The Washington Post - 07.08.2019

A 2018 FBI analysis of 63

active shooters found that the

youngest was 12 and the oldest

88. The average age was 37.
    About 63 percent were white,
    16 percent black, 10 percent
    Asian and 6 percent Hispanic.
    And 3 percent were Middle
    Eastern.
    The group was 94 percent
    male.
    Also, 5 percent had master’s
    or doctorate degrees, 7 percent
    had a bachelor’s degree,
    11 percent had attended some
    college, and 20 percent had
    graduated from high school
    only. The 12-year-old had never
    SEE MILLOY ON B5

and hundreds of mass killings

later, I know nothing useful

about these attackers. In the

Washington region, which is on

perpetual terrorist watch, all I

know about the culprits comes

from a sketchy profile of who

commits the most attacks: a

white male with a grievance and

a gun. Even in the active-shooter

videos it’s always a white male.

That’s about as useful to me

as a police APB for a black youth

with a hoodie.

We talk a lot about white men

in the aftermath of these

killings. But does anybody talk

to them?

Here’s what we’re told:

But there’s virtually nothing

about their motives.

What makes a teenager into a

mass killer? How can you get

that angry in just a few years

after being born? Why would

anyone want to turn an outdoor

concert into a killing field? A

garlic festival into a bloodbath?

A school into a slaughterhouse?

What goes through the head

of a person while he’s planning

to turn a shopping center in El

Paso into a shooting gallery?

Makes someone don military

gear and weaponry to wage war

on civilians in Dayton, Ohio?

Two decades after the

massacre at Columbine High

I could sure use

some help

understanding

“active shooters.”

Does anybody

know why they

kill?

I’ve watched

several active-

shooter emergency preparation

videos — called Run, Hide and

Fight — sponsored by the

Department of Homeland

Security. They depict horrifying

reenactments of such attacks at

the workplace.

You can feel a chill just

watching how methodically they

go about the homicidal work.

KLMNO

METRO

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/REGIONAL EZ SU B

JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON

In 1953, a teenager lied to

his parents, faked his age

and entered a race that

didn’t go as planned. B3

THE DISTRICT

Police arrested a man

accused of shooting

another man following a

traffic crash. B4

OBITUARIES

Dorothy Olsen was part of

the WASPs, female pilots

who flew for the Army Air

77 ° 83 ° 80 ° 78 ° Forces in World War II. B6

8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.

High today at

approx. 2 p.m.

91

°

Precip: 65%

Wind: SSW

7-14 mph

BY GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER

hampton, va. — One of the

most incongruous of all of Vir-

ginia’s Confederate war memori-

als has come down with the

removal of Jefferson Davis’s

name from an archway at the site

where the first Africans arrived in

Virginia in 1619.

It appears to be the first case of

Virginia eliminating a Confeder-

ate memorial from state-

controlled property since the

2017 white-supremacist rally in

Charlottesville intensified public

dialogue about the issue.

And the action was driven by

Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who is

working to overcome his own

race-related scandal.

“It’s past due,” Gaylene Kanoy-

ton, president of the Hampton

branch of the NAACP, said Tues-

day after a ceremony at the now-

blank metal arch. “The first Afri-

cans arrived here at Fort Monroe,

and it’s important we didn’t have

Jefferson Davis up here. I mean,

SEE MEMORIAL ON B5

BY ANTONIO OLIVO

The Trump administration

wants to bring more unaccompa-

nied minors to Northern Virginia

and other parts of the country to

relieve overcrowded detention

centers at a southern border that

officials say has reached “a break-

ing point.”

In a formal solicitation posted

last week, the General Services

Administration says it needs to

lease long-term space in North-

ern Virginia, enough to house

about 440 children who have

arrived in the United States ille-

gally without a parent or guard-

ian. That would increase the

number of children being held in

federally funded shelters in Vir-

ginia fourfold.

The Department of Health and

Human Services, which oversees

the care of unaccompanied mi-

nors through its Office of Refugee

Resettlement, is also looking for

vacant space to lease in Los Ange-

les and central Florida, officials

said, though they wouldn’t pro-

vide details on those locations.

SEE SHELTERS ON B2

BY MICHAEL LARIS

About 1 in 15 miles driven in

the District is in an Uber or Lyft

vehicle, according to a study that

offers long-sought details of the

services’ impact on traffic in

urban areas.

Supporters of the ride-hailing

apps have long billed them as a

way to ease traffic woes by en-

couraging people to give up their

personal vehicles or leave them

parked. But company data re-

leased this week demonstrate

how t he firms represent a signifi-

cant part of the traffic mix.

Company officials emphasized

that their operations represent

just a fraction of overall driving

in the Washington region and

the other cities that were part of

the study, which was conducted

by the transportation firm Fehr

& Peers and funded by Uber and

Lyft. The study also looked at

Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles,

San Francisco and Seattle.

Uber and Lyft “are likely con-

tributing to an increase in con-

gestion,” Chris Pangilinan,

SEE TRAFFIC ON B3

BY PETER JAMISON

AND JUSTIN WM. MOYER

Plans for a new halfway house

in Northeast Washington are un-

settled l ess t han 90 d ays before the

city’s current facility is scheduled

to close, alarming activists who

say the District risks being left

without reentry services for men

returning from prison.

Hope Village, the longtime

manager of the city’s only halfway

house for men exiting the federal

prison system, is on track to cease

operating Oct. 31. The U. S. Bureau

of Prisons last year selected the

nonprofit Core D C to replace Hope

Village, which h as been dogged by

complaints that it hasn’t provided

adequate security or services.

Core was supposed to take over

reentry services under a five-year,

$60 million contract to operate a

facility for 300 men at 3400 New

York Ave. NE. Its plans have come

close to collapsing, faced with op-

position from neighborhood ac-

tivists and D.C. Council member

Kenyan R. McDuffie (D-Ward 5),

whose ward would host the new

reentry c enter.

McDuffie — who repeatedly

wrote letters to federal officials

last fall opposing the new halfway

house — recently reversed course

and dropped objections to Core’s

proposal. But prominent District

developer Douglas Jemal backed

out of a tentative agreement to

lease the property in December,

creating uncertainty about its fate.

Hope Village also has chal-

lenged the contract award. The

federal Government Accountabil-

ity Office recommended in Febru-

ary that the P risons Bureau r evisit

its decision to award the contract,

but i t’s unclear how long that proc-

ess w ill t ake.

Advocates say ex-offenders

could be sent to halfway houses

outside t he D istrict if Hope V illage

closes without a replacement.

“It’s going to be a crisis because

we’re on the verge of losing the

male residential reentry services

in D.C. because of political she-

nanigans and because of Doug

Jemal,” s aid the Rev. G raylan Scott

Hagler, a minister in Northeast

Washington.

Ron Moten, a longtime

anti-violence activist in Southeast

Washington, said he and others

were shocked by Jemal’s decision

to renege on the letter of intent

with Core, in part because the

SEE REENTRY ON B4

Virginia

removes

name at

key site

GSA seeks

space for

migrant

children

ACTION IS ‘PAST DUE,’

OFFICIALS SAY

Jefferson Davis memorial

no longer at Ft. Monroe

What’s missing from these massacres? A reason.

Courtland

Milloy

Study: Uber, Lyft play

role in urban congestion

D.C. may be left without halfway house for men exiting prison

BY REBECCA TAN

T

he homemade powder, called kumkum, that

Venkat Rachakulla and Lakshmi Ginnela applied

on their daughter’s forehead was meant to en-

hance her intuition. The yellow turmeric, which

the couple bought from a local Indian grocer and

sprinkled regularly into her food, was supposed to keep her

healthy. And the tiny gold bangles were a gift from the

baby’s grandparents in Hyderabad, India — a way f or them

to send good fortune.

These items were meant to keep 1-year-old Vaishnavi

safe.

But it turned out they were contaminated with lead and

had raised the lead level in the little girl’s b ody to five times

the amount that federal agencies consider safe.

In recent years, incidents of lead poisoning in places

such as Flint, Mich., and East Chicago, Ind., have brought

an old public health problem back into the spotlight,

raising awareness of the damage lead-contaminated paint,

water and soil can inflict on the developing neural and

nervous systems of young children.

Far less attention has been paid to other, atypical sources

SEE LEAD ON B2

Familiar items, hidden danger

PHOTOS BY CAROLYN VAN HOUTEN/THE WASHINGTON POST

TOP: Lakshmi Ginnela uses a Maybelline eyeliner instead of

homemade powder to mark daughter Vaishnavi. ABOVE: Venkat

Rachakulla plays with his child at home in Gaithersburg.

New facility in limbo as

current one is set to close