A grandmother in the 22nd Street Southeast neighborhood of Washington, D.C. was on her way to chemotherapy treatment last Friday when she was stopped by a 15-year-old male with a firearm. He demanded the keys to her car and, when she refused, began struggling with her. Fortunately, he did not use the firearm during the struggle.
Also fortunately was that, during the struggle, the grandmother was able to call for help from her neighbors. That plea for help was answered by good Samaritans that were also good fighters and they taught the young thug a lesson he won’t soon forget, beating him so badly that he was carried from the scene in an ambulance.
Describing the incident to ABC 7 News, the grandmother said she was on her way to chemo and “Next thing I know, he walked up talking about, ‘give me your keys, I got a gun.’ I said, ‘baby, you better shoot me, because you’re not taking my car.‘”
Continuing, she said “He pushed me to the door and I got up and I grabbed him and was hitting his ass, and hitting him and fighting him and I said, ‘you not going to take my car, youngin.‘”
She then said that she called for her neighbors to help and “They all came out to help me.” The young thug then tried running across the street to escape the vengeance of the neighbors, but “They caught him and I said, ‘oh, you going to jail today. You definitely going to jail, yes you are.” That’s when they proceeded to teach him a lesson in civics with their fists and feet.
Remarking on the severity of the lesson taught, she added that “And they said it’s a wonder he wasn’t dead. On 22nd Street? He must didn’t know where he was. Nobody has seen this boy before.”
This incident is just the latest in a long string of carjackings in the DC area. According to the Metropolitan Police Department, there have been 41 carjackings through late January alone. Sgt. Valkyrie Barnes, commenting on the plague of carjackings and what has led to them, said “We saw a drastic, just, drop and closure of, you know, Department of Parks and Recs, their sports programs, schools went virtual. You know, … legal guardians are trying to do their best to provide some level of supervision while also trying to make ends meet.”
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Councilmember Zachary Parker, questioning the approach of the police to dealing the carjacking problem, asked “[We’ve seen] increases in categories like carjacking and otherwise, but we have not seen a corresponding increase in commitment. Is it finger pointing to say you all should have committed more juveniles who are breaking the law?”
Probably so, though the plummet in actual policing following the George Floyd riots and decision by many police officers to just avoid dealing with criminals rather than intervening and risk going to prison because of it means that the plague of rising crime is unlikely to go away any time soon.