His 15-year-old grandson had been killed in a shooting over the Easter weekend, and Victor Leonard was in the District of Columbia Superior Court on Tuesday as the suspect in the death made an initial court appearance. “He’s just a kid himself” was his shell-shocked observation as a slight 17-year-old, dressed in jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt, stood in shackles to face a second-degree murder charge. Maurice Bellamy is accused of pulling out a gun and – for no reason whatsoever – shooting Davonte Washington as he waited with his mother and sisters for a Metro train at the Deanwood station in Northeast last Saturday.
How could someone so young be capable of such mindless violence? How did he get a gun? Were there things that could have been done to prevent the tragedy? And are there steps that need to be taken to prevent other young lives from being lost and ruined? Those are the questions that need to be answered as Washington – like other urban areas – struggles with a wave of gun violence that disproportionately affects young black men.
According to authorities, the two youths did not know each other. Charging papers by prosecutors detail a split-second chain of events in which Maurice confronts Davonte. “What the f— you keep looking at me for?” the older teen said, according to the documents, before pulling out a gun and shooting the younger boy twice in the torso. “Absolutely no reason for it,” said Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier. Davonte, a student at Largo High School who was leaning toward a career in the military, was described as a “great athlete” who was “liked by everybody.”
Not a lot is known about his accused killer. Charging documents cite the use of a juvenile offender database in helping identify him as a suspect, and documents obtained by Post reporters show he was arrested in 2014 for making threats against an employee at Ballou High School. He was placed on probation and spent time in a shelter home in Northwest Washington. But his probation had ended at the time of the killing. Court officials routinely review cases in which defendants re-offend so officials who came into contact with this young man will try to determine if there were signs that were missed.
And because this tragedy is a textbook case of how easily petty matters – like a wrong look – can turn deadly when guns are easily available, we hope officials find out all they can about the gun used to snuff out the life of a boy on his way to get a haircut in time for Easter.
