Pages

Thursday, March 21, 2013

PopVille: Bloomingdale resident attacked Tuesday evening, 03-19-2013, by a group of kids

From PopVille (formerly the Prince of Petworth):  


Has anyone else in Bloomingdale been attacked by a group of kids?

9:16 AM 03/20/2013

Last night around 6:30 PM, my roommate was attacked by a group of kids on the doorstep of our rowhouse. We live in Bloomingdale, a few doors up from the corner of U and First Street NW. My roommate was walking home from the Shaw metro, when she turned up Second Street NW and U, she noticed two teen girls (~13 years old) walking behind her. Once she was trying to open the front door to our english basement, the girls asked her if she could help them with something. My roommate turned around and noticed that a group of boys were standing behind the girls and a few of them were wearing face masks. My roommate declined to help the girls and that's when they started yelling profanities at her and threatening her. One of the girls threw a handful of rocks at my roommate and that's when the boys followed, throwing rocks, sticks, and metal siding at her. After being hit in the head with a large rock, she threatened to call the police and they told her that they needed a new cellphone so she should get it out. When she dialed 911, the kids took off running down the alley behind New Reservoir Market.
Has anyone else living in the Bloomingdale area been attacked by a group of teens? 

Comments:

andy2
DC

Are you serious? This is unreal - those kids should be found, arrested, tried and in addition to serving time - repay the city by some hard, supervised community service (scrubbing graffiti, picking up trash, cleaning metro cars/busses, etc.). I'm thinking something like a chain gang - embarrass the heck out of these hooligans!
10:03 AM 03/20/2013 | -1 VOTES

nnahlzr
It's very disconcerting to be attacked on your doorstep. I was just getting ready to leave for the gym, I hopped in my car and drove around the block to see if the kids were still hanging around or if the cops were in the area, but found neither of those things. I wish they had been caught and had some community service inflicted on them, alas they got away with it :(
1:19 PM 03/20/2013

brads
DC
I lived in the Shaw area about a year ago and there were some kids in the alley behind my house. (near New Jersey and Q) They were throwing bottles and rocks up onto our 2nd floor deck and when I came outside with my dogs, they started yelling profanities at me. When they saw my 2 massive dogs, they got spooked and ran away - but before they disappeared, one of the kids pulled out a knife and told me he would use it on the dogs if I let them out.

My apartment also got broken into twice at this location - even with ADT security in place. The police were incredibly slow to respond and never had any leads. We also had our car damaged and broken into in our parking spot. Between the robberies and this other incident, we decided to move instead of installing bars on all of our doors and windows.
12:03 PM 03/20/2013

freitag
I was attacked 10 days ago by likely the same group. They cornered me in the alley between S and Seaton. First a girl came running up asking if I wanted to donate to "their, um, organization." Then the boys caught up and sensing they were up to no good I tried to move past them. One of them came up from behind and hit me hard in the head (possibly with an object), breaking my glasses into my face, leaving me bleeding and with a swollen eye. They didn't take anything. I'm guessing the donation ploy was to get me to pull out my wallet for them to grab.
I called 911 immediately and the cops were in front of my house within 2 minutes and searched around for the kids but didn't find them.
This sounds like it's becoming a serious problem and I'd be interested in working with other neighbors or the police to try to find a solution.
1:30 PM 03/20/2013  

nnahlzr
That is terrible! I definitely agree that it is likely the same group. If there is any way we could coordinate and do something to catch these kids/deal with this issue, I would be on-board!
2:16 PM 03/20/2013

jamngin
I was attacked in 2011 while walking south on 2nd Street NW near V Street at about 7:30pm on a weeknight. I had taken the G2 bus from Georgetown and was carrying several dozen store-bought cupcakes. A group of 4-8 adolecents swarmed around me noticing the baked goods. After begging for a cupcake, one of the children knocked them out of my hand and punched me in the back of the head. I took a swing at the one who hit me, and we ended up exchanging a few more punches before the group ran away.

After filing a police report, I came away with a black eye and a shirt covered in frosting and cake.
3:28 PM 03/20/2013

djaffee
I was robbed on my street last week in Columbia Heights (around the corner from DC USA) at 6 pm. A high schooler in a school uniform grabbed my iPhone and ran.
2:24 PM 03/21/2013

eric_in_ledroit
I live on 2nd street near U and saw a group of about 10 kids, probably the same one, in the neighborhood last Sunday terrorizing people.  They were harrassing a guy trying to get buzzed in to the Parker Flats, then started down the street towards Rhode Island throwing rocks at every car that passed.  Some unfortunate woman got out of her car to confront them and almost got her ass handed to her.  I called the police but am unsure what they did.  Ten minutes later the same kids came running up the street past Elm and cut in towards the housing projects near W.  Lovely.  Not sure what the police can do here - they'd be very difficult to catch; if you did catch them, they'd be difficult to prosecute; if you did prosecute them, the punishment would either be meaninglessly light or ruinously punitive.  Sad, really.
2:41 PM 03/21/2013

nnahlzr
Do you remember around what time of the day this was? I take the G2 and walked up second street/down U to get home. If it's happening predominantly in the evening, I'll take a different way home!
3:17 PM 03/21/2013

eric_in_ledroit
Its random nnahlzr. If you see a group of kids, go a different direction, is my best advice.
3:34 PM 03/21/2013

lisat
WASHINGTON, DC
This is really disgusting and disturbing. I feel bad for all of you who've been attacked, and for these kids who clearly need some serious intervention. My mama woulda beat my ass if I'd even attempted to do anything like this.
2:56 PM 03/21/2013

doozerwg
This is horrible and frightening.  There is a clear issue with teenagers and harassement in this city.  Is there anything that can be done?

8 comments:

  1. As the weather warms, these gangs are getting warmed up for their activity as well. They should be arrested and jailed. These are not "kids" that will benefit from community service. They are terrorists who are terrorizing and thieving the community. This happens and gets worse because we tolerate it. These kids likely do not live in our neighborhood...so push them back out to their own homes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If we can make it happen, we should have those community walks more often, really make a show that we mean business. Today, my bike was stolen at the Shaw Metro, two days ago, the police caught a kid ~13 in my alley trying to get past a fence so that he could "find his basketball." My roommates saw this same group too.

    I hope we can work with the police and each other to make this neighborhood more safe. It's just a shame because it's such a great location and community feel, but we have to worry about this crime. Let's do our best to stay safe and show that we are not going to put up with this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had rocks thrown at me on my front doorstep at 3rd and U, NW 4-5 months ago. Same thing, two girls came up and asked me for a cigarette. I said no and they ran back and threw a handful of rocks at my head. I chased after them, screaming, threatening to call the cops and they disappeared. Ridiculous.

    ReplyDelete
  4. There is a great product called Sabre Pepper Spray, the model I have is called "the runner". It's a mace/pepper spray but it also has marking dye in it to help identify the attacker. It's really small and can easily fit in a purse or a pocket, and it's cheap. Amazon has it for $8.50. Sabre also makes other products that fit on a key chain, but I suggest getting one that contains marking dye.

    http://www.amazon.com/SABRE-Runner-Pepper-Spray-Strap/dp/B002E6RERU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1363966987&sr=8-5&keywords=sabre+pepper+spray

    Not all kids are up to trouble and I hope that this group gets caught. It's sad to think of a safety risk in walking by a group of kids and saying hello like a friendly neighbor. Kids like to feel like they are part of a community too and we set an example about how to be, whether we ignore them, or run the other way, or smile and say 'hi'. But at the end of the day you have to trust your gut and use caution.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I saw this group of kids stopped at the bottom of Flagler on U street last Tuesday evening by the police. Earlier in the evening a neighbor told me how they were destroying someones picket fence on 2nd street. There was a group of about 6-8 total. The police let them go after talking with them. So I am sure they will be roaming soon enough, if not already.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Do the police know about all of these incidents? If the police are doing patrols and know that there have been issues in the neighborhood, then I would assume they would be more vigilant...

    ReplyDelete
  7. a friend of mine was attacked by a group of 3 teenage boys on tuesday march 12th on the corner of 1st and rhode island. it was the middle of the afternoon. if anyone has any ideas how we as a community can work to stop these events, i'm all ears and willing to get involved

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's happened again....near 2nd and T Streets this evening around 7:30pm, group of kids attacked and tried to rob a Bloomingdale resident.

    ReplyDelete