Police were called to the 300 block of Franklin Street near Edgewood Recreation Center in Northeast D.C. on Saturday after shots were fired, and officials say they are now searching for two juvenile males last seen wearing black. No injuries have been reported in connection with the shooting.
According to WJLA, D.C. officials said police are seeking the two teens as part of the investigation into the gunfire near the recreation center. The outlet reported that, as of its coverage, police had not reported any injuries resulting from the shooting.
Edgewood Recreation Center itself is a relatively new fixture in the Ward 5 neighborhood. The facility underwent an $18 million modernization project that wrapped up in December 2019, giving the community access to a 19,000-square-foot recreation hub, per D.C.'s Department of Parks and Recreation.
Another Teen Shooting Outside a DC Rec Center
The Franklin Street incident is not the only recent case of gunfire near a D.C. recreation facility involving a young person. A teen boy was injured in a shooting outside the Kennedy Recreation Center in Northwest D.C., according to FOX 5 DC. That station reported officers responded around 7:13 p.m. to the 1300 block of 7th Street Northwest, where they found the teen suffering from a gunshot wound. Police did not say whether that shooting was random or targeted, FOX 5 DC noted.
A String of Juvenile Crime Reports Across the District
The Edgewood shooting follows a recent stretch of juvenile-involved incidents reported around the city. D.C. Police sent out two alerts about four juveniles involved in two separate robberies along M Street in Southwest and I Street in Southeast, with one of the juveniles reportedly carrying a weapon, WJLA reported in a separate story on community reaction to the spree.
Data compiled by DC Witness shows the share of homicides and non-fatal shootings perpetrated by people aged 15 to 20 climbed from about 11.38% in 2021-22 to 21.43% in 2023-24. Over that same span, DC Witness found the percentage of crime victims in that same 15-to-20 age range actually declined, falling from 33.33% in 2022-23 to 23.81% in 2023-24.
Citywide Crime Trends Show a Mixed Picture
Broader numbers reported by DC News Now paint a mixed trend for crime across the District. Violent crime was reported up 10% from the previous year, while assaults with a deadly weapon were reported up 40%, according to figures cited by DC News Now. At the same time, the outlet reported the overall crime rate had fallen 15% and car thefts had dropped 44%, while property crimes overall fell 17% from a year earlier.
No further details on the identities of the two juveniles sought near Edgewood Recreation Center, or on the circumstances that led to the gunfire, have been released.
