A day after seven D.C. Council members introduced legislation centered on a whole-of-government approach to public safety, a judge sentenced two men to prison for their involvement in Makiyah Wilson’s murder.
As family members of the late Wilson received their justice on Friday, Oct. 6 in D.C. Superior Court, a group of activists gathered not far from there, outside of Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) central headquarters, in search of a similar type of justice for those who had either been killed during encounters with police, or while in police custody.
That afternoon, Tanya Wilson, mother of Lazarus Wilson, took to the microphone atop a yellow truck that had driven protesters from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to police headquarters on Indiana Avenue in Northwest.
Hours earlier, Wilson joined members of Harriet’s Wildest Dreams and the relatives of other young men who had been killed by D.C. police officers in front of the DOJ. Families represented in what’s known as the Coalition of Concerned Mothers included that of Lazarus Wilson, Kevin Hargraves-Shird, Delaneo Martin, Jeffrey Price, Troy “TJ” Bullock, Jamaal Byrd, Gary Hopkins, Jr. Deon Kay, An’Twan Gilmore, and Korryn Gaines, who police killed in 2016 in Baltimore County, Maryland.
In her public remarks in front of D.C. police headquarters, Wilson spoke directly to Lieutenant Jason Bagshaw, commander of MPD’s special operations unit.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia declined to prosecute Bagshaw for shooting and killing Lazarus Wilson at the D.C. Wharf while off-duty in the summer of 2022. Critics pointed to the lack of a grand jury investigation and consideration of the circumstances surrounding Wilson’s use of a firearm. They also noted missing elements of the case that had initially appeared in an MPD press release and questioned why MPD officials didn’t record Bagshaw’s alcohol intake at the scene of the shooting.
Bagshaw, who has garnered a reputation among District activists as an abusive officer, was reportedly sitting in a police vehicle near Harriet’s Wildest Dreams and the Coalition of Concerned Mothers. Both she and Nee Nee Taylor of Harriet’s Wildest Dreams pointed at Bagshwaw’s presence as an egregious sign of disrespect.
Wilson didn’t mince words for those involved in the decision not to prosecute Bagshaw.
“I’m a mother who had to see my child put into the ground. My son was a good father [who was] making things better,” Wilson said.
“My whole life has been turned around and it won’t be the same again. We have no joy, no peace, no happiness. I hope the people in [the Marion S. Barry Building] will make things right. They didn’t interview anyone concerning my son. No one interviewed the witnesses — just Bagshaw and his wife.”
In New Bill, At-Large Council Member White Asks for Cooperation
D.C. Council member Robert White (D-At large)’s Whole Government Response to Crime Act counts as the first of a series of public safety bills he plans to introduce. He told the Informer that future bills will address crime prevention and community recovery from violence.
Elements of White’s current bill aim to boost the government’s response to crime by improving 911 operations and response via a task force that provides recommendations, expanding staffing at the D.C. Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS), tracking the flow of firearms coming into the District, and creating a full–time victim services coordinator to connect residents with legal aid, mental health support, and assistance with medical bills and funeral expenses.
White’s bill also installs an emerging adults director who will develop a strategy to coordinate the efforts of the Office of the State Superintendent of Education’s Re-engagement Center, the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement’s Pathways Program, and other programs geared toward young adults in the District.
Through the bill, a hospitality working group would also develop solutions to violence gripping nightlife corridors while District agencies would be required to collect data on the effectiveness of violence prevention programs.
Co-sponsors include D.C. Council members Kenyan McDuffie (I-At large), Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1), Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), Matt Frumin (D-Ward 3), Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), and Charles Allen (D-Ward 6).
White noted that the majority support on the council solidifies the passage of the bill, which he touted as a means of ensuring that ongoing programs and entities are working together and at an optimal level.
“Programs exist in siloes and not a lot of young people know about them,” White said. “The programs maximize effectiveness by working in concert. The folks they would have to work with are young folks themselves — those who are taking the wrong road need different things. We need to create programs that work for them and we need a strategy to implement coordination.”
Police Commit Violence Too, Lawyer Says
As of Oct. 10, MPD has recorded a 38% increase in homicides from the previous years and a doubling of motor vehicle theft.
Since the start of her third term, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has been at odds with the D.C. Council about how to tackle public safety. She has been locked in step with Pinto, the council’s public safety and justice chair who shepherded the passage of emergency legislation this summer and recently introduced other legislation that has caught some residents’ ire.
Days before At-large Council member White announced his legislation, Pinto hosted a committee hearing about the beleaguered D.C. Office of Unified Communications, which has been criticized for not answering calls, dispatching emergency personnel to the wrong locations, and inaccurately relaying information.
DFS and MPD has faced an equal share of controversy, with an unaccredited lab and officers’ violations of Fourth Amendment rights causing the USAO to decline prosecuting 2 out of 3 arrestees in 2022. When it comes to DFS, White said the lack of accreditation has precluded the agency from competing with Maryland and Virginia for the top talent.
For some people, like Andrew O. Clarke, police officers’ violation of rights also cannot be overlooked in conversations about how to improve public safety.
Clarke, an attorney for the families of Lazarus Wilson and Dalaneo Martin, a teenager killed by U.S. Park Police earlier this year, has worked to secure prosecution for police officers who kill civilians. On Friday, he spoke about these efforts at length in front of D.C. police headquarters.
In his statement atop the yellow truck, he explained what he described as a systemic failure to hold police officers accountable when they kill civilians, and how that reverberates throughout a community that’s already starved for resources.
“The success and development of our community is prevented when the laws don’t protect us from state-sanctioned violence,” Clarke said. “The Coalition of Concerned Mothers has faced adversity that’s unique to having to bury someone you brought into this world. Knowing that the state-sanctioned killings are made to be legal exacerbates this. The killers are in our communities.”
