Drizzt
February 15, 2003, 12:02 PM
As Man Lay Dying, Witnesses Turned Away
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 15, 2003; Page A01
D.C. police released a startling surveillance tape yesterday that shows a daylight killing at a Northeast Washington gas station and witnesses doing nothing to report the crime or tend to the victim as he lay bleeding on the concrete.
The videotape, from the Hess station in the 500 block of Florida Avenue, shows in gruesome detail the Jan. 31 slaying of Allen E. Price, 43, of the 2100 block of Fourth Street NW. Police said they were shocked by the apathy of those who were there, including one man who continued pumping kerosene after looking briefly at Price's body.
At a time when homicide detectives are struggling to solve cases, police officials said the tape depicts the astounding levels of meanness and indifference they confront on the city's streets. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, police and prosecutors watched numerous cases collapse as witnesses were shot or intimidated. In this instance, several people at the gas station did not appear to be frightened but seemed not to care after the shot was fired and the gunman ran.
"That's just one of the worst things I've ever seen," Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey declared yesterday after screening the tape at police headquarters. "There just aren't words to describe something like that."
The shooting happened quickly and with no apparent warning near the large Florida Avenue market complex, in a crime-ridden area just blocks from Gallaudet University. The snippet of color videotape that police released -- taken by a camera positioned atop the gas station -- begins at 9:08 a.m., with traffic passing steadily on the avenue and several cars in view at the station.
At 9:09 a.m., the shooter appears at a distance, walking up Sixth Street on the far side of Florida Avenue. He appears to be a man in a black coat, but the image is blurry. He weaves through traffic on Florida Avenue and appears to run the last few feet toward the kerosene pump where Price was standing. Police have analyzed the video frame by frame, and Ramsey provided a running commentary, stating: "Boom! That's the gunshot."
Price then drops from view, and the gunman runs back across the Florida Avenue and disappears from sight.
A homicide lieutenant said yesterday that the killer is believed to have targeted Price. Police have announced no motive or suspects.
After the shooting, one witness -- who was just feet away from the gunman -- looked for a moment at Price's body and then turned away. Not only did he finish pumping his kerosene, but the man paid for the purchase and drove off, giving the camera its clearest look at Price lying by the pump. Police have not found that customer.
For the next few minutes, the camera records a series of cars pulling away from the station, with at least one new car pulling up to the kerosene pump where Price lay. But it is not until about 9:13, more than three minutes after the shooting, that the gas station's manager is seen approaching the body.
The manager, Philip Donkorsaid yesterday that he did not hear the gunshot from his bulletproof booth and was not aware of the shooting until a customer told him. He said he found Price on his back.
"He's dead. His eyes open. His mouth open," Donkor said. "Right then, I saw that he was dead."
Police said that someone in the area finally flagged down a police car, and it arrived about seven minutes after the shooting.
The first 911 call was not made until 9:36 a.m., but police did not reveal who made it. Donkor said he tried to call 911 immediately after he was told about the shooting but got a recording and hung up.
Ramsey has been criticized by D.C. Council members and others for rising homicide totals and for homicide clearance rates that are lower than the average for other cities. The chief has contended that witnesses who could help police get killers off the streets do not come forward.
"This is the kind of thing that we're up against," Ramsey said. "To have someone walk by as if nothing occurred is frustrating."
U.S. Attorney Roscoe C. Howard Jr. echoed that complaint, saying that relatively few slayings in the District occur in secluded spots. But witnesses simply won't come forward, he said, adding, "If you've got 262 murders in a year, and you're not able to solve half of them," reluctant witnesses must be an issue.
Still, former D.C. police chief Isaac Fulwood Jr., who oversaw the department when crack cocaine led to a surge in killings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said the reaction to Price's death amazed him.
"Something's wrong, I mean, something's very wrong and callous, and [it] is getting worse," Fulwood said.
Julia Dunkins, chief executive of Survivors of Homicide Inc., said people from across the city have become desensitized to death. "We have to stop saying, 'My community isn't like this. This kind of thing could not happen in my area,' " Dunkins said.
Louis R. Mizell Jr., a security consultant who maintains a 40,000-category database on crimes, said similar episodes have unfolded throughout the country.
"We record hundreds of cases nationwide each year in which people witnessed horrible crimes but react with depraved indifference, refusing to intervene or even call 911," Mizell said. "The encouraging news, however, is that we record thousands of cases in which people did get involved, often heroically and at their own peril."
Along Florida Avenue, other merchants said they were not shocked by the crime or the behavior of the witnesses.
At Coast In Liquors, a clerk said he could remember an attempted robbery two years ago in which a man came after him with a stick and then threw bricks at his windows.
Outside the store, people stopped to watch but did nothing to intervene, he said.
"Nobody [was] trying to help," said the clerk, who wouldn't give his name. "They were looking. You know how people do."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10391-2003Feb14.html
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 15, 2003; Page A01
D.C. police released a startling surveillance tape yesterday that shows a daylight killing at a Northeast Washington gas station and witnesses doing nothing to report the crime or tend to the victim as he lay bleeding on the concrete.
The videotape, from the Hess station in the 500 block of Florida Avenue, shows in gruesome detail the Jan. 31 slaying of Allen E. Price, 43, of the 2100 block of Fourth Street NW. Police said they were shocked by the apathy of those who were there, including one man who continued pumping kerosene after looking briefly at Price's body.
At a time when homicide detectives are struggling to solve cases, police officials said the tape depicts the astounding levels of meanness and indifference they confront on the city's streets. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, police and prosecutors watched numerous cases collapse as witnesses were shot or intimidated. In this instance, several people at the gas station did not appear to be frightened but seemed not to care after the shot was fired and the gunman ran.
"That's just one of the worst things I've ever seen," Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey declared yesterday after screening the tape at police headquarters. "There just aren't words to describe something like that."
The shooting happened quickly and with no apparent warning near the large Florida Avenue market complex, in a crime-ridden area just blocks from Gallaudet University. The snippet of color videotape that police released -- taken by a camera positioned atop the gas station -- begins at 9:08 a.m., with traffic passing steadily on the avenue and several cars in view at the station.
At 9:09 a.m., the shooter appears at a distance, walking up Sixth Street on the far side of Florida Avenue. He appears to be a man in a black coat, but the image is blurry. He weaves through traffic on Florida Avenue and appears to run the last few feet toward the kerosene pump where Price was standing. Police have analyzed the video frame by frame, and Ramsey provided a running commentary, stating: "Boom! That's the gunshot."
Price then drops from view, and the gunman runs back across the Florida Avenue and disappears from sight.
A homicide lieutenant said yesterday that the killer is believed to have targeted Price. Police have announced no motive or suspects.
After the shooting, one witness -- who was just feet away from the gunman -- looked for a moment at Price's body and then turned away. Not only did he finish pumping his kerosene, but the man paid for the purchase and drove off, giving the camera its clearest look at Price lying by the pump. Police have not found that customer.
For the next few minutes, the camera records a series of cars pulling away from the station, with at least one new car pulling up to the kerosene pump where Price lay. But it is not until about 9:13, more than three minutes after the shooting, that the gas station's manager is seen approaching the body.
The manager, Philip Donkorsaid yesterday that he did not hear the gunshot from his bulletproof booth and was not aware of the shooting until a customer told him. He said he found Price on his back.
"He's dead. His eyes open. His mouth open," Donkor said. "Right then, I saw that he was dead."
Police said that someone in the area finally flagged down a police car, and it arrived about seven minutes after the shooting.
The first 911 call was not made until 9:36 a.m., but police did not reveal who made it. Donkor said he tried to call 911 immediately after he was told about the shooting but got a recording and hung up.
Ramsey has been criticized by D.C. Council members and others for rising homicide totals and for homicide clearance rates that are lower than the average for other cities. The chief has contended that witnesses who could help police get killers off the streets do not come forward.
"This is the kind of thing that we're up against," Ramsey said. "To have someone walk by as if nothing occurred is frustrating."
U.S. Attorney Roscoe C. Howard Jr. echoed that complaint, saying that relatively few slayings in the District occur in secluded spots. But witnesses simply won't come forward, he said, adding, "If you've got 262 murders in a year, and you're not able to solve half of them," reluctant witnesses must be an issue.
Still, former D.C. police chief Isaac Fulwood Jr., who oversaw the department when crack cocaine led to a surge in killings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said the reaction to Price's death amazed him.
"Something's wrong, I mean, something's very wrong and callous, and [it] is getting worse," Fulwood said.
Julia Dunkins, chief executive of Survivors of Homicide Inc., said people from across the city have become desensitized to death. "We have to stop saying, 'My community isn't like this. This kind of thing could not happen in my area,' " Dunkins said.
Louis R. Mizell Jr., a security consultant who maintains a 40,000-category database on crimes, said similar episodes have unfolded throughout the country.
"We record hundreds of cases nationwide each year in which people witnessed horrible crimes but react with depraved indifference, refusing to intervene or even call 911," Mizell said. "The encouraging news, however, is that we record thousands of cases in which people did get involved, often heroically and at their own peril."
Along Florida Avenue, other merchants said they were not shocked by the crime or the behavior of the witnesses.
At Coast In Liquors, a clerk said he could remember an attempted robbery two years ago in which a man came after him with a stick and then threw bricks at his windows.
Outside the store, people stopped to watch but did nothing to intervene, he said.
"Nobody [was] trying to help," said the clerk, who wouldn't give his name. "They were looking. You know how people do."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10391-2003Feb14.html