Bowser's campaign promise to form homicide task force remains unfulfilled

WASHINGTON - It has been a deadly summer in our nation's capital and some D.C. residents are accusing city leaders of not doing enough.

Muriel Bowser made a promise and it was a strong one while she was her campaign trail just months before being elected as mayor.

FOX 5 obtained exclusive video of the then-council member promising that if she became D.C.'s mayor, she would commit to forming a task force with the goal of eliminating homicides.

In the video taken from a candidate forum back on March 29, 2014, Bowser said, "Not only should we commit to the task force, I've worked with David [Bowers], so I know that he's been very thoughtful about who should be on it and the work it should do, so I will make that commitment today."

The former council member of Ward 4 said she wanted no more murders in the District.

She would go on to say in the video, "Sometimes politicians will say I'll do a task force, then they won't put anybody on it."

D.C.'s homicides are now at 98, only seven victims shy of last year's total homicides.

But it has been 16 months sinc then and no one has been appointed to this task force. We asked her about it on Thursday.

"A task force is not our priority," she told us. "Stopping violence is our priority."

"We're just asking for promises made to be promises kept," said David Bowers.

He runs an organization called No Murders DC, a group for over a decade that has sought to work with city leaders to come up with a plan that would eliminate homicides.

"We're not quite certain why there hasn't been action taken to this point on naming the members of the task force," Bowers said. "We have been really trying to get the mayor and her staff to understand we are focused on not a report that will sit on a desk, but an action plan."

The 97th homicide victim this year was Michelle Johnson's daughter, 31-year-old Tenika Fontanelle. She died in a shooting at a Southeast D.C. apartment where her 12-year-old son and a 17-year-old neighbor were also shot. The older boy has been charged in her murder.

"She died for her kids," said Johnson. "She would fight to the death for her kids. That's what any parent should do."

Police said they not only recovered a .25-caliber semi-automatic gun in the teenage suspect's home, but also a loaded 9 mm assault rifle and a bag with more than 100 rounds under his mattress.

In that video from 2014, Bowser finished by saying, "I will commit to a goal saying no more murders in D.C."