There have been 117 homicides in D.C. so far this year. Of those, 74 were killed in Wards 7 and 8.
Still, the only hospital east of the Anacostia River — United Medical Center — has no trauma center to treat victims of violent crime and other life-threatening emergencies. The four hospitals in the District that treat trauma victims around the clock are all located in affluent Northwest Washington.
October 30, 2018 was different—that was the day the job got personal for Beverly Smith-Brown. She works for the Alliance of Concerned Men, where she’s on alert 24-hours a day, seven days a week, to respond when residents suffer gunshot and stab wounds in Southeast D.C. While working as a trauma-informed advocate at a crime scene in Ward 8, she got a phone call from her sister: Her nephew, 25-year-old Taquan Smith, was shot multiple times on Alabama Avenue SE…
Danielle Lloyd endured pregnancy in the food and maternal care desert that is Southeast D.C. She worried about the 40-minute drive from her home to the hospital.
