Early Saturday morning, officers from the Metropolitan Police Department arrested two men suspected of robbing a woman at knifepoint on the 3900 block of W Street.

According to a crime summary from Lieutenant Antonio Charland, the victim of the robbery, a female, left a party at 40th Street around 1:30 a.m. and was approached from behind by two black males. One suspect took out a knife, held it to her throat, and told her to drop her belongings. The suspects then stole her purse, credit cards, $80, and BlackBerry, and fled the scene.

MPD officers arrived in minutes to canvas the scene and apprehended two suspects, and the Second District’s detective office helped them conduct a visual identification. The victim made a positive ID, and the suspects were arrested.

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Damon Pearson, 59, the pedestrian struck in the car accident at Wisconsin Avenue and M Street on March 30, died as a result of his injuries on April 3. Pearson, who has no fixed address, was struck by a Volkswagen as he was crossing Wisconsin Avenue and transported to George Washington Hospital. He was treated at Washington Hospital Center until April 3.

The Metropolitan Police department report said that they are still investigating the crash.

The Department of Public Safety is reporting that early Wednesday morning, a student was robbed at 3700 R Street. According to a Public Safety Alert, three unknown male approached her at 12:29 a.m., pushed her, and took her tote bag. When she screamed, suspects kicked her in the leg and told her to shut up.

From the PSA:

“Witnesses inside her residence heard the scream and called DPS and MPD. DPS, MPD officers and detectives arrived on the scene. The investigation is ongoing under the direction of MPD.

“The suspects are described as three black males. No other description was provided.”

This is the second robbery to take place at this location in two weeks. In the early morning of Monday, March 29, a man was robbed at gunpoint at the same location. In response to that incident, the Metropolitan Police Department said it increased area patrols.

Update 4:48—The Department of Public Safety has put out a PSA about this incident, which said that the victim is not believed to be affiliated with Georgetown.

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This morning, a violent robbery at gunpoint that sent its victim to the Georgetown University Hospital took place in Burleith. This incident and recent burglaries has prompted the Metropolitan Police Department to increase area patrols to combat burglaries and robberies, Gwendolyn Crump, a public relations officer for MPD, said.

Citing the five recent burglaries that took place in Georgetown, this most recent robbery, and a March 18 robbery at knifepoint that took place at 3100 O Street, MPD said it will be policing the area more thoroughly for the time being.

The robbery, which happened in the early morning of Monday, March 29, took place at 37th and R Streets. A masked, black male, about 5’8″ with a thin build, and another suspect who is not described robbed a victim at gunpoint and beat him.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Ed Solomon reported the crime, which he heard about through a text alert, over the Burleith neighborhood listserv. Solomon also provided the crime narrative from the police report, which we have paragraphed and edited for clarity:

“At this location, the victim reports that he was robbed. He was walking west in the 3600 block of R street when he was approached from behind by two suspects. The victim turned when one suspect pointed what appeared to be a gun at him that was white or light in color and told him to give him his wallet.

“The victim reached to give the suspect his wallet when both suspects grabbed him, taking him to the ground where they kicked and punched him, and took his wallet. The two suspects fled on foot and then got into a box style Jeep parked at the end of the block. The vehicle left the scene east on R street. The suspect was taken to Georgetown University Hospital where he was treated and released with minor injuries to the head.”

The five burglaries all took place within nine days of each other, prompting the Department of Public Safety to begin checking with students to make sure their doors were locked. You can read more in Voice news.

A student living in an apartment on the 1400 block of 36th Street awoke at bout 7:40 a.m. on Friday morning to find that over $5000 worth of items had been stolen from his house, the Department of Public Safety said in a Public Safety Alert.

DPS said that the suspect entered through an unlocked back door near an unlocked back date. The stolen items included a 42″ flat screen TV. The Metropolitan Police Department responded to the scene and is investigating the crime.

Following a burglary and attempted burglary that took place early Monday morning and a burglary reported by MPD on a community listserv that took place on Wednesday at 37th & O Streets at about 11:45 a.m., this is the fourth area burglary this week. More than one person was also robbed at knifepoint at the 3100 block of O Street on Thursday night.

On Thursday night at about 11, a suspect robbed victims by approaching them from behind and brandishing a knife. Victor Braschnewitz of the Metropolitan Police Department reported on a community listserv that the suspect ran east on O Street after the robbery, and is still at large.

It is unclear how many victims the suspect robbed, but from Braschnewitz’s report, it seems that at least two victims were robbed in this incident. They subsequently reported the crime to MPD.

According to the e-mail, the suspect is described as a black male between the ages of 30 and 35 with a thin build, medium complexion, short black hair, and between 5’4’’ – 5’6’’ tall. He was wearing blue pants and an orange shirt with Reebok symbols on the shirt.

View January 2010 Crime Map in a larger map

January was a particularly violent month at Georgetown. Not because the number of crime incidents surged—there were 29 crimes reported for January in the Department of Public Safety’s Daily Crime log, which is about even with September and November, and nowhere near October, when 52 crimes were reported—but because the number of more serious incidents increased from months where there were a comparable number of crimes.

• Two assaults occurred on campus this month. The first was the incident Vox reported on in which a female student assaulted another with her keys after he broke up with her. The second occurred in Reynolds on a Thursday night, and ended with the complainant being treated in the emergency room for head injuries.

• A hit-and-run occurred at the Prospect Street gate which did not end in a trip to the emergency room.

• One robbery occurred in which the complainant was pushed into a wall and cash was stolen from her.

• Three cases of harassment were reported this month. In one, a student in Copley Hall received notes with offensive language; in another, someone received profane and harassing text messages; in the third case, someone in the New South Facilities building received annoying radio transmissions. All three cases are under investigation.

Read the rest of this entry »

OK, so this isn’t something you need to watch out for at the moment—dozens of Metro stations are closed and even if you’re using the underground rail, where are you going?

But when D.C. pulls itself back together, keep an eye out for potential thieves on the Metro when you’re riding to a basketball game or internship. The Washington Examiner reports that in the first 11 months of 2009, robberies on the Metro skyrocketed to 805 thefts from 538 over the same period in 2008.

And 2007, the same period saw only 397 thefts—which means that robberies on the Metro have essentially doubled in two years.

Driving the rise in theft, Chief of Police Jeff Delinski told the Examiner, are suspects who grab electronic devices like iPods and BlackBerries out of people’s hands.

“In many cases, a robber will grab an iPod or cell phone from a rider just before train doors close at a Metro station,” the article says. “The crime isn’t reported until the victim reaches the next station and by then, the robber has gotten away.”

In April, transit police began placing undercover agents on Metro cars to arrest criminals who snatched electronics (or committed other crimes) but they can’t be everywhere. So watch your iPhone.

Via DCist.

Photo from Flickr user WisDoc used under a Creative Commons license.

On Wednesday, February 3, at around 11:45 a.m., three black males confronted a University employee and attempted to rob him. The victim repeatedly refused to comply with demands from the three suspects that he give them anything, and they left him without taking anything.

The Department of Public Safety has put out the following details in a Public Safety Alert:

At approximately 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, February 4, 2010, a University employee reported to DPS that he was the victim of an attempted robbery in the 3300 block of M Street moments earlier. He reported that while walking to his classroom, which is located on the same block, three unknown males were walking towards him. Two of them passed him, then approached him from behind, while the third confronted him from the front. One suspect had his hand inside a black duffle bag. Another suspect demanded the complainant “give it up, old man.”

When the complainant did not comply, the suspect repeated the demand. When the complainant did not comply again, the suspects began walking away, at which time the complainant called DPS. The suspects then ran east towards Wisconsin Avenue. DPS notified MPD and responded to the employee’s office. MPD officers and detectives responded and the investigation was turned over to them.

Paragraphing is Vox‘s. The PSA gives the following description of the three suspects: “The suspects are described as three black males. Suspect one: 5’7″, average build, wearing all black. Suspect two: 5’9″, average build, wearing all black. Suspect three: 6′, clean shaven, average build, wearing all black clothing and a hood over his head, carrying a black duffle bag. The hood has a blue stripe on the bottom portion and a yellow stripe on the upper portion.”

Following an early morning burglary in Village C West, a female student was walking home alone when she was robbed by force near Alumni Square along O Street.

From the Department of Public Safety’s Public Safety Alert:

At 11:40 a.m. on Saturday, January 23, 2010, a student reported to DPS that she was the victim of a robbery earlier the same morning in the 3600 Block of O Street. The complainant reported that at approximately 3:40 a.m. she was walking home alone along O Street adjacent to Alumni Square when the suspect pushed her up against a wall and demanded money.

The complainant gave the suspect $50 dollars in cash, and the suspect fled in an unknown direction. DPS responded to the complainant’s residence to take the report. The complainant declined to report the incident to MPD.

The student was not injured, and declined to report the crime to the Metropolitan Police Department

An elderly woman who was robbed as she entered her house on 28th Street suspects that the man who robbed her had followed her home from the Bank of America on M Street and Wisconsin Avenue.

The suspect, who Second District Commander Matthew Klein described in an e-mail as “a black male, black hair, 40 – 45 years of age, 6’1″ to 6’2″ in height, a stocky build, wearing a black coat and pants,” pushed the woman into her house as she was unlocking the door, knocked her to the ground by hitting her in the face, and took her purse.

According to an e-mail from Citizens Association of Georgetown Public Safety Committee member Diane Colasanto, he has since used her credit cards at D.C. gas stations and other locations. The incident happened last Thursday at about noon.