Fresh from our "Us or them?" file, Paul Duggan and Clarence Williams of the Washington Post are reporting that there was a stabbing at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., yesterday during African-American Family Day. The victim was identified by police only as "a young male, possibly a juvenile." A zoo spokewoman said that the victim left the zoo on his own. He was later found by police on Connecticut Avenue near the zoo entrance.
Pete Piringer, a D.C. fire department spokesman, said that the victim was found bleeding shortly after 4 p.m. outside an apartment building in the 2900 block of Connecticut Avenue NW. He described the wounds as possibly life-threatening.
Zoo spokeswoman Lindsay Renick Mayer said that the zoo's police force arrested a suspect, who was turned over to the D.C. police. The suspect was not immediately identified. The fight in the zoo broke out about 3:30 p.m. in the vicinity of the small-mammal house, authorities said. Zoo spokeswoman Jodi Legge said that the zoo's police force ejected an unspecified number of people, many of them juveniles, as a result of the fight. There were 25,000 people in attendance.
Unfortunately, it takes only one bad apple to spoil the bunch. The event is packed with children and geared toward families. Yet and still, some knucklehead teenagers want to re-enact the rumble in West Side Story. Fighting in general is a horrible idea, and stabbing someone, especially on African-American Family Day at a world-famous zoo, is unacceptable.
We won't even comment about having African-American Family Day at the National Zoo, which seems oxymoronic for the Chocolate City. We won't mention that this take place the day after Easter Sunday. This entire situation is embarrassing, in our best fifth-grade voice.
Read more at the Washington Post.
In other news: Black Civil Rights and Gay Marriage: New Film Explores Link.
Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.