13 hurt in D.C. shooting: bullets sprayed a group of people outside of Tyler House low-income housing project in Washington, D.C., Saturday night in a drive-by shooting. The project is due for $25 million in renovations as the trendy NoMa neighborhood flourishes nearby—but some are skeptical that will make it a safer place.
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Police are still searching for a dark-colored BMW and a light-colored sedan in connection with a drive-by shooting outside the crime-riddled Tyler House apartment complex in Washington, D.C., Saturday night.
One person was shot in the back, but not killed, and 12 others sustained injuries that were not serious—the bullets mostly hit extremities or only grazed people, reported the Associated Press.
Tyler House is no stranger to crime—in October of last year, seven people were shot within seven days near the housing project. It sits between two worlds: the many night clubs that generate crime and violence in the North Capitol Street and New York Avenue area, and the realm of young professionals in their condominiums surrounded by trendy restaurants in NoMa (a neighborhood named for its location “north of Massachusetts Avenue”).
In November 2012, Bates Area Civic Association reported on a $25 million face lift for Tyler House set to begin in 2013.
“We’re trying to organizing better the traffic of the building,” Israel Roizman, who has owned the building for 17 years, told the association. “That creates better overseeing, management, security.”
He said the security issues are due to the surrounding area and not a problem directly in Tyler House.
As luxury apartments sprout up around it, Roizman said he will not sell the building or follow the trend: “I'll keep it low-income … Why shouldn’t people with less income live in a nice area?”
Tonya Bridges, 36, one of the approximately 280 Tyler House residents, told the Washington Post she wants out of the area: “I’m saving up my money—because I got a baby on the way—so I can get out of here.”
Commander Andy Solberg told The Washington Post, “You won’t get the violence down as much as you'd like until you do something about Tyler House.”
Solberg said that when people leave the nearby night clubs, “a whole lot of people with cash in their pockets come out onto the street, and the guys from Tyler House are waiting for them. That’s when you get the holdups and that’s the source of the shootings in the neighborhood.”
