The Washington Times is reporting that the mother of Brishell Jones, one of 6 young people killed in a drive-by shooting on South Capitol Street in 2010, has filed a lawsuit against many city agencies including the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, the Metropolitan Police Department, and the D.C Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.
Nardyne Jeffries says the fatal shooting was the result of “gross negligence, racial discrimination and indifference” by the agencies.
One of the victims killed in the same shooting that claimed Brishell’s life, 18-year-old Devaughn Boyd, also was under the care of DYRS, which continues to struggle with guard beatings and youth escapes from custody at the New Beginnings Youth Development Center in Laurel.
An internal report by the D.C. Office of the Attorney General (OAG), which also is named in the lawsuit, concluded last year that DYRS could have prevented Carter’s release from jail, where he was serving time for adult convictions. The report found DYRS lacking in monitoring its juvenile wards and said its “procedures and practices favor release to the community without regard to the youth’s needs, prior criminal acts or potential for re-offending.”
The lawsuit accuses the MPD and Chief of Police Cathy Lanier of failing to protect the community from “anticipated and expected” retaliatory violence after homicides in a manner that constitutes racial discrimination against the predominantly black residents of Wards 7 and 8.
It also targets Fire and EMS for an alleged failure to adequately transport Brishell to the nearest hospital and charges that the ambulance operators “chose to run personal errands” before dispatching to the scene when they first received the emergency call.
