Robbery and Stabbing Near Petworth Metro Friday Night
23 August 2009 9:50 PM | By Prince Of Petworth in Crime, Crime - Stories, Neighborhoods - Petworth 
IMG_3468, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.
A reader writes:
“Just wanted to give you the heads up about a brutal robbery/stabbing that occurred at NH Ave and Quincy Street last night [Fri 8/21] at about 10pm. About a dozen young guys chased, beat, and stabbed a man for a pair of shoes. You’ll have to contact an MPD official or councilmember for more info – that’s all I have.”
I emailed and confirmed with MPD that this incident did indeed occur. As it is an ongoing investigation they were unable to provide me with more info at present. Though they did say:
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23 August 2009 10:13 PM | AngryParakeet Said:
I worked with a woman whose husband’s son was killed for his Northface coat – late 1990’s.
23 August 2009 10:20 PM | AngryParakeet Said:
A woman I worked with told me that her husband’s son was killed for his Northface coat, late 1990’s.
23 August 2009 10:30 PM | reflexive Said:
disgusting. i’m glad its not life threatening, but i bet it stills screws up this persons life. as least for a while.
ya’ll know about this:
http://www.dccourts.gov/dccourts/superior/cvcp.jsp
23 August 2009 10:43 PM | anon Said:
wow, and just today i said, “im glad people are over killing people for sneakers”. Spoke too soon, this sucks.
23 August 2009 10:50 PM | Cliff Said:
This reminds me of what was going on at the Petworth metro station just a few months ago. Last year I was chased by 3 guys almost all the way home. One neighbor of mine on Park Place had her laptop stolen twice, just about a month apart. The second time they pulled her out into the street, and she was pregnant. Needless to say, they moved – which sux cuz they were good neighbors
23 August 2009 11:36 PM | anonymous Said:
Utterly preposterous!
Sneakers are not expensive at all. If you can’t buy sneakers, man, you’re a loser.
24 August 2009 9:43 AM | Nate Said:
Why would a dozen men beat someone for ONE pair of shoes? That does not make a lot of sense.
On a related note: I was leaving out of the house this morning. My neighbor was sitting on his front porch. I asked was he going to school. He said, “no.” I asked why. He told me his mom didn’t bother to enroll him. Or his brother. So I told him to cut both of my yards while he is out of school to give him something to do.
I mentor this young boy. I really like this kid. He is the brother to the boy that beats his girlfriend in public. This boy has a chance to make it. But in his home environment, the odds are stacked terribly against him.
24 August 2009 9:58 AM | Shawn Said:
Wow, this is really scary. What goes through people’s minds when they decide to beat and stab someone to take their stuff? I can’t really understand it.
Also Nate, isn’t it illegal for kids to not attend school until they are 16 or so? Maybe that household needs a visit from the truancy enforcement folks.
24 August 2009 10:05 AM | Jay'O Said:
Wow, that’s really tragic. It makes me wonder why we can’t get Metro cops out infront of the Metro stations. It seems there’s a good amount of crime around metro stations and if we had plain clothes metro cops around, it could make help…
24 August 2009 10:07 AM | Jay'O Said:
“it could make help” should read: “It might help”
24 August 2009 10:36 AM | Bryan Said:
Jay’O – call me crazy but I’ll trump your Metro Police in front of every metro stop by adding police in front of every housing project. All the money spent on ripping up 14th street for the 200th time could be put to better use building all weather shelters around the city to keep cops out of their car and in visible areas where they can do some good
24 August 2009 10:38 AM | Anon Said:
Do we know the details on what type of sneakers these were because I too find it hard to believe a dozen young guys stabbed someone for a pair of sneakers. What happens if the sneakers are too big or too small? With a dozen guys the likelihood of the shoes not fitting is probably small but what if they fit more than one person. Who gets the shoes then?
24 August 2009 11:11 AM | Marcus Aurelius Said:
It doesn’t make any sense for 12 people to rob someone of their sneakers. That’s why when the real story comes out it will probably not be about someone getting robbed for their sneakers.
But the sneakers are beside the point. I grew up in NYC during the 80s-90s. People were robbed, and in some cases stabbed or shot, for all kinds of things including: gold chains, designer eyglasses, sheepskin coats, leather jackets, fur hats, boom boxes, dirt bikes . . . I could go on and on. The common threads were a belief that it was okay to steal something from someone else rather than work for it and a disrespect for the value of human life.
24 August 2009 11:27 AM | Dirty Said:
There are people that kill for “disrespecting”, there are people that commit armed robbery for less than $100, people will break your window and steal less than $10. These are the people that don’t think about consequences and react without common sense or logic. Risk/reward is not part of the equation. I had DC grand jury duty last summer, saw these situations all the time. The parents probably don’t have common sense and the schools don’t teach it because pre-algebra and geometry are more important to these peoples success than common sense. Nuff said.
24 August 2009 11:43 AM | AngryParakeet Said:
There was this woman I used to work with… ahhh nevermind.
24 August 2009 2:21 PM | Anonymous Said:
Yup, taking the sneakers was probably an afterthought. The beating was likely provoked by “disrespecting” or some other juvenile “beef”. A sneaker robbery is actually less appalling, if you think about it, since something tangible is being fought over.
24 August 2009 7:39 PM | Anonymous Said:
Increases in the number of police, in this study, is cited as the number one cause of the decline in crime in the 90’s. NOTE: this is NOT attributing any change in specific policing strategy. It is merely increasing the number.
http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittUnderstandingWhyCrime2004.pdf
25 August 2009 12:12 AM | G Said:
Nate, both of those young men should be enrolled in school and even though today was the first day, it is not too late. I used to work for DCPS and can assist in identifying his neighborhood school and getting him enrolled. Let me know and we can work something out.