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Shooting outside D.C. postal facility is tied to domestic dispute

A pregnant woman pulled up to work with her baby’s expectant father and saw another woman with a child by the same man, according to charging documents

May 9, 2023 at 6:11 p.m. EDT
2 min

By the police’s account, a pregnant Davida Johnson pulled up to work at a U.S. Postal Service facility in D.C. on Monday morning with her baby’s expectant father and saw another woman waiting there with her own child by the same man.

Johnson got out of the car, according to charging documents released Tuesday, and the woman approached her and screamed: “I’m going to kick that baby out of your stomach!”

Johnson, a 25-year-old Postal Service employee, drew her handgun, pointed it at the woman and pulled the trigger, police said.

The woman was struck and injured in the arm and buttocks; Johnson was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.

A judge ordered her held in D.C. jail until her next hearing, scheduled for Friday.

The incident is an example of what public safety officials in D.C. say is happening at an alarming rate: residents responding to disputes by using a gun.

“When I took this position, it was mostly believed that gun violence was rooted in feuding communities,” Linda Harllee Harper, director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention and the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, said in an April interview with The Washington Post. “But now, it is interpersonal disputes that are solved with a gun. . . . That is hard to get in front of.”

She noticed her scooter was gone. Then she heard gunshots.

District officials have been under pressure to curb crime as the city is on track to surpass 200 homicides for the third consecutive year. Other categories of crime have also increased since the same time last year, with violent crime up by 10 percent and property crime up by 30 percent.

In court Tuesday, public defender Kavya Naini argued that Johnson, a mother of three small children, had no prior arrests and should be released from jail until trial.

Naini said Johnson acted out of self-defense during her encounter at the facility with the woman who was shot and two other people who had arrived with her to allegedly confront Johnson.

“Ms. Johnson was threatened with physical action that not only endangered herself, but another life as well,” Naini said, referencing the pregnancy.

But Magistrate Judge Judith Pipe said “mere words” were not justification for deadly force. The judge described events captured on a security camera.

“Video shows that the victim walks up to her, drops a cellphone and Ms. Johnson fires twice,” Pipe said. “I have no evidence of self-defense.”