Ward 6 Candidate Responds to Hill East Shootout: “Violence Anywhere Represents a Failure Everywhere.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This past weekend, the Hill East neighborhood was rocked by a shootout that saw over 100 rounds fired into a residential area, striking a local school and nearly killing a child in their bunk bed. Fortunately, nobody was killed but we continue to permit our community to be traumatized by a few hundred repeat violent offenders. The sound of gun fire carries approximately 1-2 miles so both of these incidents directly impacted Ward 6 residents. To be sure, Ward 6 residents experienced this shooting in real time:
Since August 2025, with additional law enforcement presence on our streets, the District has seen a significant drop in murders and that trend has continued in the year-to-date murder rate. In 2025, we still had roughly 50% more murders that we had in 2012 when we had a fully staffed MPD. Any celebration should be tempered in light of this longer view.
This incident is reminiscent of the shooting last summer that took place at the Pentacle Apartments on 15th St NE that also took place on the border of Ward 6. While I’m not aware that Charles Allen has addressed the most recent incident, when he was finally coaxed into a statement on the Pentacle Apartments shooting all he could muster was “this violence didn’t take place in the Ward I represent, violence anywhere deeply impacts Ward 6 neighbors, our city, and is unacceptable.”
This “not my Ward” mindset is a core part of the problem, asserting that the safety of our children should never be contingent on which side of a boundary line they sleep on. Murphy is calling for an immediate restoration of MPD staffing levels coupled with meaningful oversight of MPD’s policies and practices. This is the most likely path to getting the National Guard off of our streets and getting back to policing ourselves.
Relatedly, the MPD’s official crime data demonstrates significant drops in in homicides, sexual abuse, and robbery. MPD’s numbers, however, also show that there has been a 30% increase in Assaults with a Dangerous Weapon (“ADW”). In a March 7 update to his constituents, Charles Allen noted the drops in homicides, sexual abuse, and robberies, but purposely chose to omit any reference to the increase in ADW:
Pulling up on public safety more broadly: DC's crime data is again showing a significant drop in all types of crime, with homicides down 63% year-to-date, sexual assaults down 64%, and robberies down 39%. This is a welcome continuation of the past few years' trends and shows our efforts have been making an impact, and importantly, saving lives. That said, any crime is one too many and can't be normalized.
While it is possible that the District is experiencing a significant uptick in ADW, the more likely explanation is that it is further evidence that MPD had its hand on the tiller when reporting ADW to the public. I was the first to call out this practice in June 2025. Despite numerous active federal investigations, the Council chose to ignore the issue until it finally sent a letter to MPD in December 2025. In that letter, the Council noted:
This week DOJ and House Oversight released draft and preliminary reports, respectively, with allegations of misclassifications of crime data. Our MPD officers work tirelessly everyday under the strain of short staffing to fight crime and improve public safety across the District for residents and visitors. Accuracy in reporting crime statistics is critically important for public trust and for assessing the effectiveness of our public safety interventions. Misclassifications––under- or over-reporting––can put the public trust in jeopardy and could undermine strategies we need to drive down crime.
Despite signing on to a letter professing the need for truth and accuracy in reporting crime statistics as necessary for “public trust,” Councilman Allen continues to obscure and obfuscate the truth surrounding crime in DC. As it did in 2024 and 2025, the Council continues to largely ignore this issue despite the practice of crime stat manipulation seemingly claiming the jobs of the Police Chief and her number two. This issue has created a pretext for the President to deploy troops on our streets, yet the Council sits by idly hoping it will pass.
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About Michael Murphy: Michael Murphy is a 30-year Capitol Hill resident, litigator, and candidate for the D.C. Council representing Ward 6. His platform, Murphy For Ward 6, is focused on restoring public safety, ensuring government transparency, and providing a unified approach to crime that protects every resident of the District. For more information, visit murphyforward6.com/issues.
A crime stats toolkit is available here.
This table shows the crime trends from MPD data from 2024 and 2025.
