A reckless criminal in Washington, D.C. was finally captured by police after putting them through an exhausting chase. In a story sure to be memory-holed by corporate media, the black suspect was given over ten hours to evade capture before being peacefully and safely detained. So much for hunting folks down.
Deandre Bigesby, the man eventually taken into police custody, did everything he could do first attract attention from law enforcement and later did everything he could to avoid capture.
Fox’s local Washington, D.C. affiliate introduced the story with this grabbing lede:
Authorities said a man is in custody after firing shots, exposing himself and climbing wires and rooftops in a northwest D.C. neighborhood Wednesday in a standoff that lasted into the early morning hours.
Along the way, Bigesby caused mayhem, damage, and provoked fear in the people with whom he interacted. Fox 5 reports that he was also in “various states of undress” for the beginning parts of the episode, and later reports indicate he was charged with exposure.
As he ran across rooftops, he broke windows and satellite dishes. Later, the roof-walking, line-dangling criminal briefly alighted in a house to find further cover. One homeowner spoke to the news outlet to share her frightening encounter:
“He randomly picked my house to enter. He broke in my door, and he came in. [He] came upstairs, broke the window, and accessed my porch. He’s been jumping on my next-door neighbors’ [porches] on both sides, back and forth, just creating havoc.”
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For his troubles, police say Bigesby was “charged with assault on a police officer while armed, unlawful possession of a firearm and burglary,” according to the New York Post.
As words cannot fully do justice to a bizarre story, the entire events were captured on film. In a video now seen nearly two million times, Fox 5 reporter Jim Lokay was at the scene and provided both narration and video for the scene.
A man continues to evade police in NW DC, traversing power lines in the Brightwood Park neighborhood, more than an hour after firing a gun from a nearby rooftop. #FOX5DC pic.twitter.com/hrtDyrcjDX
— Jim Lokay (@LokayFOX5) September 7, 2022
Lokay followed up this initial tweet with coverage from later in the evening. From the initial video, showing considerabe daylight, he now showed that night had fallen and Bigesby was still in the powerlines and trees. At risk of falling, police provided a large safety mat in the event he fell, and began erecting ladders from fire trucks to help with the transition of getting him down.
Update: three hours later, the man is still hanging above the street. Police have inflated a large safety cushion on the street below. #FOX5DC pic.twitter.com/TwA7lr5SoU
— Jim Lokay (@LokayFOX5) September 8, 2022
The ordeal, according to Fox 5, began when the Metropolitan Police Department received a call about a man with a gun at a local street intercection. Police arrived at the scene and saw a suspect matching the description from the call; the suspect immediately began running down an alley, leading to the chase. Police report that at one point Bigesby turned around and fired at them.
From there, Fox 5 writes:
Officers then observed the man break through the skylight of the home and climb onto the roof of the house.
A barricade was declared as authorities closed off several streets in the Brightwood Park neighborhood. A large police presence gathered near Georgia Avenue and Kennedy Street as officers attempted to apprehend the man.
Ultimately, as Lokay’s reporting shows, police were able to apprehend Bigesby, get him safely down, and bring him into custody. Now let’s see what charges stick.
Featured image: Screen shot, Twitter, Fox 5 D.C.