Share April 21, 2020 The clerics have been sworn to secrecy. On this warm morning, they’ve come to a vast and empty parking lot, instructed not to tell anyone of its location. The pitch of asphalt is unusually secure, hidden behind a 12-foot chain-link fence that’s been swathed in sheets of black tarp to prevent anyone from peering through. At the front gate, armed soldiers stand guard. Inside, large trailers are arranged behind tented canopies and banks of lights. Metal ramps are affixed to each trailer so that stretchers can be wheeled in. The interior walls of the trailers are lined with seven rows of metallic shelving, sturdy enough to support thousands of pounds. The temperature is 24 degrees.
Skip to main content In the nation s capital, Black families reel from the pain of hundreds lost to covid-19, killings Michael E. Miller, The Washington Post Dec. 30, 2020 FacebookTwitterEmail 9 1of9People prepare on July 7, 2020, to march on the street where Davon McNeal, 11, was fatally shot by a stray bullet after a July 4 cookout organized by his mother, a violence interrupter trying to persuade the Washington, D.C., community to put down their firearms.Washington Post photo by Jahi ChikwendiuShow MoreShow Less 2of9Medical workers arrive Dec. 22, 2020, in the Carver-Langston neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C., which has been hit hard by covid and gun violence.Washington Post photo by Jahi ChikwendiuShow MoreShow Less