Chinatown Beatdown: A Why I Hate DC reader identified only as Meagan reported a seemingly random beatdown via the blog site on Feb. 16. Meagan says she “was walking into the gallery place/Chinatown movie theater and a group of teenagers ran out and started beating a random man in the street. They beat him unconscious and left him face down on the concrete.”
“I do not know if the man received medical attention, but he was unconscious and his face was bleeding. The kids easily got away and no one chased them or stopped them,” she wrote. “They headed down into the metro and disappeared.”
First District Commander David Kamperin of the Metropolitan Police Department confirms the brutal pummeling took place: “We took a report for the assault and our detectives have reached out to several subjects (maybe even this writer) who may have witnessed it,” he emails. “We are following up to see if there are cameras in the area and with Metro.”
Lives Cut Short: A teenager was gunned down over the weekend. Police say that, on Feb. 21, they found Joel Watkins, 15, lying in the 6200 block of Seventh Street NW, fatally shot. The Washington Post saysWatkins is the youngest person killed in D.C. in 2010.
On Feb. 15, in a separate case, police arrested a 16-year-old for the murder of Carlos Bernard Alexander, which occurred in the 700 block of 21st Street NE on the morning of Feb. 3. Police then arrested 18-year-old Daquan Johnson on Feb 16 in connection with the same homicide.
Big Score: Whomever burglarized a house in the 3900 block of Alton Place NW between 7:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Feb. 16 walked away with a large haul. After smashing a basement window and entering the residence, cops say, the suspect (or suspects) stole a Bravia flat-screen TV, a Sony TV, and a gold 2003 Infiniti sport utility truck.
It’s For You: The George Washington University Hatchet reports that, on Feb. 15, a man was arrested for threatening to wreak havoc on campus: “A former GW employee was arrested last week after he allegedly called a University office and made threats to ‘kill faculty and students,’ according to court documents and a Metropolitan Police Department report.” The Hatchet says former GW mailroom employee James Ripley Markley Jr., 53, was released from custody on Feb. 16, but has been ordered to stay away from the university.
You Dropped Something: At about 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 22 a poster on one MPD listserv left a message about a suspicious package: “This morning at approximately 7:30 am, a light brown car with red and blue lights blinking in the grill stopped at the Stop sign on Holly and left a black tote bag across the street. The package was still there when I left for work. Can you have someone check that bag? This was very strange; I thought it was a policeman setting up a camera at the stop sign, but it was a canvas tote bag dumped along the wooded side of the street.”
In response, Lieutenant John R. Haines said a unit would be sent to check things out. “To ensure your safety and everyone else[sic] please do not approach the package and if you can do not allow anyone else to approach it.” Haines emailed a police unit later inspected the area but found no bag.
Source: MPD District listservs, public releases