immigration enforcement in the District after repeatedly criticizing the city's handling of public safety.
Jay Brown, an activist who lives in Ward 7 and runs a nonprofit counseling program called Community Shoulders, said Smith is minimizing the concerns of the communities most affected by violence by attributing the shootings to 'interpersonal disputes' — as though they were isolated incidents rather than evidence of a broader, deeper problem plaguing the city.
And while the killings of Milgrim and Lischinsky sparked outrage around the world, Brown said, it is frustrating to him and others that everyday gun violence in the District, which tears apart families and communities, rarely receives wide or sustained attention.
'You don't get that from when these things happen across the river,' Brown said, referring to poor neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. 'That's the message I hear, like, don't concern yourself with this. … These acts of violence are not a concern for the public.'
Kian-Wayne Magruder, 31, of Temple Hills, Maryland, went to the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association's elementary school track and field championships on May 20 to cheer on his girlfriend's son — and was fatally shot just steps from where hundreds of children were sitting in bleachers.
Magruder was walking near the city's former Spingarn High School, where the competition was being held, when three men jumped out of a car just before 2 p.m. and at least one of them opened fire, Smith said at a news conference. The attackers fled, and the vehicle they used was later found in flames in the Fort Lincoln neighborhood. There have been no arrests in the shooting.
Magruder's mother, LaKia Magruder, remembered her son as 'an involved father of two beautiful children' and a true 'family man' who lived a simple life. 'My son worked, worked out and spent time with his family,' she said. 'He always had a smile for you and a positive word.' He was an electrician apprentice, she said, but his true passion was physical fitness. She said he was building a career as a personal trainer.
'Kian-Wayne was my only child,' his mother said. 'He will definitely be missed by his family near and far. We must stop the senseless killings that continue to devastate our Black communities. Every life lost is a wound to our families, our neighborhoods and our future. The pain is real, the grief is deep and the cycle of violence must end.'
Jamar Jackson, 19, the youngest of five sons, was fatally shot at about 10:20 p.m. on May 23 in the 4200 block of Fourth Street SE. The shooting also killed 16-year-old Royell Walker and injured a 14-year-old boy, police said. The shooting remains under investigation.
Jackson liked to take care of everyone else, his mother, brothers and friends said. He encouraged one of his brothers to stay positive after he lost a job, and he motivated a friend to study for his driver's license test. One of his brothers said Jackson was a favorite uncle to his many nieces and nephews, always giving in when they asked for ice cream, candy and other treats.
'He wanted the best for everybody,' said his mother, Mesha Jackson. 'I miss my baby. I want my child back.'
He was dating his high school girlfriend, JaNya Randolph, 20, who said Jackson kept encouraging her to dream big about what she wanted to do with her life. They went to prom together, and he wore an orange tie to match her dress, she said. Their three-year anniversary would have been Aug. 13. She said he would have bought her flowers, as in past years.
He pushed himself, too. His mother said he was about to start online college courses in information technology. Randolph said Jackson hoped to become an entrepreneur with his own clothing brand.
'Jamar had a lot of plans,' she said.
On the night of May 25, Jose Carcamo, 59, was eating dinner at a table in his bedroom when gunshots sounded in an alley behind his apartment building in the 1500 block of Ogden Street NW, police and family members said.
Carcamo's mother was visiting from El Salvador for Mother's Day, said his cousin Jose Romero Carcamo. The mother, sitting in the living room, heard the gunshots and walked into the bedroom, where she found her son dead at the table.
The cousin said Carcamo worked in construction and sent money back to El Salvador to support relatives there. He was planning to retire in five years and return to his native country, where he had been building a home for himself and his mother.
'He never had any problems,' the cousin said. 'He is working all his life for his mom. We don't have any answers. We don't know why, we don't know how, we don't know anything.'