Outraged community members attend town hall on missing persons in D.C.
WASHINGTON (ABC7) — A young person was in tears as she stood before Mayor Muriel Bowser and Police Chief Peter Newsham on Wednesday night at Excel Academy Public Charter School.
She was expressing her concerns about the number of young people listed on the Metropolitan Police Department’s list of missing persons.
“The disturbing fact that we all need to be aware of is that we do have that many kids in our city that go missing and it has been that way for a long time,” said Newsham.
Newsham told the audience that there isn’t a rise in cases, but an improvement in the way the cases are reported.
“In December of last year, I promoted Chanel Dickerson to our Youth and Family Services Division . what she started to do, is that she started to put those images on social media,” said Newsham.
There were several testimonies from members of the community, including a mother whose daughter ran away several times, a woman who said her brother was found murdered after being reported missing and another woman who said her mother still hasn’t been found after 25 years.
Derrick Butler also has a connection to the topic. His sister hasn’t been seen since February 12th, 2009 in Northwest Washington.
“My mother is getting up in age, before anything happens to her. She wants to know what happened,” said Butler.
“We hashtag the problem, but what’s the solution?” asked 93.9 WKYS’ DJ QuickSilva.
