A local reporter gunned down in a Southeast D.C. neighborhood while on her way home from work was not the intended target of the shooting, according to D.C. police.
Charnice Milton, a 27-year-old reporter with Capital Community News, was fatally shot around 9:41 p.m. Wednesday while walking in the 2700 block of Good Hope Road. D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said Ms. Milton was transferring between buses when someone opened fire, striking and fatally injuring her.
“Wrong place, wrong time,” Chief Lanier said. “She was on her way home, doing what she did every single day.”
Capital Community News, for which Ms. Milton had worked since 2012, reported that she had been out covering a community meeting in Eastern Market earlier that evening.
On Thursday, Chief Lanier said the shooter may have been riding a dirt bike through the area at the time, and encouraged anyone who may have witnessed the shooting to come forward.
“Help us get to the person who would be so reckless as to take this young woman’s life in the manner in which it was taken,” Chief Lanier said. “This kind of random violence cannot continue.”
Ms. Milton was a graduate of Ball State University, and she earned a master’s degree in journalism from Syracuse University.
“Charnice was a talented reporter with an engaging manner that endeared her to her sources,” wrote managing editor Andrew Lightman on CCN’s website.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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