Crime Report: Carjackings, Dumpster Fires, and Poor Crime-Solving
By • November 27, 2023 0 961
Once again, a phony fender-bender and carjacking in the neighborhood: this time on Foxhall Road near Whitehaven Parkway NW. Also – perhaps symbolically – dumpster fires appeared to be set by an arsonist at various points in Northwest, D.C. And, again, national news headlines spotlight D.C.’s poor crime-solving performance.
In the carjacking case, Elise Sidamon-Eristoff told News4 she and her partner Harry Andreades, along with Sidamon-Eristoff’s sister, were heading home from her parents’ house along Foxhall Road Nov. 21st, when a gray Lexus SUV tapped the back of their BMW, in a now-familiar set-up for an armed carjacking.
When Andreades got out to inspect the damage, he was ready to report the happy news that there was no real damage worth fiiling an insurance claim or police report. But, before he knew it, masked assailants from the car that hit them had entered their car and put guns to his face and chest. “By the time I turned around to be like, ‘There’s no damage, guys – you’re good. You can go. No need for a report,’ I had a gun to my chest — one to my face — and I just put my hands up,” Andreades said.
The masked gunmen also demanded valuables. “I was just confused at first, and I reached for my purse,” Sidamon-Eristoff told NBC4. “It happened so quickly, I think it didn’t click until they were driving away with our belongings.” Fortunately, due to an Airtag in the couple’s BMW, detectives were able to track the victims’ car to Southern Ave. near Gray St. SE. Nevertheless, Sidamon-Eristoff is still shaken by the incident. “[I’m] frightened to drive, frightened to walk the dog at night. I just – I’m shaken up,” she said.
Dumpster Fires in Northwest
Hopefully, we all know what a “dumpster fire” is in the literal sense. However, in slang it has come to mean, “an utterly calamitous or mismanaged situation or occurrence: disaster.” Merriam-Webster even added this “gleefully catastrophic phrase” to its official lexicography in 2018, according to NPR. Could the (literal) dumpster fires in Northwest on Monday night, somehow symbolize D.C.’s out-of-control crime response?
DC Fire and EMS issued a social media notice Nov. 24 at 6:47 p.m. announcing the “arrest of a suspect wanted in connection with various intentionally set outside fires in NW DC.”
DC Fire and EMS video of dumpster fire responses. From X, Twitter.
According to WTOP, “most of the fires happened along Wisconsin Avenue in Tenleytown.” Due to the fires, two businesses near the Tenleytown Metro station were damaged Monday night. “Working Fire 4400 block Wisconsin Ave NW,” DC Fire and EMS posted to X Nov. 20 at 6:43 p.m. “Dumpster fire in rear extended into 1st and 2nd floors 2 story end row commercial building.” D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Vito Maggiolo told WTOP investigation is ongoing and the suspect is not yet connected to all of the fires, which “include two more on Thanksgiving.”
More Dumpster Fires? National News Headlines Again Focus on D.C.’s Poor Crime-Solving
On Nov. 24, Associated Press reported that “homicides are rising in the nation’s capital, but police are solving far fewer of the cases.” Washington, D.C., the report said is “witnessing a multiyear spike in the number of homicides,” but crime-solving has recently deteriorated. Such trends, of course, lead to a downwardly spiraling feedback-loop, where would-be criminals are less-deterred while residents lose faith in police, detectives and law enforcement generally.
“The percentage of homicides that are solved by the Metropolitan Police Department has declined sharply in 2023, leaving the city on track to record its lowest so-called “clearance rate” or “closure rate” in more than 15 years,” AP reported. “As of Nov. 13, only 75 of the 244 homicides committed this year have been solved by police. Factoring in the 33 prior-year homicides cleared thus far in 2023, the overall closure rate stands at around 45 percent. That would be the lowest rate dating back at least to 2007, according to statistics provided by the MPD.”
According to Professor of Criminology Rick Rosenfeld of the Univ. of Missouri-St. Louis, the “average clearance rate tends to hover” between 50 percent and 60 percent, meaning D.C is well below average in cities’ crime-solving.
The AP story cited D.C.’s Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Lyndsey Appiah who acknowledged that case closure represents “some sense of justice for victims,” and without it, a sense of “crisis” is created. In testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee this year, Appiah “flatly acknowledged the scope of the crisis facing the nation’s capital,” AP reported. “Oxford defines a crisis as a time of intense difficulty, trouble or danger,” she testified. “So I would say there is a crisis.”
Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice (DMPSJ) Lindsey Appiah. Courtesy MPD.
D.C.’s crime lab, the Department of Forensic Science also “lost its accreditation in spring 2021 over allegations of flaws in its analysis,” the report said. “Appiah said the lab hopes to regain its accreditation early next year; in the meantime, the city is outsourcing its crime scene analysis, a process that consumes time and money, she said, according to AP.
Other indications that D.C. is facing a “crime crisis”? “Homicides in Washington are up 33 percent this year over last. Violent crimes involving juveniles also are rising steadily, as are carjackings, with a U.S. congressman and a diplomat from the United Arab Emirates among the recent victims,” AP reported.
Local Reports
Yesterday, Nov. 26, MPD Second District Watch Commander posted on social media a robbery at “12:50, 3100 M St. NW. Per the watch’s post, “Robbery Snatch Victim-1 reported that Suspect-1 approached her and grabbed her laptop computer and fled. Victim-1 stated that she chased the suspect and get hold of the backpack Suspect-1 was wearing when he tossed the laptop to the ground. As Suspect-1 continued fleeing, he snatched the glasses from Victim-2 face and fled the scene,” the post said. “No injuries reported.”
On Nov. 25, MPD Second District Watch Commander posted on social media another “robbery” at 4200 Mass. Ave. NW. “Victim-1 reported that he was approached by Suspect-1 & 2 who demanded his apartment keys and cellphone. When Victims-1 refused he was struck multiple time with a pistol,” the post said. “Suspect-1 & 2 obtained Victim-1’s property and fled the scene. Victim-1 was taking to the hospital for treatment. Suspect-1 & 2 are still on the loose.”
On Nov. 25, MPD Second District Watch Commander also reported investigation of a “stabbing” at the 4500 block of Connecticut Ave. NW. On the same day, the same Watch Commander posted about an investigation launched into an “armed robbery” Nov. 25 at “approximately 12:30 a.m. in the 1200 block of 16th St. NW. “Four armed suspects wearing masks and dark clothing demanded personal property from a victim,” the post said. “The suspects then pushed the victim to the ground and stole personal items. The suspects fled the scene in a dark colored Hyundai bearing unknown tags.”
Also, on Sat. Nov. 25, detectives from MPD’s Fourth District announced “a man has been arrested for armed robberies” at the following locations:
- On Nov. 10, at approximately 7:28 p.m., the suspect approached the victim in the 5200 block of Georgia Avenue, Northwest. The suspect brandished a handgun and took the victim’s property. The suspect fled the scene.
- On Nov. 23, 2023, at approximately 11:43 p.m., the suspect approached the victim in the 5400 block of Georgia Avenue, Northwest. The suspect brandished a handgun and demanded the victim’s property. The victim did not comply. The suspect was apprehended by responding units.
Per the report, 62-year-old Darryl Love, of Northwest, DC, was arrested and charged.
On Nov. 24, MPD Second District Watch Commander reported on social media a “robbery of an establishment” in Georgetown at 2411 37th St. NW. “Suspect-1 entered the establishment display a handgun and demanded the money. The cashier complied with Suspect-1 and Suspect-1 fled the scene on foot Southbound on 37th NW. No injuries reported,” the post said. “Suspect-1 is [described] as a heavy set black male , 5’6 “ to 5’8” dressed in all black wearing a black mask carrying a black handgun.”
On Nov. 23, MPD Second District Watch Commander reported on social media an investigation into an armed robbery Nov. 13 “at approximately 12:40 a.m. in the 1700 block of N Street NW. “The lookout is for three black male suspects with at least one armed with a gun. The victim was standing in the middle of the street when a dark or black Nissan Sentra pulled up with two suspects exiting and demanding property from the victim. One suspect patted down the victim and took his two phones which were recovered nearby. The suspects were last seen in the vehicle south bound in an alley,” the post said.
On Nov. 22, detectives from MPD’s Second District requested public “assistance in identifying suspects and a vehicle in reference to an armed robbery” Nov. 11 in Northwest. “At approximately 11:39 p.m., the suspects exited a vehicle and approached the victims in the 900 block of G Place, Northwest,” the post said. “The suspects brandished handguns and demanded the victims’ property. The victims complied. The suspects took the property then fled the scene in the vehicle. The suspects and the suspects’ vehicle were captured by surveillance cameras and can be seen in this video:” https://youtu.be/_LMDuzqlskQ
On Nov. 22, detectives from MPD’s Second District also reported a search for a “suspect who burglarized a business in the 1300 block of New York Avenue, Northwest.” On October 25, at approximately 3:00 a.m., the “suspect shattered a front window and entered a business. The suspect took cash from a register then fled the scene,” an MPD press release said. “The suspect was captured by surveillance cameras and can be seen in the photos below and in this video:” https://youtu.be/p3k2oiAluzs
Surveillance photos from incident at 1300 block of New York Ave. NW. MPD photo.
Also, on Nov. 22, detectives from MPD’s Second District requested public assistance in “identifying suspects and a vehicle in reference to an armed robbery” Nov. 11 in Northwest. “At approximately 11:39 p.m., the suspects exited a vehicle and approached the victims in the 900 block of G Place, Northwest,” an MPD press release said. “The suspects brandished handguns and demanded the victims’ property. The victims complied. The suspects took the property then fled the scene in the vehicle. The suspects and the suspects’ vehicle were captured by surveillance cameras and can be seen in this video:” https://youtu.be/_LMDuzqlskQ
On Nov. 20, detectives from MPD’s Carjacking Task Force announced two arrests “in several armed carjackings” across the District. Per an MPD press release: “In each of the below offenses, the suspects approached the victim(s) at the location. At least one suspect displayed a firearm and demanded their vehicle. In each offense, the suspects fled in the victim’s vehicle.
- On Oct. 28, 2023, at approximately 8:35 p.m. in the 900 block of 9th Street Northeast.
- On Nov. 1, 2023, at approximately 4:12 a.m. in the 6900 block of Blair Road Northwest.
- On Nov. 7, 2023, at approximately 12:03 a.m in the 1400 block of G Street Northwest.
Per the report, on Nov. 20, “two 15-year-old juvenile males, both of Southeast, DC, were arrested and charged with three counts of Armed Carjacking.”
On Nov. 19, detectives from MPD’s Homicide Branch announced an investigation into “a shooting that killed a man in Northwest D.C.” On Nov. 19, at approximately 3:08 a.m., Third District officers responded to the 2100 block of 8th Street, Northwest, for the report of an unconscious person inside a parking garage,” an MPD press release said. “Upon arrival, officers located an adult male suffering from a gunshot wound. The victim died at the scene. The victim has been identified as 24-year-old Anwar Wingate, of Forestville, Maryland.”
