11-year-old charged in robberies as D.C. struggles to quell youth violence
The Washington Post (archive.ph)
By Peter Hermann, Keith L. Alexander, and Emily Davies
2023-05-31 15:56:00GMT
As soon as he confronted the masked youth who seemed to be trying to rob him with a gun last week on Irving Street in Northwest Washington, Ryan Cummins knew the assailant was young.
“When I shoved him, he weighed nothing,” Cummins said in an interview.
The 45-year-old told police he thought his attacker weighed about 90 pounds and was between 12 and 14 years old.
Police said the youth they arrested on Saturday in Cummins’s case and two nearby robberies is even younger: 11. He is among the youngest arrested in the District this year in an armed robbery.
“It’s pretty disgusting,” said Cummins, who has lived in a neighborhood east of Columbia Heights for more than two decades.
The youth’s arrest comes as D.C. authorities are struggling with violence against and perpetrated by juveniles, and as some fear younger children are more at risk than they used to be. Less than a month ago, police announced they had charged a 12-year-old in connection with nine carjackings, robberies and assaults.
Jawanna Hardy, founder of the local nonprofit Guns Down Friday, said her organization has shifted its focus from high-schoolers to middle-schoolers, and for the first time this year, she selected children under 13 years old as the highest priority for her summer mentorship program.
Hardy said she made the change after noticing last summer that the 15- and 16-year-olds had started to encourage their younger siblings to join them on the streets — a trend she called new in D.C. and alarming.
“Back in the day, that was against the code. You protected your younger siblings against things going on in the world,” she said. Hardy also said the 15- and 16-year-olds were increasingly hard to reach. By that age, she said, they had already lost so many friends to gun violence that “it was hard to get them not to retaliate. The pain was so deep.”
D.C. police say that more than half the 43 people arrested for carjacking this year are juveniles, most 15 and 16 years old. Outgoing Police Chief Robert J. Contee III has told the D.C. Council that more juveniles are being arrested on a serious crime as their first-ever offense. Last year, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) declared youth crime an “emergency.”
Eight youths under the age of 18 have been killed in the District by gunfire this year. Police said that through May 18, 48 juveniles have been shot, double from this time last year.
Cummins said he believes the 11-year-old and an older accomplice who remains at large tried to rob him, though it was unclear what they may have wanted.
He told police one of the youths mumbled “get him” or “get that” when they first approached, according to the police report. In the interview, Cummins said he pushed the youth, then turned “and saw him point a gun at me.” He said he took cover behind a stone wall and threw a rock at them, and they sped away on bicycles.
The 11-year-old also was charged as a juvenile with armed robbery after police said two young males robbed a man of a bicycle near his home on Lamont Street NW on May 21. Police said the man at first refused his assailant’s demands, but complied when the 11-year-old pulled a gun from his fanny pack. The youth was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon in Cummins’s case and with robbery in a May 26 incident on Luray Place NW in which car keys were taken.
Because juvenile records are sealed, The Washington Post was unable to review court records or determine the status of the pending criminal case. The D.C. Office of the Attorney General, which prosecutes juvenile crime, declined to discuss this case, citing privacy laws.
Many other juveniles are accused of serious offenses this month in and around the District.
Police in D.C. and in Prince George’s County said Monday that authorities had arrested a 15-year-old wanted in the attempted killing of a teenager aboard a school bus. Officials have said that teen also is a suspect in the killing of a woman in the District. Earlier this month, police said they had arrested a 15-year-old in an armed carjacking, a 16-year-old in two armed robberies with firearms, and a 14-year-old in three armed robberies using a knife.
On Tuesday, a D.C. Superior Court judge said the 12-year-old, now 13, charged in nine separate carjackings, robberies and assaults over five weeks in Southeast Washington had fled a youth detention shelter.
He had been moved to a less-secure shelter after his attorney successfully argued that District prosecutors failed to provide any evidence in eight of the alleged crimes. Judge Robert A. Salerno ordered police to pick up the youth after he learned the youth was not at the shelter.
Cummins blamed the mayor’s office and council members for failing to keep crime down in the city. Some lawmakers have stressed rehabilitation over incarceration for juvenile offenders. Contee has pushed for more consequences for young and older criminal suspects.
Cummins said he was shot in the leg by a bullet last year in an alley near his home when he came across a dispute between two other men. Police described him as an apparent unintended target, but Cummins said the gunman fired multiple rounds down the alley at him and others.
He said police told him efforts to arrest the adult suspect were put on hold by prosecutors. A D.C. police spokesman confirmed the prosecution in the case was declined.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the District said her office does not comment on charging decisions.
Cummins said he had video of the incident and the license plate of a vehicle the shooter used. “I don’t know what else you need,” he said, adding, “It’s amazingly frustrating.”
Cummins said he learned of the arrest in the most recent case involving the 11-year-old when his brother’s friend spotted an item on the news and called him. He said he wasn’t too surprised when he learned the boy’s age, noting, “I knew how small the guy was.”
He said to the assailants, robbing and pointing guns at people “is like a big game. They don’t care. No one else’s lives matter to them anymore.”
The Washington Post (archive.ph)
By Peter Hermann, Keith L. Alexander, and Emily Davies
2023-05-31 15:56:00GMT
As soon as he confronted the masked youth who seemed to be trying to rob him with a gun last week on Irving Street in Northwest Washington, Ryan Cummins knew the assailant was young.
“When I shoved him, he weighed nothing,” Cummins said in an interview.
The 45-year-old told police he thought his attacker weighed about 90 pounds and was between 12 and 14 years old.
Police said the youth they arrested on Saturday in Cummins’s case and two nearby robberies is even younger: 11. He is among the youngest arrested in the District this year in an armed robbery.
“It’s pretty disgusting,” said Cummins, who has lived in a neighborhood east of Columbia Heights for more than two decades.
The youth’s arrest comes as D.C. authorities are struggling with violence against and perpetrated by juveniles, and as some fear younger children are more at risk than they used to be. Less than a month ago, police announced they had charged a 12-year-old in connection with nine carjackings, robberies and assaults.
Jawanna Hardy, founder of the local nonprofit Guns Down Friday, said her organization has shifted its focus from high-schoolers to middle-schoolers, and for the first time this year, she selected children under 13 years old as the highest priority for her summer mentorship program.
Hardy said she made the change after noticing last summer that the 15- and 16-year-olds had started to encourage their younger siblings to join them on the streets — a trend she called new in D.C. and alarming.
“Back in the day, that was against the code. You protected your younger siblings against things going on in the world,” she said. Hardy also said the 15- and 16-year-olds were increasingly hard to reach. By that age, she said, they had already lost so many friends to gun violence that “it was hard to get them not to retaliate. The pain was so deep.”
D.C. police say that more than half the 43 people arrested for carjacking this year are juveniles, most 15 and 16 years old. Outgoing Police Chief Robert J. Contee III has told the D.C. Council that more juveniles are being arrested on a serious crime as their first-ever offense. Last year, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) declared youth crime an “emergency.”
Eight youths under the age of 18 have been killed in the District by gunfire this year. Police said that through May 18, 48 juveniles have been shot, double from this time last year.
Cummins said he believes the 11-year-old and an older accomplice who remains at large tried to rob him, though it was unclear what they may have wanted.
He told police one of the youths mumbled “get him” or “get that” when they first approached, according to the police report. In the interview, Cummins said he pushed the youth, then turned “and saw him point a gun at me.” He said he took cover behind a stone wall and threw a rock at them, and they sped away on bicycles.
The 11-year-old also was charged as a juvenile with armed robbery after police said two young males robbed a man of a bicycle near his home on Lamont Street NW on May 21. Police said the man at first refused his assailant’s demands, but complied when the 11-year-old pulled a gun from his fanny pack. The youth was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon in Cummins’s case and with robbery in a May 26 incident on Luray Place NW in which car keys were taken.
Because juvenile records are sealed, The Washington Post was unable to review court records or determine the status of the pending criminal case. The D.C. Office of the Attorney General, which prosecutes juvenile crime, declined to discuss this case, citing privacy laws.
Many other juveniles are accused of serious offenses this month in and around the District.
Police in D.C. and in Prince George’s County said Monday that authorities had arrested a 15-year-old wanted in the attempted killing of a teenager aboard a school bus. Officials have said that teen also is a suspect in the killing of a woman in the District. Earlier this month, police said they had arrested a 15-year-old in an armed carjacking, a 16-year-old in two armed robberies with firearms, and a 14-year-old in three armed robberies using a knife.
On Tuesday, a D.C. Superior Court judge said the 12-year-old, now 13, charged in nine separate carjackings, robberies and assaults over five weeks in Southeast Washington had fled a youth detention shelter.
He had been moved to a less-secure shelter after his attorney successfully argued that District prosecutors failed to provide any evidence in eight of the alleged crimes. Judge Robert A. Salerno ordered police to pick up the youth after he learned the youth was not at the shelter.
Cummins blamed the mayor’s office and council members for failing to keep crime down in the city. Some lawmakers have stressed rehabilitation over incarceration for juvenile offenders. Contee has pushed for more consequences for young and older criminal suspects.
Cummins said he was shot in the leg by a bullet last year in an alley near his home when he came across a dispute between two other men. Police described him as an apparent unintended target, but Cummins said the gunman fired multiple rounds down the alley at him and others.
He said police told him efforts to arrest the adult suspect were put on hold by prosecutors. A D.C. police spokesman confirmed the prosecution in the case was declined.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the District said her office does not comment on charging decisions.
Cummins said he had video of the incident and the license plate of a vehicle the shooter used. “I don’t know what else you need,” he said, adding, “It’s amazingly frustrating.”
Cummins said he learned of the arrest in the most recent case involving the 11-year-old when his brother’s friend spotted an item on the news and called him. He said he wasn’t too surprised when he learned the boy’s age, noting, “I knew how small the guy was.”
He said to the assailants, robbing and pointing guns at people “is like a big game. They don’t care. No one else’s lives matter to them anymore.”
