'It’s got to stop' | Woman demands gun control after being shot during a mass shooting in Southeast DC

WASHINGTON — A mother is speaking out after she was shot in Southeast D.C. Friday night.

D.C. police responded to a mass shooting in the District just after 7 p.m. on Varney Street. Lashawn Hubbard is just one of the five people who were shot. Police say two other women and two men are also recovering from non-life-threatening injuries.

Hubbard says she and her kids are traumatized after hearing gunshots. She was shot in the leg while out on her back porch with her kids and her neighbor’s kids as well.

“It’s hard to walk and put pressure on my leg,” Hubbard told WUSA9 in an exclusive conversation about her experience. She says it's by the grace of God that she’s still alive.

“I’m in good spirits,” Hubbard said. But now she isn’t able to do what she’s used to.

“It’s definitely going to keep me out of work. I’m not going to be able to move around, I have steps at home,” Hubbard said. “So it’s hard to get around.”

She says she thought the loud noises she heard were fireworks at first.

“Next thing I know, I heard ‘bow, bow, bow, bow, bow, bow’ and I was like what in the world and then I felt something hit my leg,” Hubbard said. 

After she realized she was shot, the only thing she could think to do next was find her children.

“So I ran to the moon bounce and all I could think is, Jesus, protect my children. Jesus just keep us, cover us,” Hubbard said. “I grab them and I’m like get down.”

She also grabbed another neighbor’s child, then she says more shots were fired before she was able to call 911.

Hubbard says there's been consistent violence at the same building where the shots were fired Friday. Neighbors also expressed their frustrations about what's going on. 

“We haven’t had any problems that I know of, but we need to do something with this, as a whole. We all need to do something because it’s not safe," one man who lives across the street said. 

Another neighbor said he's concerned about his safety. “Frightening… it's terrible over there, but they always have trouble in that building," the man said. 

The shooting happened across the street from a senior living facility. 

Hubbard is asking everyone to put the guns down.

“It’s got to stop,” Hubbard said. “It’s sad, we need to come together as a community and it’s tragic you can’t even play in your backyard.”

Hubbard says she’s ready to move somewhere else now to protect her and her children, but it’s tough with the cost of living — on top of not going back to work right now. D.C. police are still investigating the shooting and asking for anyone with information to come forward.