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On Sunday police arrested a suspect in the unprovoked attack of a female walking from Harris Teeter in the 1300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE. Police brought in a juvenile suspect at his residence without incident, MPD-1D Commander David Kamperin notified the local police listserv. At a community meeting Thursday evening, police had told the community an arrest was two or three days away.
The attack and a series of other crimes, including a shooting, in the vicinity, alarmed residents and stoked feelings of outrage and disenfranchisement on local blogs and listservs, including this one.
No further information could be released, Kamperin said, because the suspect is a juvenile.
The woman, who was punched in the face, suffered a fractured jaw.
“First District Detectives worked this case tirelessly and received help from our community until we were able to identify the juvenile suspect,” Kamperin stated.
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UPDATE: Lieutenant Christopher Micciche stated that the juvenile arrested “is well known to 1-D members. He was previously believed to be linked to burglaries and robberies in the PSA 106/107 area.”
Councilman Tommy Wells, who has been active in this case and in addressing juvenile crime in Ward 6 gave this statement to THIH: “Kudos to our MPD. I am thankful the perpetrator was caught and charged with a violent crime. I am impressed with the great police work.”
That doesn’t look like an MPD vehicle.
This is good news. Now comes the hard part–lock him up and throw away the key? If he lives in PG, kick his family out? No easy solution, I don’t pretend to have one. If the victim agrees, it would be good to see this person apologize to her face.
I think the venting was last week and hopefully the weirdos are no longer posting here on the community blog.
Thank you to the fine officers of the MPD.
But let’s keep the pressure on Tommy Wells that all is not back to normal now that one teenager has been arrested.
There are very systemic problems (which numerous commenters have talked about on other posts) which still require his (our) attention. This is not over.
MCH: I completely agree with you. The pressure needs to remain in place, especially on Tommy Wells. If things don’t change, we need someone tough on crime to run against Mr. Wells next time around. The fact that this juvenile criminal is well known by district police very likely means they have arrested this individual numerous times before and he lives in the area. It also means the juvenile laws allowed him to go back on the street almost immediately without our knowledge of his violent past.
I also want to thank the police department for their hard work on this case. We can only imagine their frustration of spending all their time catching this kid for who only knows what else and then they then have to see him on the street probably hours later simply because he is a juvenile.
We need to give credit to MPD for catching the perpetrator while continuing to push our elected officials (self included) and public servants to reduce violent juvenile crime and quality of life degrading non-violent crimes (robbery, burglary, etc.).
Enactment of the juvenile crime bill, which has been signed by the Mayor and is awaiting adjudication in the Congress, is a good first step. We need Rep Holmes Norton to push this through. Personally, I want to know where the perpetrator lives. I want to know what he looks like and I want to know when he is back on the street.
Numerous neighbors from Potomac Gardens attended the PSA meeting last Thursday. They were understandably upset at the treatment they received in the blogosphere, but, more than that, they emphasized that they want the same thing as everyone else–a safe place to live. They challenged the community to work with them to improve the neighborhood, and committed to doing the same. Once we get past the sturm and drang surrounding PG, we need to recognize the fact that PG is not the point of origin for the criminals committing the majority of crimes in our area (those who are caught). This comes straight from Lt Miccichi, the Lieutenant in charge of PSA 106. Once we accept this fact, and treat our neighbors like neighbors, we need to acknowledge that there is an acknowledged drug market run on the premise, and work together to shut it down.
Again, there are many elements to the problem, and I encourage a continued civic discussion to find solutions.
I’m just glad to hear that they think they’ve caught this person. I’m used to dealing with the robberies in the area, but the random assault was a little out-of-the ordinary .. even for those of us who have been living there for a while. Hope they’ll keep him off the streets for a while and hope the victim recovers soon!
“I want to know where the perpetrator lives. I want to know what he looks like and I want to know when he is back on the street.” OK. Then what?