The decision came nearly three weeks after Jan. 1. The July 7 shooting of Karen Blake heightened tensions in Washington as residents, activists and lawmakers demanded that the shooter be identified and held accountable.
The incident happened shortly before 4 a.m. in the 1000 block of Quincy Street NE, across the street from Brooklands Middle School, where Karon attended.
A man who lived on the street told investigators he confronted the 13-year-old after hearing voices and seeing the youth and possibly others break into the vehicle, authorities said. Two other people appeared to have fled, police said, and there was no indication Karen was armed.
Smith said in a statement that his client maintains his innocence. He described the incident as a tragedy and asserted that Lewis “has dedicated his career to mentoring and supporting young people in the District of Columbia, which only adds to his grief over Karen Black’s death.”
Washington, D.C. officials previously said Lewis was suspended from his $75,000-a-year job in the entertainment sector. Records show he has worked for the city for the past 17 years.
Police have previously declined to elaborate on what the gunman told police about his interactions with Karen, or what other evidence they had gathered about the encounter. They also wouldn’t say how many shots were fired, or how many times Cuarón was hit.
Authorities said the man called 911 after shooting Karen and performed CPR when police arrived. They said his firearm was legally registered and he had a concealed carry permit. Authorities have been exploring whether he acted out of fear for his life.
Some activists likened the shooting to vigilantism and criticized the shooter for killing an unarmed teen over a possible property crime.
“Black children deserve to live,” Black Swan Academy, a nonprofit that supports local black youth as civic leaders, said in a statement. “They should be able to make mistakes and learn from them.”
Committee Member Robert C. White Jr. (D-at large), tweets When he was 13, “I got into a lot of trouble. Made a lot of bad choices. And lived to learn from them. A lot of us did. Caron was shot. His family lost a child, his Friends are permanently hurt. This can’t be who we are as a city.”
D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Conti III had previously urged patience during the investigation and expressed outrage at what he said were Internet detectives’ erroneous attempts to identify the then-unidentified shooter, who, like Cuarón, was African-American people.
DC Commissioner Zachary Parker, a newly elected Democrat in the 5th District, which includes the Brooklands neighborhood where Karon was killed, has repeatedly urged police to provide more information, including the name of the shooter.
In an interview earlier this month, Parker said the police “leaved a wound that was left to fester and allowed misinformation to spread widely.” Earlier, he told The Washington Post, “Based on the Given the facts, it seems reasonable to expect him to be prosecuted.”
at the latest At a community meeting at the Turkey Thicket Recreation Center adjacent to Brooklands Middle School, residents took turns expressing anger at the police. Karen’s grandfather, Sean Lang, told the crowd that if his grandson had been White, the gunman would have been arrested immediately.
“I didn’t know you could get a gun license and shoot people who were ramming cars,” Long said at a community meeting shortly after the shooting. He added, “I’m black. If I killed a white boy on that street, they’d put me in jail.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.