Police Chief Cathy Lanier speaks at a press conference regarding the homicide of D.C. journalist Charnice Milton. (Photo by Hamzat Sani)
The Metropolitan Police Department is stepping up efforts to solve a homicide case involving a D.C. journalist who was killed last year. Tomorrow evening, on the anniversary of the fatal shooting of Charnice Milton, D.C. police officers will hand out fliers to passerby at the intersection of Good Hope and Naylor Roads SE, in hopes of getting the final tip needed to make an arrest.
The 27-year-old reporter for Capital Community News loved her family, work, and community, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said at a press conference this afternoon. The gathering of community members, police officers, and media took place near the site of Milton’s murder. “There is nobody that deserves justice more than Charnice Milton,” Lanier said.
Milton was shot last May while changing buses on her way home from covering a community meeting. The incident took place in the 2700 block of Good Hope Road SE around 9:40 p.m. Police said that someone on a dirt bike fired at her, but she wasn’t the intended target. Her family members have said that she was used as a human shield.
A month after the incident, police released video footage from a nearby surveillance camera showing a group of vehicles, some with two riders, driving through the street.
Over the course of the year, MPD has received tips regarding the case, Lanier said. And the department has gotten a “renewed surge of information” after releasing nearly 250 photos of people caught illegally driving dirt bikes and ATVs last month. Still, only a small number of people, those who were present that night, know the facts, she continued.
With the Skyland Town Center development in eyeshot of where Milton was killed, revitalization is coming to this area of Ward 7, Milton’s father Kenneth McClenton told DCist. However, crime still occurs far too often here, he said.
While there has only been a two percent increase in homicides across D.C. since last year, communities east of the Anacostia River, particularly in Ward 7 have seen a much higher rise.
McClenton and his wife, Milton’s mother, have launched the Open Heart Close Case campaign that not only serves as an awareness platform about their daughter’s murder, but also other unsolved homicides in the District. “When we choose to drive along this busy intersection and not get involved because it’s not my baby who died—that has to come to an end,” McClenton said. His family is looking for satisfaction “that can only come through justice.”
Tomorrow, McClenton is hosting a vigil at 7:40 p.m., which will be followed by the MPD’s awareness event at 9:40 p.m at the intersection of Good Hope and Naylor Roads SE.
