Building where 9-year-old shot called trouble
By: Kytja Weir
Examiner Staff Writer
November 16, 2009
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| Tenants stand outside the entrance of 1433 Columbia Road, an apartment building with no lock on the front door. Oscar Fuentes was killed Saturday when a bullet pierced through the front door of his family's apartment on the second floor. (Matthew A. Roth/For The Examiner) |
Neighbors and officials are searching for answers after a 9-year-old boy was killed by a bullet that pierced the door of his Columbia Heights apartment.
The death of Oscar Fuentes late Saturday was just the latest trouble for the apartment building on Columbia Road that sits around the corner from a cluster of big-box stores on 14th Street that was hoped to improve the Northwest D.C. neighborhood.
"It is troubled day after day, seven days a week," said Marco Reyes, who has lived across the street for about 20 years.
"At night, it's worse," added Sancho Rios, who lives in the building.
Already a small playground next door goes unused by children, they said, because drug dealers have made it too dangerous. Earlier this year, Rios said, someone set fire to phonebooks in the hallways during the middle of the night. But Oscar's death has them even more scared.
"I am very worried about what is going on," Rios told The Examiner in Spanish.
Mayor Adrian Fenty and top police officials were expected to hold a news conference to discuss the killing Monday morning, a city official said.
The shooting occurred slightly just 10 p.m. Saturday even as the Metropolitan Police Department was saturating the area for one of its All Hands on Deck nights.
It's not clear why the gun was fired into the second-floor apartment door.
Metropolitan Police Commander Rodney Parks told The Examiner the case was still being investigated. Police had taken in some people for questioning, but he said no one had been charged as of Sunday evening.
Still, it appears the shooter may have deliberately fired into the apartment, said D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, a Democrat whose district includes the building.
Still, it appears the shooter may have deliberately fired into the apartment, said D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, a Democrat whose district includes the building.
"The question was: Why was this shot fired intentionally at chest height?" he said. "We do know at this point there was a lot of gang activity going on in this building."
The building where the shooting occurred reeks of urine and lacks a lock on the front door and even a doorknob, letting all types of problems inside.
On Sunday afternoon, no one answered the door at Oscar's apartment. A hole less than a centimeter in diameter was visible in the door. It cut cleanly through at an angle, about a foot above the doorknob. The hallway showed no other signs that a crime had occurred. A Happy Birthday sign hung above the door of the apartment next door.
Two charter schools line the block, and it's close to the DC USA shopping center with the Target and Best Buy stores that symbolize the transition of the neighborhood. Two tidy buildings across the street also have for-sale signs out front.
Graham said several of the apartment buildings have been transformed from slums into tenant-owned buildings.
"We've had some very positive steps here," he said. "But this is one that hasn't happened."
He said the tragedy should spark change at Oscar's building, bringing in police and inspectors to force a cleanup.
Staff Writers Michael Neibauer and Scott McCabe contributed to this report.
