In his teens, Rahji had two children of his own, a boy and a girl. They played in the same playground, ran between the same trees, looked up at the same Lincoln statue, talked on the same benches.Īs Rahji grew older, the conversations grew deeper. Lincoln Park is just a few blocks from McConnell’s childhood home, and he likes to think about how it intersects both of their early years. McConnell, 65, sits on a bench in Lincoln Park on Capitol Hill remembering how he brought Rahji here as a child to run around and play football. Instead, he named Rahji after a co-worker he respected.īut that intense closeness he felt for his son would never go away. Laughing now, he says his wife, Joy Ross, quickly talked him out of it. It was the end of the ’70s after all, and McConnell has always been a spiritual seeker. As he held him in the hospital, that’s what McConnell wanted to name his son. McConnell says he felt a life force fill the room. He pulled the child, his first, close to his chest, and the tears started falling. Ronald McConnell held his son Rahji in the delivery room just moments after he was born on Feb. Rodney Davis, 25 ‘He is not a statistic’ Here are the stories of 12 of the District’s 162 homicide victims – one for each month of a violent year.

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