'It's devastating' | 12-year-girl shot in back by stray bullet while playing on iPad inside DC home

WASHINGTON — In a neighborhood where residents are fed up but fear talking about the persistent violence in the community, old crime tape and cars riddled with bullet holes from previous shootings speak volumes. Now a 12-year-old girl is forever scarred – hit by a stray bullet that blew through the back of her apartment in the three thousand block of 30th Street, Southeast. 

The girl’s mother spoke to WUSA9 on the phone at the hospital. She said her daughter was playing on her iPad in the back bedroom when the bullet pierced through the vinyl siding hitting the girl in the back. Mom said the bullet exited the opposite side of her back, but the good news is her spine is not impacted. 

Police said the drive-by also destroyed two parked cars. They said the suspect was seen driving off around 8:30 Tuesday night.

“It’s devastating to know that she was in her home and shot,” said Commander LaShay Makal on the scene Tuesday night, “a 12-year-old victim. Any victim. But I repeat my message from earlier not only in this case but any case, we need to get these guns off the street so anyone with information please call police or text anonymously at 50-411.”

“It’s too many people who have guns and don’t understand the consequences of them firing and it’s sickening and sad,” Ward 8 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (8B02) Paul Trantham told WUSA9’s Matthew Torres. "It seems as though the Mayor and City Council are not understanding what really needs to be done. Even though it seems they’re trying to be creative, what they’re doing is still not enough in order to get these guns out of our community.”

Mayor Bowser just signed the DC Council’s emergency crime bill that makes firing guns a felony and promises to keep repeat offenders behind bars longer. But neighbors who did not want to talk on camera said Wednesday the gunshots are constant even when police are on patrol.

“It’s not fair to us. It’s not fair to the community that we continue to come out here speak out about what we do not like, and we don’t appreciate,” added Commissioner Trantham, “the city is out of control, and they need to get control back in the community.”