Despite lower crime elsewhere, 43 people have been shot and seven of them have died in a rash of violence in and around a Miami public housing project.
Antwan Washington was shot twice. So was Marquise Riley-Asbury, whose life the second bullet ended. Another man was shot as he got off a bus, and still another while in bed at home.
In the first seven months of this year, 43 people living in a 13-square-block area surrounding Miami’s Liberty Square housing project have been shot, police records show. Seven have died.
The victims range in age from 10 to 67. They are men, women and children. Three teenage girls were shot after getting into a fight with three other girls. One man heard gunfire and didn’t know he was shot until he looked down at his ankle.
A pastor was killed fighting off attackers grabbing for his fake gold chain. A grandmother was gunned down outside a grocery store.
Although serious crime is at historically low levels in Miami and across the nation, the number of shootings so far this year in and around the city’s most notorious housing project — one built to create a better life for black residents in Coconut Grove and Overtown following the Great Depression — is staggering compared to recent years.
[…]
