Eastern Senior High School began its school year Monday with grief counselors on hand to visit with students and teachers upset about the shooting death of an incoming senior three days earlier.
Principal Shawn Hearn, in his first day on the job at the high school, said many students were hurting over the death of Cynthia Gray, 17, who hid a baby under a parked car moments before she was shot point blank several times in the face.
Eastern Senior High officers were making arrangements to assist with the funeral of the popular student, Hearn said.
“We are all trying to do our best,” Hearn said.
Gray was killed shortly before midnight Thursday when men in a stolen Cadillac drove up and began firing into a crowd of teenagers outside 4639 Benning Road SE.
As the bullets flew, Gray placed her 7-month-old godson under a car, police said. The men got out of the Cadillac and continued shooting.
One gunman walked up to Gray and shot her in the face, police said.
Gray saved her godson from injury, but three teenagers were struck with multiple gunshots. The teenagers were taken to area hospitals and will survive the injuries, police said.
Police did not identify the teenagers because they are considered witnesses.
Gray’s boyfriend, Ronnie Graves, 17, had been shot to death a month earlier just blocks away, but police said they have found no connection between the two killings. A 22-year-old man, Terrell Jones, was also killed in the shooting.
Police have not revealed a connection between the two shootings.
Meanwhile, a nonprofit group is working behind the scenes to determine what’s behind the shootings in order to bring the two sides together to prevent further retaliations.
“It’s serious when someone shoots a girl in the face,” Woten said. “It takes it to a whole other level.”
