[Ret10Echo]

They are becoming more and more common. D.C. is a big one for that...as a criminal you are pretty well assured that your designated target is unarmed. A neigborhood barbeque was "held up" in D.C. over the 4th of July weekend. One elderly gentleman killed because he would not "lay on the ground and empty his pockets". He struggled with one of the scumbags and the other scumbags shot him.

Perps got away with less than $100.

Good job D.C.....gun control is working....

SE Man Killed For Less Than $100: WitnessesAdvertisement | ad info
. by John Schriffen
NBCWashington.com

Friends and neighbors are still trying to understand why anyone would rob a community barbecue. And it's more than money that was lost; they say an angel is gone after he gave his life to protect his neighbors.

He was the neighborhood, he kept everything together, he was my best friend, said an anonymous neighbor of John Pernell, 66, who was shot and killed at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the 3000 block of Nelson Place SE during an armed robbery gone wrong.

An emotional man who said he witnessed the shooting -- and wants to remain anonymous out of fear the gunman will return -- said he and the rest of the neighbors on Nelson Place are shaken up over the loss of Pernell, a man many called "the mayor." If your air conditioner was broken, if your vacuum cleaner was broke, anything, John would be right there to help you fix it, said neighbor Darnell Marshall. He helped take women to the grocery store, whatever you needed done, John was here to do.

Witnesses said that at the time of the shooting there were eight people inside a local barbecue pit, washing grills and preparing for the neighborhood's annual cookout. Witnesses said three armed men suddenly approached from the front and two in the back, trapping everyone inside. Witnesses said they were told to immediately get on the ground and give up everything in their pockets. Seven of them did, but witnesses say Pernell, in a heroic attempt to save his neighborhood, fought back.