Ted Harsha, owner of the Animal Crackers Cafe across Connecticut Avenue NW from the zoo, had been watching the entrance and saw a large crowd of young people waiting to cross the road, maybe a hundred or more. Then, he heard the gunshots. "It was like someone unloading a gun. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!" he said. ". . . There was a stampede of kids running when the shots rang out."
Moments later, Tanya Walker knelt by a youth lying outside the zoo gate with head injuries. "I actually touched his arm. He had a pulse. He was talking, moving his lips, talking to the paramedics," she said.
It was minutes past 6 p.m. at the National Zoo, and an 11-year-old boy lay gravely wounded.
He and five other children, ages 11 to 15, were sent to hospitals across the city with gunshot wounds.
The shootings marred a tradition that has lasted more than a century, the celebration of Easter Monday by African American families at the National Zoo. This year's event began with promise, sunshine and moderate temperatures. Squealing children searched for eggs hidden under straw, families cheered storytellers and animal trainers, and visitors swayed to jazz and gospel tunes in a light spring breeze.
But hours before dusk, the scene at the zoo had darkened. Police helicopters hovered in the sky as teenagers searched the crowd below for missing younger siblings. Detectives collected shell casings from the sidewalk, and the D.C. police chief spoke of possible gang activity. Across the street, little children sat crying in the Animal Crackers Cafe.
Last night, police were saying that the rupture of the day apparently began with a fistfight among roving groups of youths.
Nate Lyles, 37, was at the zoo with his daughter, Shakia, 11. They were visiting the reptile exhibit and "next thing you see is 10 guys, then 20 guys all getting together looking like they were starting to fight," Lyles said. "They were fighting and swinging, and you know how kids are, everybody went up to see the fight." He said he grabbed his daughter and headed for the exit.
"Next thing I heard was shots fired," he said.
A 17-year-old zoo employee, who would not give his name, said he was just getting off work when he saw a group of youths yelling and swinging at each other. After the gunfire erupted, he said, the youths started running and yelling: "They hit someone! They hit someone!"
Later in the evening, several families rushed to the emergency entrance of Children's Hospital, where a doctor told reporters three children were in critical condition. The condition of two of the patients later was upgraded to serious but stable.
One woman, wearing a yellow shirt and brown print skirt, stood barefoot next to her blue sedan and cried as three young men came up to comfort her.
Hazel Brown, of the District, came to the hospital looking for her 18-year-old son William, who works at the zoo handing out strollers to parents. She said William's father telephoned her from North Carolina, saying he heard the news about the shooting and wanted to know if William was all right.
"I haven't heard from him at all," she said. "They're not telling me anything. Nobody is giving out any names. They're not giving me any information."
About two minutes later, as Brown stood with reporters, her cellular phone rang. It was William. He was at home, safe.
Brown started crying and told her son, "I'm at the hospital trying to get some info and I thought you were here." She turned to reporters and said, "He's okay," then went back to her phone conversation. "I'm on my way, okay? Just stay in the house, okay?"
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) came out to talk to reporters after meeting with family members of the injured children. Norton was visibly shaken, and her eyes welled with tears.
She said of the boy who was most seriously wounded: "I have never seen a child in this condition before. We're all hoping and praying for him.
"Gunshot wounds in a children's hospital, that's a wake-up call," she said.
Police cordoned off a three-block area around the zoo as they searched for suspects.
As D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey briefed reporters, a man in the crowd, who said he had been paged at work by his family, pleaded with Ramsey to check on his 14-year-old: "Can you see if my son was there?"
Ramsey came back about 10 minutes later and shook the man's hand. "Your son wasn't a victim in this," he said.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
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6 Youths Wounded in Gunfire at Zoo
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