Suspected Witness of Killing, 14, Is Slain

Police said a 14-year-old girl was shot to death and her friend wounded after being targeted because their assailant thought they had witnessed a killing.

Jahkema Hansen, 14, and an unidentified 12-year-old girl were found Friday evening in a townhouse not far from the U.S. Capitol.

Franklin Thompson, 22, was arrested Saturday and charged with first-degree murder in the slaying.

The shooting of the girls occurred in an area where two men were shot to death Jan. 18.

Cmdr. Michael Anzallo, chief of detectives for the District of Columbia police, said Jahkema was slain because the person who killed her thought she was a witness to the first of those two shootings. She was shot three times, once in the head.

The girl’s mother, Judyann Hansen, told the Washington Post that police detectives had offered her daughter protection in exchange for information about the earlier killing.

Hansen said police were clear about the danger witnesses face, with one detective telling her that a gunman will “come and put you to sleep because he don’t want to do 60 years.”

But her daughter declined the offer and “told them she did not see anything,” Hansen said.

The mother said she was angry at police for not providing more help. “Even if my daughter didn’t want to say anything, they were supposed to put out protection just in case,” she said.