Court documents connected to the plea reveal new details about the harrowing event. Fields, Dayvhonne Sealy, and Akeem Cayo entered 1011 Irving Street NE through an unlocked front door. Sealy and Cay wielded hand guns, while Fields toted an assault rifle. "Once inside the house, Mr. Cayo, Mr. Sealey and the Defendant ordered eight of the victims to lay on the ground and turn over their wallets and cell phones," say papers.

Though the raiding party quickly subdued everyone downstairs, they missed those upstairs, giving two visitors to the house a chance to hide in a closet and call 911. Though the crew eventually found them and put them with the others, the cops were on their way.

"During the course of the incident, the Defendant, Mr. Cayo, and Mr. Sealey alternated the responsibility of watching the victims and searching the house. The person assigned with the duty of watching the victims generally held the assault rifle, while the other two subjects searched the house."

Fields would later tell police that they were looking for the stash of a drug dealer he called "the weed man." Police haven't given any official clues as to whether the weed man exists or who he might be.

"Approximately 15-20 minutes after they entered the house, the suspects saw officers of the Metropolitan Police Department arriving on the scene." Panic set in. The three began running around the house, peeking through windows, trying to figure out if the cops had surrounded them.

As if they were in the middle of some trite action flick, they decided to make a run for it. "The defendant hid the assault rifle in the house, and the three suspects gathered near the front door of the house. After giving a quick countdown, the three suspects opened the front door and ran out of the house."

Fields watched his colleagues get picked off. He followed Cayo down the front steps and "heard gunfire." Cayo collapsed. Fields turned to the right and followed Sealey toward the backyard. "The defendant heard more gunfire, and he dropped to the ground and surrendered himself to the police." Sealey had been fatally shot, too. Calls placed to Fields' lawyer weren't returned.

Charging documents say that Cayo exchanged gunfire with the police after bursting out the front door, implying the three were attempting to shoot their way out. Fields will be sentenced on August 1.

Photo of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, located adjacent to the Catholic University of America, by Gore Fiendus (Jerry Frausto) using an Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license

Early this morning, the blog Unsuck DC Metro reported that on Dec. 23, six masked gunmen boarded a New Carrolton-bound train at Stadium Armory and robbed the passengers at gunpoint.

WMATA initially confirmed to the blog that an incident did take place on Dec. 23, between 6 and 6:30 pm. Unsuck DC Metro said their story, which sounds like something out of movie, came from a source who is a “minor who wishes to remain anonymous and does not want to talk to the press.” (Unsuck DC Metro has now updated their post, and no longer says the source is a minor.)

According to their source:

Three of the men entered through the front door of the car, and the other three entered through the last door of the same car.

Some of the male passengers were ordered to the ground, and some of the robbers kicked them repeatedly. Some were kicked to the point that they were bleeding from their wounds, primarily head wounds.

One woman tried pushing the emergency button several times, but never got a response from any Metro employee....

The witness managed to clandestinely call 911 while they were still on board, but hung up on the 911 personnel because they wanted to call someone to let them know where they were because they felt like they were going to die on the train.

The men jumped off at the next station and ran.

Metro’s official response, just released, reads more like a traditional robbery. Metro says there were no weapons present during the robbery, and the suspects were two 17-year-old males, not six masked gunmen. They also take the opportunity to praise their new reassignment of Transit Police into “stations, trains, and buses.”

Here’s their press release:

On Dec. 23, Metro Transit Police responded immediately to a report of a robbery that had just taken place, and within 30 minutes the suspects were positively identified, arrested and the stolen property recovered.

In an effort to address crime in the Metro system, the MTPD recently reassigned sworn officers out of administrative functions and office buildings into stations, trains and buses to better protect our customers from crime and to increase their ability to respond as quickly as possible. Here is a good example of how that redeployment makes a difference.

Background:

Police responded immediately to a call for robbery on an Orange Line train between Stadium-Armory and Minnesota Ave stations on Dec. 23. Two victims reported that while on board a train, two males stole a cell phone and a shopping bag containing recently purchased clothing and exited the train at Minnesota Avenue. The victims exited at the Cheverly station, where they reported the crime.

Metro Transit Police stopped the suspects in Northeast Washington, DC, near the Minnesota Avenue station a few minutes later and were able to get positive identification from the victims.

Police recovered the stolen property and charged the two 17-year-old males with robbery.

The victims did not report the use of a weapon during the incident. The victims were treated for minor lacerations at the station.

Photo by NCinDC via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivs 2.0

Two men dressed as construction workers, one reportedly wearing a hard hat and carrying a black and blue canvas bag, robbed an armored car in Columbia Heights this morning, making off in blue-green minivan with yet untold sums of cash. Reporting from the scene, WJLA-TV's Stephen Tschida notes, "this incident is very similar to one which occurred about two weeks ago in Southeast D.C., where two men, again dressed as construction workers, held up an armored vehicle."

Those armored cars. So hot right now: An armored car courier was reportedly robbed just the other night at a Safeway supermarket in Hyattsville. Police in Prince George's County are also investigating a recent armored car robbery that occurred on May 21 in Fort Washington, Md. No construction outfits, however, reported in either of those cases.

Court papers show that Juan Peterson, who was arrested alongside several other persons for "a series of armed carjackings," had pleaded guilty to one count of unarmed carjacking and another count of armed robbery. On appeal, however, his lawyers argued the trial court erred in imposing the mandatory minimum sentence of seven years imprisonment for carjacking instead of a lesser sentence allowed under the D.C. Youth Rehabilitation Act.

The appellate court disagreed: "We cannot accept this argument because we have already held in [another case] that the carjacking statue requires a mandatory minimum seven-year sentence even when the legislature has provided for sentencing alternatives." Given the "plain language" of the District's carjacking law, the court ruled that "a person convicted of carjacking must receive a term of at least seven years imprisonment, and must serve each and every day of those seven years."

• Alexandria Police Chief David P. Baker announced his retirement yesterday afternoon, ending a 40-year career in law enforcement.  This comes in the aftermath of his arrest on DUI charges Saturday night, following an accident that sent another driver to the hospital.  The best part about retiring now is that Baker gets to retain his full benefits, regardless of the outcome of today's court hearing in Arlington.

• Sonia Sotomayor is one step closer to joining the Supreme Court.  The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 to endorse the candidate, sending her nomination to a full Senate vote next week.  She's expected to be confirmed with little struggle, but as usual, party affiliations are limiting unanimous support.
• Bruce Johnson is wondering why so many businesses are leaving Cleveland Park.  If major corporations like Starbucks and McDonalds decide to leave the neighborhood and their space can't be filled for upwards of five years, there just might be a problem.

• Borderstan is busy reporting local crimes, some occurring in broad daylight.  Highlights include a car break-in at 9:30 am and a foiled rooftop burglar on Church Street NW.

• It's no longer news that President Obama and the Democratic leadership are determined to push through their first attempt at health-care reform before the August recess.  When Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) announced to his constituency that he would vote for the health-care bill, they were upset.  So upset, in fact, that they hung him in effigy during a rally in Salisbury.  Perhaps Kratovil should spend the recess in Washington so as to avoid some of these more fanatic citizens.

• The Democrats' honeymoon is over.  After six months of working together in supposed harmony, it's back to name calling and back room deals.  So says Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who's blaming the obstruction of the Blue Dogs on Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.  Apparently he recruited them to run while still serving in Congress and has since failed to get them on board with the President's grand plans for reform.  Politics as usual, it's how the federal government runs.

But enough about rule-makers.  All the rule-breakers, in DC and beyond, are after the jump.

• As countless politicians have proven, adultery is not an excuse to give up your elected office.  John Ensign agrees, regardless of his parents' $96,000 payoff of his mistress – he plans to seek reelection when his term runs out in 2012.  Could he still be holding out for the White House?  Only time will tell.

• The judge hearing the Banita Jacks case was treated to an earful during the second day of listening to her eight-hour police interrogation.  During the recording, Jacks admitted that she believed her three daughters were possessed by demons but would rise from the dead when the demons left their bodies.  She also contends that all four of her daughters died in their sleep, as a result of the demons, a fact that is inconsistent with the evidence gathered at the crime scene.

• A House panel investigating the Red Line crash heard testimony yesterday, with the majority of witnesses asking for money to fix the flawed transit system.  John Catoe, Metro's General Manager detailed the precautions he has taken since the crash but admits he still does not know what to do about the malfunctioning circuit between Takoma and Fort Totten that presumably caused the collision.

• Violent crimes are being reported with more frequency, in what are thought to be safe areas of the city.  The Borderstan blog reports an armed assault and a robbery in the 1400 blocks of Corcoran and S Streets NW, respectively, in addition to the armed robbery and several burglaries that occurred in the first week of July.  Meanwhile, in Georgetown, a young woman was sexually assaulted in her home, less than two blocks from the main gates of the university.  Neighbors and students are concerned, not only for their safety, but because very few people have been informed about the attack.

So keep your eyes and ears open, City Desk readers.  Rules and laws are for following, not breaking.