A 12-year-old boy has been charged with armed carjacking after his arrest Sunday, the latest underage suspect pulled off the streets of the District of Columbia in recent weeks and accused of serious and sometimes deadly crimes.
Police said the boy approached a female driver at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and U Street Southeast shortly after 1 p.m. Sunday and demanded the woman’s car keys.
The woman told police that she refused and the boy eventually ran off. She said the boy was clutching his waistband “as if something was inside [his] pants,” according to the police report.
Authorities apprehended the boy soon afterward and found a loaded pistol in his waistband. The preteen was detained on armed carjacking and illegal gun charges.
“I was just shaken up by it. I didn’t really know how to feel. I was frozen,” the driver told WTTG-TV. She said youth violence “is horrible. It’s gotten so bad and the age limit is just going younger and younger.”
The woman declined to provide her name for fear of retaliation, according to WTTG-TV.
Another child in the District linked to a violent crime has rankled community members who feel the justice system isn’t clamping down on youth offenders.
“People involved in his life need to be held liable — not the code word ‘accountable’ — but liable for his actions,” anti-violence activist Anthony Muhammad told The Washington Times.
Mr. Muhammad said everything should be on the table if the young suspect is convicted: time behind bars, suspension from social services or even public shaming to emphasize the atrocity of the child’s actions.
“If it’s holding up a sign, saying ‘I won’t do this again,’ something — physically — needs to be done … so this will not continue the way it is without a binding consequence,” the activist said.
Denise Krepp, a former advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 6, told The Times that parents should face serious charges as well.
She likened the idea to the case of Virginia mother Deja Taylor, whose 6-year-old son brought a gun to school in January and used it to shoot his teacher.
Taylor pleaded guilty this month to felony child neglect. Prosecutors won’t seek more than six months in jail, according to the plea agreement.
The preteen arrested Sunday continues the District’s troubling trend of children implicated in major crimes, particularly during the warmer months.
May began with the arrests of two 12-year-old boys in separate crime sprees. One was accused of committing three robberies in 10 minutes, and the other was accused of being part of a group that carjacked eight people throughout April.
By the end of the month, D.C. police said, they arrested an 11-year-old boy in connection with three armed robberies in the span of a week.
Underage offenders have also terrorized D.C. motorists with armed carjackings throughout the city.
Juveniles account for 57 of the 89 people arrested in violent car thefts so far this year, according to police data. A total of 635 carjackings have been reported as of Tuesday — more than double the number at this point in 2022.
In July, multiple youths were taken into custody on carjacking charges. That includes four boys ages 15-17 arrested in connection with 16 incidents of either armed carjacking or armed robbery, and a 13-year girl who was arrested as part of a trio of juveniles accused of assaulting a driver and stealing the car.
A Metropolitan Police commander previously told The Times that juveniles treat the violent crime as a “game” because they don’t fear serious punishment.
It’s a game that can turn deadly — fast.
D.C. Metropolitan Police arrested a 14-year-old boy last month in the fatal shooting of a Howard University construction worker.
Authorities said the teen was attempting to rob the worker before mortally wounding him. The juvenile was accused of taking part in two armed carjackings and another armed robbery before the incident on Howard’s campus.
A judge ordered that the teen be kept in custody before trial.
Acting Police Chief Pamela Smith said last week that 103 juveniles were arrested from July 24 through Aug. 8, and 31 have been detained pending legal proceedings.
The D.C. Council enacted emergency legislation last month giving judges greater latitude to jail juveniles awaiting trial on violent crime charges. The temporary law will expire in October.
Chief Smith also announced that police will begin enforcing a juvenile curfew next month in targeted areas of the city to address youth crime.
During the curfew, police have the authority to detain anyone 16 and younger. Youths caught out from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on weeknights and midnight to 6 a.m. on weekends will be taken to the District’s juvenile facility in Northeast.
Youths will be held at the facility until a parent or guardian can be reached. The family will then be offered rehabilitative services.
Ms. Krepp is in favor of the curfew, but she said it alone won’t control dangerous crime.
“A 12-year-old feels comfortable about having a gun and doing multiple crimes; we’ve got a bigger problem,” Ms. Krepp said. “That’s going to take more than a curfew to solve it.”
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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