In Washington, Two Shootings Leave a Community on Edge

In her abbreviated life, Nyiah Courtney, 6, played a batch of roles utilizing her imagination. She was a doctor, a teacher and a babysitter. She went connected safaris and rescued animals. She erstwhile washed her teacher’s hairsbreadth successful a play sink, chopped it and styled it.

On Friday, Nyiah was fatally changeable successful a late-night shooting successful southeast Washington, D.C., that besides near 5 adults, including her mother, wounded. She had been riding her scooter connected a sidewalk erstwhile shots rang out.

“It’s hard to ideate a satellite without her,” said Dayna Hudson, who taught the miss successful prekindergarten and kindergarten.

As of Friday, 102 people, including Nyiah, had been the victims of homicide successful Washington frankincense acold successful 2021, according to data from the Metropolitan Police Department. The decease toll was 198 successful each of 2020, erstwhile homicides accrued 19 percent implicit 2019.

At a quality league connected Saturday, Mayor Muriel Bowser addressed the latest fatal shooting successful Washington.

“We don’t fto radical get distant with execution successful our town,” Ms. Bowser said. “We person to basal up against them.”

The weapon unit connected Friday nighttime took spot connected a commercialized agelong of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, successful a vicinity wherever residents said gunfire was communal aft dark. It was followed connected Saturday nighttime by the shooting of three radical extracurricular Nationals Park, astir 2 miles away. The wounds astatine the ballpark weren’t life-threatening, but the panic acceptable disconnected by the chiseled dependable of gunshots, which rang retired during the sixth inning of a crippled with the San Diego Padres, sent much than 30,000 fans wrong the stadium scrambling for cover.

In a associated connection connected Sunday, Mayor Bowser and the Washington Nationals said that the Metropolitan Police Department did not judge the team, the ballpark oregon fans successful attendance were the people of the shooting, and that the occurrence appeared to person progressive a quality betwixt radical successful 2 vehicles.

“We basal unneurotic against senseless acts of weapon unit successful the metropolis we love,” the statement said. “Gun unit — nary substance wherever it occurs successful our metropolis — is unacceptable and volition not beryllium tolerated.”

At the quality league connected Saturday, Councilman Trayon White Sr., who represents the territory wherever Nyiah was shot, called connected residents to instrumentality action.

“This ain’t thing caller for us,” Mr. White said. “It’s been going connected acold excessively long, and it’s connected america to prevention us. Nobody’s coming to prevention america but us.”

On Sunday, Nationals Park was concern arsenic usual, arsenic fans poured successful for a crippled betwixt the Nationals and the Padres. But the memories of a chaotic nighttime were inactive caller for the Nationals manager, Dave Martinez.

“I emotion this city. This city’s my home,” Martinez said astatine a quality league earlier the crippled connected Sunday. “It tin get crazy; we each cognize that. And we each privation to consciousness safe. I tin archer you that wrong this ballpark, I consciousness safer than ever, I truly do. We attraction astir each other. We don’t privation anybody getting hurt.”

Across the Anacostia River, successful the vicinity wherever Nyiah lived and died, the Courtney family, which was not disposable for remark connected Sunday, wrangled with the nonaccomplishment of Nyiah and her mother’s injury.

Ms. Hudson, her teacher, said she would retrieve Nyiah arsenic a “kind, compassionate, funny, sassy” miss who was a “wild card” astatine schoolhouse endowment shows, and speedy with a joke.

“My bosom hurts for her household and loved ones, and for her classmates that won’t get to spot her erstwhile archetypal people starts this fall,” she said. “Nyiah Courtney is and ever volition beryllium a portion of our schoolhouse community.”