In a letter to the D.C. Council, Mayor Muriel Bowser says she’s directing the Metropolitan Police Department to use as much overtime as necessary after a weekend of violence.

Six-year-old Nyiah Courtney was killed by stray gunfire on Friday night as she walked home with her family in Congress Heights. The next night, three people were shot outside Nationals Park. The gunshots echoed into the stadium, prompting panic among fans and players who believed the shooter to be inside.

“Over the past year, the District of Columbia has been grappling with a sustained increase in gun violence,” Bowser wrote in the letter. “The terrible incidents of this past weekend, including the tragic murder of (Nyiah), illustrates how far we still must go to address the brazen shooters in our neighborhoods.”

Nyiah is the youngest homicide victim in the city so far this year, and her death comes as the city grapples with a sustained spike in killings — 2020 had the highest homicide count in D.C. in 15 years, at nearly 200 people, and 2021 is on track to meet that number with 103 killings to date. Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White called for the mayor to declare a state of emergency over the killings after the fatal shootings of three teenagers in the span of a month.

Bowser wrote that neighbors in communities most impacted by gun violence “want to see a strong, sustained police presence.”

“They do not feel safe while the threat of gun violence looms,” she wrote. “My charge to our police officers is to keep our communities safe and bring to justice those responsible for terrorizing our neighborhoods, threatening our families, and harming our residents.”

Bowser’s letter is the latest move in an ongoing battle with the council over police resources.

Last year, the council mandated that police report overtime use on a monthly basis, after MPD sent a $43 million overtime bill because of protests. Amid calls from activists to defund the police, the council cut some of MPD’s budget (though it’s debatable how much was actually cut), and passed emergency police reform legislation.

Bowser’s letter indicates that OT will continue unless the hiring picks up.

“Expanding and maintaining these increased police deployments in our communities during a year of no police hiring requires a corresponding increase in overtime,” Bowser wrote. “But while the use of overtime is a necessary tool, it is not an ideal solution as it results in the burnout of officers.

“The better solution is to fully staff our police force.”

The council’s budget didn’t fund the service levels the mayor requested this year and last year. Bowser has consistently asked for a 3,800-officer police force, but the council has pushed back on that. Activists say that the city has more police officers — 55 per every 10,000 people — than any other comparable city.

Many anti-police activists say Bowser’s move is essentially giving the department a blank check when more policing will not fix systemic issues. Several responded to the mayor’s tweet about the overtime.

A police car was nearby the scene where Courtney was killed Friday night with officers arriving seconds after the shooting began. Officers were also near Nationals Park Saturday.

“The issue isn’t a lack of police presence,” ANC Commissioner Salim Adofo told the New York Times. “The issue is that people don’t care.”

Martin Austermuhle contributed to this report.