Youth stabbed in fight at National Zoo [African American Family Day tradition]
Washington Post ^ | April 25, 2011 | Paul Duggan and Martin Weil with Pat Sullivan and Clarence Williams
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A teenager was stabbed and seriously wounded in a fight Monday at the National Zoo as the zoo marked African American Family Day. A 16-year-old was arrested and charged in the incident, D.C. police said.
D.C. police Cmdr. Michael E. Reese said the stabbing was connected to “some kind of ruckus” that apparently broke out within the zoo and might have resumed at or near the entrance on Connecticut Avenue NW.
.....The teenager was stabbed at least twice, at least once in the zoo and once at or just outside the entrance, Reese said. Some of the same assailants might have been involved in both attacks, he said.
.....In addition to the many children attending the zoo’s annual day-after-Easter celebration, tourists and youngsters on spring break filled the zoo to capacity, Legge said.
The free gathering dates to the 1890s. Oral history says that black domestic workers were required to work on Easter, so Monday was the day of family celebration.
In 2000, the Easter Monday celebration was marred when a teenager, in a dispute with teens from another neighborhood, shot and wounded seven people at the zoo’s main entrance. A year later, the shooter was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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And why are the rams, llamas, hippos, and other animas the ones that are locked up in the cages?
