WASHINGTON — A former Washington, D.C., city employee was found guilty of manslaughter Friday in the fatal shooting of an unarmed 13-year-old boy that sparked public uproar in the nation’s capital.

Jurors found Jason Lewis, 42, not guilty of second-degree murder, but convicted him of manslaughter and other charges after the trial in D.C. Superior Court over the killing of seventh grader Karon Blake.

Lewis, a longtime Parks and Recreation Department employee, turned himself in last year to face charges in Blake’s killing, which happened in January 2023 around 4 a.m., across the street from the middle school Blake attended, authorities said.

Lewis was seen on video leaving his house and firing at two young people who had been breaking into cars, prosecutors said. After a car was hit with gunfire, Blake ran in Lewis’ direction, and Lewis fired two shots, killing him, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors played for jurors a video in which Blake could be heard repeatedly saying “I’m sorry” and telling Lewis, “I’m just a kid,” according to media reports.

An attorney for Lewis didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment from The Associated Press on Friday.

Lewis took the witness stand in the case, arguing that he acted in self-defense. He told jurors that he thought he saw another person open fire on him and feared for his life, local media reported.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in October. The manslaughter charge carries up to 45 years in prison.

There’s been growing frustration with 911 outages at D.C.’s Office of Unified Communications, the agency that handles emergency calls in the city.

In the same week OUC director Heather McGaffin announced $800 bonuses for OUC staffers who show up for every shift in August, several D.C. lawmakers have called the response to a string of outages unacceptable.

“The District of Columbia, our nation’s capital, should be able to do better than this,” D.C. Council member Brianne Nadeau told WTOP on Friday.

“There are very hardworking people at the 911 call center. Their jobs are incredibly difficult,” she added. But she called the outages “a perfect storm of government incompetence.”

The creation of a pilot program to offer the $800 bonuses underscores an issue that Nadeau said deserves more attention.

“I don’t think we pay them enough,” she said of call takers and dispatchers. “I don’t know that we are supporting them enough. I hope the bonuses help. But at the end of the day, this is not a new problem.”

In a statement sent to WTOP, Council member Brooke Pinto, chair of the Council Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, wrote she is “exploring additional options for the upcoming fall legislative session to ensure we are appropriately compensating our first responders for their essential work.”

Pinto also said she would look into “legislative interventions” to improve 911 service and “greater transparency and reporting when errors do occur.”

Last year, Nadeau introduced a bill to return 911 calls to D.C. Fire and EMS, “so that we know the people who are answering the phones are medically trained and can get the people that need to be there to respond.”

Nadeau said there is a lack of urgency to address what she called a long-standing issue. When asked if the D.C. Council could be seen as playing a role in that lack of urgency, Nadeau said, “I think that’s a fair question. I feel a great sense of urgency and I really do hope that my bill gets a hearing so that we can have this conversation.”

On Tuesday, Anna Noakes, OUC public information officer, wrote in a statement to WTOP, “We have a busy, demanding system that requires that we regularly evaluate staffing levels to ensure we can always answer the call in a timely fashion while also being mindful of the well-being of our dedicated staff.”

Referring to the most recent outages on Aug. 2 and Aug. 9, David Hoagland, president of the union that represents D.C.’s firefighters, wrote in a statement, “IAFF Local 36 is steadfast in its commitment to collaborating with city leaders to implement sustainable reforms that will strengthen our 911 system.”

Regarding the Aug. 9 outage, Hoagland’s statement said, “Despite the obstacles thrown at us during the system breakdown, I’m proud of all of the firefighters on duty and our members working in the fire operation center who demonstrated exceptional professionalism.”

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