Friday, April 10, 2015

All Hell Broke Loose on H Street Last Night

Untitled
The scene on H Street once things cooled off a bit

You'd have been hard pressed to miss all the action on H Street last night. There were a ton of MPD cruisers out and police tape for blocks surrounding the 1100 block of H Street. We heard early reports that it was a domestic kidnapping, and then that it was related to the Census shooting. Both would turn out to be true. I'll leave the full narration to MPD's press release that appears below.


The best I can tell: the female victim is ok, one MPD officer was shot in the leg, two MPD officers were injured when the suspect struck their vehicle, the Census guard is dead, and the suspect was shot in the head but still alive last I heard.

I arrived home shortly before everything went crazy and by the time I sat down & checked my phone elements of the story were already appearing in my mentions. At first I just saw several questions about large number of MPD cruisers in the area. In response to an inquiry someone forwarded this tweet from a Fox 5 reporter.
From there on the story unfolded rapidly. Luckily, there were no civilian injuries on H Street.
Businesses did their best to make sure customers were safe.

And here's video from Mike Clarke who was ON IT! Crazy scene shot from above.
Some visitors to the H Street Corridor were more than a little caught off guard.


Here's some additional coverage:
Video report from ABC 7

Here's the press release from MPD:

MPD Investigating a Police Involved Shooting: 1100 block of H Street, NE

The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating a police involved shooting that occurred in the 1100 block of H Street, NE.  Preliminary information indicates that on April 9, 2015, at approximately 5:30 pm, officers from the Fifth District responded to a call for an armed kidnapping in the 1900 block of 3rd Street, NE.

The suspect fled with the kidnapping victim, an adult female,  in a green Honda Accord, and approximately 30 minutes later, appeared at the offices of the United States Census Bureau, in Suitland, Maryland.  At that time, a guard at the facility was shot by someone inside of the green Accord. At approximately 7:35 pm, Seventh District officers observed the green Accord in the Woodland Terrace area and began to pursue.  The driver of the green Accord shot at officers in the 2700 block of Bruce Place, SE, and the pursuit continued to the intersection of 1200 block 3rd Street, NE where the suspect again fired at pursuing officers.

The pursuit continued into the 1100 block of H Street, NE where officers attempted to block the vehicle’s path, resulting in a crash.  Following the crash, the suspect and a police sergeant were wounded by apparent gunfire. Both injured parties were transported to area hospitals for treatment. The female kidnapping victim was located safely.

The investigation remains ongoing.  Anyone who has information regarding this case should call police at 202-727-9099.  Additionally, information may be submitted to the TEXT TIP LINE by text messaging 50411.

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought guns were illegal in DC...

Anonymous said...

10:21:00

Shut up.

tito said...

lol

Anonymous said...

I get stopped every time I cross the 14th street bridge trying to bring in guns from Virginia. Hasn't that happened to everyone?

Anonymous said...

OMG! Those poor hipters at the bike shop must have been terrified!

Anonymous said...

The smell of gun powder made me misty eyed thinking about the good old days of open air drug markets. Now all we have left is XII or wait Touché to remember the good old days.

Michael said...

Classy, hilarious comment Anon @ 11:36. OMG! indeed. Hipters do get terrified around public gunfights, unlike families and otherwise normal people who totally never buy bikes.

Anonymous said...

what's a hipster?

Anonymous said...

This is the type of thing I'd expect in Kingman Park, Trinidad, or Carver-Langston. Certainly not so close to the well-established Hill-portion of Western H st. *scary*

Anonymous said...

1100 block of H Street, NE is the eastern end of H, not the west side.

Anonymous said...

@1:57,
1:55 here. You are so right. Sometimes it's *scary* how much of a dumbass I am. Ha ha.

Anonymous said...

This is the dumbest comment thread of all time on this blog. You guys need to re-evaluate your lives.

Anonymous said...

@ 2:49:00

+1

Anonymous said...

police actually got a criminal!

pat said...

This isn't really an H Street Crime, this is
1D and 5D officers stopping a fleeing felon on the clear streets of H Street.

Good Job MPD. Best wishes to the injured officer.
My sympathies to the victim and my hope for a fair trial to the accused.

This crime started elsewhere crossed into maryland
and came back around NE DC before our officers
stopped it.

Anonymous said...

Do you think that the police would have blocked Wisconsin & M street to stop that guy? How about Connecticut and K? Just wondering why it seems to be OK to have gunshots on H Street NE.

Anonymous said...

Just another false flag operation by the DC govt to derail the Hst streetcar! Once the Whole Foods opens
all of the loud foul mouthed loiterers will realize their foolishness, buy Quinoa,and take the Greyhound to a new home!

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:06pm -- are you seriously asking whether the police, in other neighborhoods, would have pulled in front of a driver (in an attempt to stop him) who had kidnapped someone, killed an armed guard, and was *actively shooting at police as he drove*?! Are you really asking that incredibly stupid question? Or am I misinterpreting you?

Anonymous said...

Off Topic- just went to Makketo and it was really nice spot to have a coffee and the Almond Croissant was amazing

Why wasn't it announced in this blog?I do enjoy the silly adventures of the natives and the ANC meetings , but food and drink soothe my soul

inked said...

2:20,
I did actually announce it about a week ago. I was going to do a night before thing as well, but that kind of got bumped because of the police activity. I'll have a post up very soon!

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:22pm -- my god, how empty your life must be.

Anonymous said...

another off topic- i saw a dog at Game of Thrones night at LMWGD. Was that the dog that was arrested? Is the dog back or did I see a different dog?

inked said...

4:01,
That was probably Vaughn. He's back with his owner.

Anonymous said...

so what is happening to all the parties involved with the dog's confiscation? the cop, the humane society, the bar owner, etc

curmudgeon said...

Yeah, as someone who donates a lot of money to WHS each year, I'd also like to know how this shook out and what conclusions I can safely draw.

inked said...

2:44 & curmudgeon,
They found there was no animal abuse. Last I spoke to Mr. Thorp he told me they were in the process of dropping the charges. I do not know if he still plans to pursue a case against the office, MPD, or the District. He expressed that he was happy to have Vaughn back home and wanted to focus on that.

I think it would be ashamed for the WHS, which does a whole lot of good, to lose donations over something that I think was basically not the agency's fault.

When Mr. Thorpe was arrested on the drug charge a condition of his release (since removed) was that he could not possess his dog. As you can imagine, this complicated matters and is the reason the agency originally released Vaughn into the care of Mr. Thorp's attorney rather than to Mr. Thorpe himself.

Anonymous said...

so it looks like it's a happy ending. the dog is back to it's rightful owner, the police are free to do this again (especially if they feel they need to listen to the whims of public officials), elected public officials may get retribution if they feel like it, and the humane society will get donations, and all the geeks watching Games from Thrones will have a dog to play with

pat said...

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2015/04/breaking-news-guard-shot-wounded-at-census-bureau-headquarters-gunman-on-loose-113056.html

The guy seems like he had a 25 year criminal
history. Kidnap, murder, he's 48 now
and likely to die in prison.

The Murder of a federal guard, kidnapping, Agravated assault on an MPD officer, He's going to be very old before they let him out. He will be in his 70s

Anonymous said...

Yall are racist what is a man supposed to do to get by when society wont let him survive and take everything from him when he tries.

curmudgeon said...

Inked -- except that when this all started to go down, I contacted WHS, and one of their executives wrote me that while they couldn't go into detail because of the lawsuit, I should trust them that they wouldn't have acted if there hadn't been real, genuine evidence of abuse. And yet apparently there wasn't.

That contradiction makes me worry that they were complicit in these shenanigans.

inked said...

Curmudgeon,
What they had was the report of an MPD officer. It seems that maybe the officer misperceived things or otherwise told a story that suggested abuse. WHS assumed the MPD report to be accurate.

In my opinion there were many things that went wrong in this case. I feel like there is no way in hell they should have been able to execute what sounds like a no knock warrant.

Someone of the materials I saw (gov docs supporting the warrant) looked crazy. But it was definitely the statement of the MPD officer that caused WHS to act as they did. I am unclear why if that officer thought Vaughn was in dire danger he did just arrest Mark Thorp on the spot. Sort of sounds like that officer really just wanted a pretext to get inside Thorp's house.

Anonymous said...

re' Apr 12, 2015, 11:36:00 AM
They followed this man for twelve miles, after he had shot a two Census Bureau guards, and took additional shots at police cars along his route. I still wonder why the police thought it was a good idea to set up a blockade on a busy commercial street.

Anonymous said...

is there anywhere else on H that does Game of Thrones? I like supporting the cause of the dog, but that place was a tight standing room only to watch the series premiere.

inked said...

1:42,
That,s the only one I'm aware off.