WASHINGTON — In Woodland Terrace, the sounds of children playing basketball and chimes from the ice cream truck gave Chauncey Anderson a little nostalgia.
“This is my hood,” he said.
Anderson visited his old Southeast Washington neighborhood to catch up with old friends – those who remain.
He moved away recently to escape the violence.
“It wasn’t too, too serious. Like, I ain’t never get shot,” Anderson said. “I got shot at plenty of times, but, luckily I never got hit.”
Anderson said the neighborhood was so dangerous, he felt the need to carry a gun, even as a teenager. The gun was to protect himself and friends in the neighborhood.
“It’s stupid. It’s just stupid. Dudes have issues over the smallest stuff like females. You might’ve stepped on my shoes or something, looked at me the wrong way,” Anderson said, talking about what triggers some neighborhood violence. “Like, my father could’ve just died. I might be going through something right now and you’re worried about how I’m looking at you.”
He said even at school, you might run into people from different neighborhoods who had a problem with you.
“Something might go on. You going to fight at school, but after school, it might change,” he said.
Anderson was arrested twice, first at 15-years-old, for carrying a firearm. That’s when he realized it was time to drop his weapon and aim for better.
He had a son to raise and at the same time, many of his friends were being murdered.
Read more (via WUSA9)
