Monday, August 05, 2013

Scary News of Incidents in Rosedale

A frightening email from a local list describes gunshots being fired into random houses. While this sort of thing is not remotely typical, I had some friends who had something similar happen maybe 8 years ago. They lived in the northeastern portion of Trinidad. Every Saturday morning they watched a heroin deal go down at 8am. Then they had a kid. Everything was good. They hung strong. They got pregnant again. This time they had triplets. One night mom was giving the kids a bath. A stray bullet shot straight through the front of the house. It passed through the wall, and bounced off the tile in the bathroom while the babies were having their bath. The bullet came to rest in the bath water with the kids. I can't exactly blame them for decamping. If those had been my kids, I probably would have done the same.

I have another friend who owns a place on Queen Street. Several years ago a stray bullet went through the front of his house, and pierced his window A/C unit. Tough little wounded warrior it was, it kept working. I live on a busy street (plus, it's not exactly a trouble spot), and have (thankfully) never experienced anything like this.

So, what do you think about this email, and what has happened here? How would you react? Also, I think this goes without saying, but be sure to give MPD a ring if you find fresh bullet holes anywhere on your property.

We wanted to share recent incidents for everyone's safety and awareness involving shooting of firearms into family residences. On the 1500 B/O Gales St NE there have been 3 such shootings in the last 3 months, all related to the Pentacle Apts' rear parking lot area and access ways to this complex. 

In June, a neighbor found what appeared to be a bullet hole shot through their carport door, which faces the parking lot. In July, another neighbor was awakened at night when a bullet shot through her front door and then passed through her back door. The shot traveled from the alley leading to this same parking lot. Just last week, a third neighbor whose home backs up to the Pentacle Apts heard the sound of 2 projectiles striking the back window of their home and found what looked like 2 BB holes through the window. The police were called in all 3 cases.

Thankfully, no one was physically hurt in any of these incidents, but of course we are concerned for our families and neighbors, and would encourage everyone to be aware of unusual activity and please report anything suspicious. We know that the offenders may not necessarily stay at the Pentacles, and would live in or move through nearby areas.

Commander Solberg, from what we understand the police have been responsive in the above incidents and we appreciate the officers at work every day and night. We feel we need to work on more pro-active steps to be taken, including engaging with the property owners of the Pentacle Apts, to help prevent repeated and potentially more serious incidents from occurring. As you know, the parking lot and the areas immediately around it have witnessed various serious incidents involving gun violence, in the last few months alone.

If anyone can provide helpful information to identify the offenders or help with preventative measures in general, please contact the police or respond to this post.

Sincerely,
Very concerned neighbors on 1500 B/O Gales St NE



34 comments:

Mena said...

Thank goodness your friend's babies weren't harmed! That said, i,'d probably be gone long before bullets were fired through my door. The crack deals would've had me packing for the burbs.
... which begs the question - what would get you to move? For me it was the break ins and obvious/ repeated lack of respect for others' property.

Anonymous said...

Time to raze the Pentacle apts and replace them with, oh, anything at all.


Anonymous said...

Anon 12:41 - Agreed. I can't believe they razed the old car barn(http://www.flickr.com/photos/dckaleidoscope/4088242824/) back in the '70s to replace it with these.

Anonymous said...

Oh my god. I drive through Rosedale sometimes on my way to other places. I could have been hurt....

Alan Page said...

Was someone deliberately aiming at the houses or were they hit by stray bullets? While getting your house shot up is horrible generally, it's especially bad if someone *intended* to shoot your house.

In happoer news, H Street was just featured in The New York Times again: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/08/04/travel/20130804-SURFACING.html?ref=travel

Alan Page said...

happier*

Marc said...

This is horrible! We had a series of incidents of stray bullets hitting homes in the neighborhood being fired on 10th ST + K ST two summers ago. One went through the house on 10th and K ST. The neighbors later moved out....Even more we realized that most of these incidents are teenagers running up the street firing at each other. Teenagers!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I live near 10th and K. Two years ago, those bullets were fired by "teens", criminals despite their age, in a gang angry at another teen who lives on 10th street. The target teen's mother claimed it was over his new 400$ sneakers but we all know the kid is a gang banger and a rival gang wanted him gone. his brother was shot and killed over a gang rivalry some years before. the cops responded with floodlights and the like. the mother
still lives in the house. we still see the teen (now maybe 18 or so) although he neither works nor attends school. his mother and "uncle" also do not work.
my question is:
if your kid was shot at and/or involved in gangs, wouldn't you move? what responsibility does this mother have in all of this. I blame her. she should get a frickin job and make her kid get a frickin job and have the "uncle" get a frickin job.

Anonymous said...

It's so selfish for parents to raise children in this neighborhood. I've said it before and I'll say it again, they're trading their child's safety for proximity to trendy theme bars....

Anonymous said...

It's fuckin Rosedale. Deal or move.

Anonymous said...

agree with anon 11:18.

Anonymous said...

I live one block over from there and have to play the "gunshot or firecracker?" game way too often. When it's the former, the incident almost invariably occurs in/around the Pentacle Apartments. The day those things get torn down I will sleep much more soundly.

Anonymous said...

Is it selfish to raise kids in the suburbs, where they are far more likely to die in a car accident than they are from a stray bullet here?

If your kid is in a gang, though, and actively being targeted, yeah, ya might want to move...

jimbo said...

Ive lived on Gales Street for 3+ years now and the vast majority of any unfire Ive ever heard has come from Carver Langston on the north side of Benning

happy camper said...

anon 11:18

How many parents or children do you know in this area?

People are buying in Rosedale because they get more house for their money. What, should they raise their kid in an efficiency in Columbia Heights intead?

brookland_rez said...

Who names an apartment complex after a satanic symbol anyway?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentacle

Anonymous said...

@Happy Camper - I would think that if you want to get more for your money now then you'd buy in Brookland/Langdon/both Michigan Parks/Woodbridge/or places Uptown. For sure people are buying in Rosedale to be close to development, but and its not their fault that these fools are doing these random or not so random shootings.

Anonymous said...

4:58 - your Wikipedia link refers to a Pentacle as "magical" and "a talisman" and involved with the Wiccan religion. At no time does it mention satan or evil. Where are you getting the impression it is satanic?

Anonymous said...

Glad to see this thread staying focused as per the usual around here.

Capricious said...

The problem is not Gales St, but the Pantacle itself,wich has been a hotbed of trouble for at least the last 25 years.

Mary Anne Berry said...

heroin deals at 8 am? sounds pretty ambitious ...

Anonymous said...

pentacle is a five pointed star which can also be called a pentagram. BTW...the newspaper printed by the pentagon that distributes DoD info is called the pentagram. ha!
as an atheist, I believe in neither satan nor god, but I do find the irony hilarious!

Anonymous said...

Heaven help you, 8:10pm. Oh, nevermind then.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many folks commenting on the cons of Rosedale have ever been to the Rosedale neighborhood. Just wondering. Not that it really matters, for those of us who live here we know it to be a lovely neighborhood with very nice people and mortgage payments that allow one to have a nice life without having to be a two-lawyer household like cap hill proper.

Anonymous said...

You don't have to live in a shit hole to know what one is. Not saying anything about one neighborhood specifically, just sayin' in general.

Also, you're delusional if you think there aren't serious dangers to yourself and more importantly your kids in our neighborhood.

content on Gales said...

11:50-
if your comment is directed at me (10:09) and you actually do live in Rosedale as you refer to it as "your" neighborhood, if you feel as though you are danger where you live, why the fuck do you live there? common sense no?

E in Rosedale said...

I live in Rosedale (on Isherwood) and I think our street backs up to a 'satellite' Pentacle building. It's just south of Miner Elementary. We have plenty of home-grown trouble on our block, but my guess is a lot of it is residual from that complex.

There's times when I second guess our decision to buy here and raise a family, but I really do think it'll get better over time. That said, I wouldn't hold my breath for the Pentacle to get razed. Down the road I could see the property getting redeveloped into mixed-use/mixed income, but that'd be at least 5-10 years out.

In the meantime, for better or worse, 'the market' will isolate the problems.

pat said...

we had a shooting last week at 26th and Benning.
It was mostly a group of kids firing in the air,
but my neighbors house was hit by 2 stray bullets.

The kids involved don't realize this is reckless endangerment and had someone been hit by a bullet,
they'd be facing involuntary manslaughter.

the X-2 bus was hit so Metro Transit Police took the case.

Anonymous said...

Rosedale is *scary*. How you seen those narrow streets over there with those people hanging out a la The Wire?

Anonymous said...

I've lived on the 1600 block for over three years and it's been (relatively) quiet... I wouldn't feel as comfortable with my backside abutting that apartment complex.

As others have noted the neighborhood continues to improve but there's still a ways to go.

I don't understand the troll who always pops up and rails against parents in Rosedale. There are hundreds of kids in this neighborhood. The new rec center is great, and Miner Elementary is perfectly serviceable for the early grades. The suburbs might be better for some, not better for others. There's no "best" way to raise a kid-- and lots of reasonable people reject the unsustainable lifestyle and car culture of the 'burbs. Why do you feel the need to be so judgmental?

heyktb said...

As a mom with three, now grown kids who as a family moved to the burbs as the kids entered their teen years primarily for better (safer) schools, I feel the trade off was a win/lose. Sure, the schools did not have metal detectors and did had fewer (less visible) gangs. But the whole suburban soccer mom culture was tiresome at best and, at its worst, prevented my kids from experiencing the type of independence city kids (and their parents) see as second nature. We had to work REALLY hard to ensure they knew that walking to school, riding their bikes to their afterschool jobs and slicing up their oranges themselves for the requisite end of game rahrahs was not unreasonable even if their friends spent their days being shuttled from pillar to post in the family mini van! Good on you to those who stick with the city. I applaud you, but still, I would be worried...

Anonymous said...

I live in a quiet, friendly street in Rosedale. It's funny to me to read a blog full of people who live in/around Trinidad and see complaining about how dangerous Rosedale is. I mean, Trinidad-- the part of town where the police set up a roadblock a few years back because of rampant shootings. Sorry, never had something like that near me. :) Gimme a break, folks. All these neighborhoods have these problems. It's block by block. And things are gradually improving.

inked said...

5:56,
I just meant I hadn't personally dealt with finding bullet holes on my property. Of course we've heard gun shots, and had crime near us. I've been writing about stuff like that since 2004.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't aimed at you. I'm just reacting the way you and a lot of Trinidad people reacted when Trinidad was in the news a few years ago for all the shootings, the roadblock, etc. Getting riled up when snarky people say "you moved there. what do you expect. your neighborhood sucks." Except in this case, some of those comments are (presumably) coming from people in Trinidad/NOMA/etc, which have problems just like Rosedale. i guess everyone wants to think there's someone worse off.