There, lying on the pavement, they saw what turned out to be a 17-year-old girl crying for help as blood poured from her bullet wounds.
And that wasn’t the worst of it. Three doors to Kahn’s left, inside the brick-front townhouse where the teenager had been living, four more young people, including a 3-year-old girl, also had been shot. Of the five victims, many of them siblings, four were hospitalized in critical condition, authorities in Prince William County, Va., said.
The toddler’s wounds were fatal.
Kahn knew nothing of the carnage, at 10:49 a.m. Wednesday, as he and his mother stood just inside the front door of their home in 17900 block of Milroy Drive in Dumfries, 30 miles south of Washington. After a few minutes, despite their fears of another fusillade, they said, they ran to assist the victim in the lot. As they and another neighbor were tending to her, a police officer arrived and, while helping to give first aid, asked the teenager what had happened.
“That’s when she said it was her boyfriend,” Kahn recalled in an interview. “She kept saying it over and over — it was her boyfriend who shot everybody. And I heard her say ‘brown Timberlands’ and ‘black pants,’ because the officer wanted a description.”
A short time later, police arrested Kenyatta Lee Oglesby, 20, of the District, and charged him with one count of murder, four counts of aggravated malicious wounding and five counts of using a firearm to commit a felony. A longtime friend of the victims’ family said in an interview that the shooting apparently stemmed from an argument between Oglesby and the 17-year-old girl over a government-issued subsidy card used to buy food.
Police said Oglesby had been staying at the townhouse recently. Court records show he had failed to show up for a D.C. court hearing in a weapons case in October, and a warrant had been issued for his arrest. Two firearms were recovered in the early hours of the investigation, police said, without elaborating.
The longtime family friend, Alix Grimm, 34, said the youngsters lived in the townhouse with the siblings’ grandmother who was at work at the time of the shooting. Besides the 3-year-old girl, those struck included two 17-year-olds, a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old. Another 14-year-old was also in the house but unharmed, Grimm said.
“I’m just in utter shock,” Grimm said. “I was speechless all day yesterday … It’s outrageous. We’re just confused as to what would make him shoot … over food stamps and go inside and try to kill everyone else. It makes no sense.”
Later, in a Facebook post, she said of the wounded teenagers: “One is able to talk now that she is not intubated. The other 3 are opening their eyes and seem eager to communicate but are currently not able due to breathing tube. All 4 kids have had surgeries and potential for more. But for now are stable. Please continue to pray for the kids and family. There is a long journey ahead.”
Amy Ashworth, the top prosecutor in Prince William County, said that because of the victims’ ages, the case is being handled at the outset in the county’s juvenile and domestic court, where Oglesby made an initial appearance and was ordered held without bond pending a preliminary hearing March 23. It was not immediately clear whether he has entered pleas to the charges or is being represented by a lawyer. Ashworth declined to comment further.
Authorities said Oglesby, who was arrested near the scene of the attack, had been dating the 17-year-old girl. Speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, a law enforcement official also confirmed that Oglesby and the girl had argued about a financial matter Tuesday night and that the dispute carried into Wednesday, culminating in the shooting.
Grimm said the siblings are among eight children of a woman who died. According to neighbors, the youngsters moved into the townhouse several months ago. Grimm said some of the five teenagers who were shot were not in school Wednesday because two had not yet transferred to the Prince William system and one attends school online.
The law enforcement official said investigators think that Oglesby shot the four wounded victims in the basement of the house and that the 17-year-old girl ran outside before being shot in the parking lot.
One of the wounded teenagers wears hearing aids and was shot while sleeping, Grimm said. As for the slain 3-year-old girl, Grimm said that “she was the sweetest, chubby-faced, angelic looking baby and had the sweetest spirit.”
Three doors from the shooting scene, Kahn and his mother, Farzana Kahn, 55, said Thursday that they knew little about the young people who were shot. “They had a lot of get-togethers, like everyone else does, but there was no trouble,” Shahrooz Kahn said “Recently, I saw a lot of teenagers going in and out, but not too many. There were no problems.”
At their kitchen table, Farazana Kahn wrung her hands and said of the youngsters: “Sometimes I see them playing around outside. They are good people. Kids are good. The little girl, the baby, she is a very good little girl.” The Kahns’ doorbell camera had captured audio of the shooting, which they shared with a reporter.
Within minutes of the Kahns and another neighbor reaching the 17-year-old girl in the parking lot, the first police officer on the scene was joined by others as numerous emergency vehicles pulled into the South Cove complex and the cul-de-sac where the gunfire erupted. One officer opened the front door of the townhouse where the teenagers lived and carefully went inside.
“Anyone home?” Shahrooz Kahn heard the officer shout. “Anyone home?”
Moments later, he reappeared at the door, Kahn said.
“He yelled something like: ‘We’re going to need back up! Get back up!’”
Peter Hermann contributed to this report.