Source
Teenager Charged in Shooting
By Arthur Santana and Phuong Ly
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 26, 2000 ; A01
A 16-year-old youth was charged last night with assault with intent to kill in connection with the shootings outside the National Zoo that left seven youths wounded, one of them critically.
District police arrested Antoine Jones at 6:05 p.m., almost exactly 24 hours after Monday's shootings. They found him in the basement of his grandparents' home in the Trinidad area of Northeast
Washington, hiding behind a heater, said Cmdr. Peter Newsham, of the 2nd Police District.
Police don't have any other suspects in the shootings, said Chief Charles H. Ramsey. Newsham said evidence indicates that only one person was shooting at the zoo and that the shots were fired from
outside the zoo. But he said the investigation is continuing.
The number of charges against Jones, who police said attends Spingarn High School, will be determined today at a hearing in D.C. Superior Court. Jones will be tried as an adult, said Channing Phillips, a
spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.
An 11-year-old boy who was shot in the head remained in critical condition at Children's Hospital yesterday, and hospital officials disputed police reports Monday night that the youth was being kept on
life support so his organs could be donated.
The youth "is not brain-dead," said Martin R. Eichelberger, the hospital's director of trauma services. "Although the child remains in critical condition, a repeat CAT scan of the head continues stable. He is
responsive to care, and his overall medical condition has improved."
After being closed yesterday--a day when grief counselors visited area schools and President Clinton condemned the violence--the zoo was scheduled to reopen this morning. A flag at the zoo was at
half-staff, passersby placed several bundles of flowers at the entrance and zoo director Michael Robinson had wreaths hung on the gates in sympathy for the young victims.
When police arrived at the home in the 1200 block of Neal Street NE, after first going to Jones's home nearby on Holbrook Street NE, the teenage suspect ran to the basement, said a man at the Neal Street
row house who declined to give his name but said he was Jones's grandfather. The man said he told police where his grandson had gone.
"They went downstairs and came up with him," the man said.
Antoine Jones "is known to police," said Ramsey, who declined to elaborate. Newsham said that as far as police know, the teenager is not a gang member.
Police would not detail how they determined that Jones had fired the shots outside the zoo, but they said they received an unusual number of tips from citizens. Jones had told family members that he was at
the zoo Monday but that he had left before the shooting, the grandfather said.
The man said that the teenager was expelled from school a few months ago for fighting and that he had worried that his grandson was hanging out with the wrong crowd.
"We'd tell him, but you know how hard the guys' heads are," the grandfather said.
Lawrence Smith, who lives next door to the two-story brick house where Jones was arrested, said that the teenager used to take out his 6-year-old grandson.
"They went to the playground together," said Smith, 71. "He played with my grandboy. He looked like he wouldn't harm a flea. I didn't think he would do anything like this. It doesn't make one bit of
sense."
Two women on Neal Street said they would see Jones playing basketball at a nearby recreation center. "This is really a tragedy for his family," one of the women said, declining to give her name. "This is a
lot to be charged with."
Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer said the suspect was with a group of Trinidad youths Monday on the west side of Connecticut Avenue when he fired across the street into a crowd of
youths, who are from the Mayfair neighborhood in Northeast, standing at the zoo entrance.
Both groups had been involved in an altercation earlier at the zoo, Gainer said. He added that it was unclear whether the victims were part of the groups and what the altercation was about.
Zoo police had notified D.C. police and Metro transit police shortly before 5:30 p.m. that a large crowd of people was leaving the zoo but never called for help in managing the crowd, zoo spokesman
Robert Hoage said.
About 5:40 p.m., two teenagers who had been fighting were arrested by zoo police officers, Hoage said.
At 5:59 p.m., Metro transit police received a call that "there were rowdy juveniles and that we might expect them to be heading toward the subway," said Polly Hansen, deputy chief for the Metro transit
police.
The Trinidad cluster left the zoo and crossed Connecticut Avenue while the group from Mayfair remained at the zoo entrance. The groups then threw bottles at each other just after 6 p.m. from across the
street, Ramsey said. "Then one, on the west side of the street, pulled a handgun and began firing into the crowd," he said.
Four spent 9mm casings were found on the street, leading police to conclude that at least some of the four shots hit more than one person, Gainer said.
Five of seven of the gunshot victims had been released from hospitals by last night. In addition to the 11-year-old boy in critical condition, a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the back was in good condition
at Children's. Five boys, ranging from 13 to 16 years old, were released from various hospitals, officials said. Those boys included a previously unknown 16-year-old victim--apparently shot in the
thumb--who walked into D.C. General Hospital at 2:30 a.m. yesterday for treatment.
Ramsey said that the victims came from a variety of schools and that there doesn't seem to be a connection between a specific school and the shootings. He said that police have contacted school security
but that no extra D.C. police officers have been sent to schools.
"There's no indication that any of this is going to spill over into the schools," Ramsey said.
D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams said the shooting was especially disturbing because it was African American Family Celebration Day, an annual Easter Monday event.
"I think this is particularly a tragedy because this happened on a day of celebrating the African American family," Williams (D) said. ". . .It's a particular tragedy because all of us are tired of talking about
this and we're tired of talking about something that happens all too often."
School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said crisis counseling teams were sent to the schools attended by those who were shot. Those schools included: Houston Elementary in Northeast, Jefferson Junior
High School in Southwest, Deal Junior High School in Northwest, Spingarn Senior High School in Northeast, Hine Junior High School in Southeast and Woodson Senior High School in Northeast.
"Such incidences are reflective of a larger community problem and speak to the need for a collaborative community effort that will protect our children and ensure that they are safe in school and in their
neighborhoods," Ackerman said.
Patrick Fiel, the school system's director of security, said he and his staff worked through the night Monday with D.C. police to determine the motive for the shooting and identify a suspect.
Clinton addressed the shooting yesterday in the East Room of the White House, at the end of an event touting his hate crimes legislation.
"Let me say in a larger sense, this is part of our efforts to make our country a less violent place. I am grateful that crime is at a 25-year low, that homicides are at a 30-year low, that gun crimes have dropped
35 percent in the last seven years," Clinton said.
"But as we saw just yesterday at the devastating act of violence at the National Zoo here in our nation's capital, where seven young people were shot and wounded in a senseless act, our country still has too
much violence and too much crime."
Zoo officials continued to review Monday's events in an effort to determine whether security was adequate for the large crowds that attended the African American Family Celebration. They also sought to
assure visitors that it was safe to return.
Hoage said 15,000 to 20,000 people visited the zoo on Monday, more than on a peak summer day. And as is standard on busy days, 14 police officers were on duty on the 163-acre campus, twice the
normal staffing.
"In the 111 years since the zoo's founding, there has never been an act of violence like this in the park. It is an aberrant and isolated incident," said Hoage. "We're exploring every aspect of this event
looking for ways to ensure this never happens again."
The following Washington Post staff writers contributed to coverage of the shooting at the National Zoo: Charles Babington, Michael H. Cottman, Stephen C. Fehr, Patrice Gaines, Carol Leonnig, Phuong
Ly, Philip P. Pan and Linda Wheeler. News researcher Bobbye Pratt also contributed.
(Edited to fix url formatting)-TBM
[This message has been edited by TheBluesMan (edited April 26, 2000).]
