WASHINGTON, D.C. – A 23-year-old volunteer from Upstate New York, Ryan Realbuto, was fatally shot in the abdomen during a possible robbery on South Dakota Avenue, a main thoroughfare in the Michigan Park neighborhood of Northeast. Realbuto had been spending a year with the Capuchin Franciscan Volunteer Corps, helping high school students in a work-study program. His service with the Catholic volunteer group was cut short when he became a victim of violent crime.
The rising violent crime in the city has been a prime focus of public anxiety over the past 13 months, and the D.C. Council is considering broad legislation to address homicides, carjackings, and robberies. Last year, the District ended with more killings than in any year since 1997, with five people, including Realbuto, being slain in the first three weeks of the current year.
Realbuto volunteered at Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Takoma Park, Md., a Catholic college-preparatory school just outside D.C. that helps at-risk students in a work-study program. Janet Realbuto, the victim’s mother, described her son as the ‘most gentle, kindest, caring person’ and expressed her shock and devastation at his senseless killing.
D.C. police are investigating robbery as a possible motive for the attack that led to Realbuto’s death. According to Janet Realbuto and Brother Stephen Cantwell, a Capuchin Franciscan friar who supervises the volunteers, the young man was with two other volunteers when a person demanded money, and when they had none to give, the person shot Realbuto. His roommate pressed on his wound and called 911.
Margaret McIntyre-Stacy, the program’s director, mentioned that the volunteers each get a $125 monthly stipend and live in a communal residence, “sharing the highs and lows of their day, learning of the cycle of poverty and from each other’s experiences, and how to break it.”
The gunman was apparently trying to rob people “who didn’t have any money.” The perpetrator didn’t take anything of value, except the most valuable thing – Realbuto’s life, said McIntyre-Stacy.
Realbuto’s tragic death emphasizes the ongoing issue of rising violent crime in Washington, D.C., and the impact it has on those who choose to selflessly dedicate their time to making a difference in their communities through volunteer work.