Assaulted on M Street

Posted By Mark Saul, 04/25/10 7:01 PM

I was assaulted about an hour ago on the 400 block of M street. I was walking up 5th Street from Safeway with a bag of groceries, and noticed three young men loitering in front of me. They started walking towards NY Avenue, so I walked briskly up the street, and turned on M. Looking back, I noticed that they followed me. One started running towards me, passed me running, and punched me in the jaw as he passed. He and the other two ran ahead of me, east on M.

I started shouting "Help! Help!" Immediately four good neighbors came out, someone called 911, and one of them ran after the kids--who ran faster and lost him. The police came not 5 minutes later. I cruised the neighborhood with them, but of course we didn't see the kids.

I don't know why the kid punched me--he didn't attempt to rob me or take my bag of groceries. The only moral I can draw from the story is: good neighbors make safe neighborhoods. Those kids wouldn't come back when they saw my neighbors helping me out. And the police were a block away, and three squad cars were on the case immediately.

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Comments

i'm sorry that happened. thats horrible.

Posted By sean / At 4/26/10 6:25 AM

Mark:

I am so happy to hear that you are okay.
Thank you so much for screaming as you did. It was your ability to think quickly and scream that alerted the rest of us that something was going on. I was one of many that called 911 and came outside - and I couldn't agree more with your thoughts. I certainly wish that this didn't happen, but I was so thankful to see so many neighbors act.

If there is a lesson to take out of this, I have to think it is this: we have to own our streets. Mugging is a low effort venture. If we continue to respond as we did last night we make mugging in our neighborhood high effort, and hopefully, not worth muggers time. If you don't feel safe coming out when you hear someone calling for help, you can do much to help and deter these events from occurring - turn your lights on, scream LOUDLY out your windows that you're calling 911, bang on pots and pans to make noise. The key is to make the block come alive with action and noise so that the muggers know that this isn't going to be tolerated, neighbors are watching and the police will be called, making it too much of an effort for muggers to act on our streets.

Last night I was so saddened by what occurred but so filled with hope and appreciation for my neighbors and how they responded.
We've waited so long to have a supermarket and restaurants within walking distance. I want to enjoy all that our neighborhood has to offer without fearing walking home from the Metro, my car, gym, or Safeway.

All the best.

- the people and places - has to offer.
All the best.

Posted By Mary Lou / At 4/26/10 7:38 AM

I'm so sorry this happened. there have been a steady stream of incidents lately including gunfire to the north. Also the other night my husband and I were riding bicycles up the 900 block of 4th st passing a group of teenagers heading south. They decided to throw rocks at him. Muggings have been occurring on all sides of safeway & the police have informed us they are coordinating PSA 308 & 101 (as the area spans different districts) to address this.

Posted By Si Kailian / At 4/26/10 8:05 AM

Hey - glad to hear that you're (mostly) OK.

Posted By Maya / At 4/26/10 1:00 PM

I've also had rocks thrown at me in the neighborhood by juveniles in the last couple months. It was about a half block from the new Northwest One Library on the 1000 block of NJ Ave. I'd estimate the kids were only 12 or 13.

Posted By Paul / At 4/26/10 1:45 PM

If it's 10-14 year-olds you're talking about, I know the names of at least some of the kids. Not sure if I'm allowed to share that info though, will have to check into it.

Posted By Tony / At 4/28/10 11:57 AM

better to share with the police, the 1D Lts are eddie.fowler(at)dc.gov and james.dykes(at)dc.gov

Posted By Si Kailian / At 4/28/10 12:51 PM

Lt. Fowler responded to my email right away and said he will brief the evening shift regarding the rock throwing incidents.

Posted By Si Kailian / At 4/28/10 3:19 PM

Some people I've spoken with characterize this incident as some sort of gang initiation ritual. That makes sense: the kids seemed to be following some sort of 'script'. And others have experienced similar instances.

Many thanks to all the good neighbors who came out to help. One of the casualties of such incidents is the feeling that the fabric of our connections, of human caring, has been rent. Thinking of all the support I got goes far towards healing that feeling.

Posted By Mark / At 5/5/10 4:25 PM