The teen thieves yanking drivers out of their cars, often at gunpoint, in the District of Columbia increasingly see violent crime as a game and aren’t particularly concerned about the consequences, police who have interrogated the young offenders say.
Nearly half of the Metropolitan Police Department’s 572 reported carjackings this year were in June (139) and July (120), and most of those arrested were juveniles.
Of the 16 people arrested on carjacking charges in June, 13 were underage. Fourteen of the 19 arrested in July also were legal minors.
Carjackings are up 98% citywide this year, and two-thirds of those arrested are juveniles.
Having a car taken by force can upend or even cost the life of a victim, but for many juveniles accused of stealing vehicles, felony charges are little more than casual brushes with the law.
“It has been uttered several times: ‘Oh, I’ll be back out,’ or, ‘I’m not saying nothing,’” MPD 6th District Cmdr. Darnel Robinson told The Washington Times.
The veteran officer said youths are often cavalier with investigators in their booking interviews.
“They know the game, [and] it is a game to them, unfortunately,” Cmdr. Robinson said.
That gamelike nature may explain why wild carjacking sprees across the District are often connected to juveniles.
Four boys ages 15-17 were arrested in connection with 16 incidents of either armed carjacking or armed robbery throughout July, police said. In each incident, the juvenile flashed a gun and made off with the victim’s vehicle or other belongings.
Police said they arrested two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old in June in connection with 10 armed carjackings in less than four hours. Reports said they flashed a gun at victims before fleeing with their vehicles.
A 13-year-old girl was arrested on an unarmed carjacking charge in Northwest on July 25. Police said she and two other juveniles rear-ended a car, assaulted the driver and then took the vehicle.
Cmdr. Robinson said the juvenile offenders this summer aren’t acting on behalf of more sophisticated adult criminals nor stealing the cars to carry out more heinous crimes.
The juveniles typically park the stolen cars near their homes, the MPD commander said. In those instances, the youths are charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Police use the lesser offense if they don’t have enough evidence to support a carjacking charge.
Authorities said the felony became fashionable among teens in 2021 because of the Kia Boyz challenge. The social media trend demonstrated how to hot-wire older Kias and Hyundais using only a USB cable.
Car break-ins and hot-wiring have since snowballed into more dangerous crimes of opportunity.
Add inconsistent enforcement from the D.C. attorney general’s office, police say, and these teens see an opening to exploit.
“The people who are listening may very well be juveniles knowing that the accountability piece is failing in the judicial system,” Cmdr. Robinson said. “I think that the only common denominator that has changed is us addressing the lack thereof in accountability for juveniles participating, or being subjected to, [serious] offenses.”
Minneapolis has reported a 62% spike in nonviolent auto thefts this year, with a small number of juveniles responsible for repeated crimes.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the teens are arrested and quickly released, which emboldens them to carry out violent crimes. One group of teens shot up a public school system building in May after driving a stolen car to the area.
“If a young person is a repeat offender, keeping them 24 hours, keeping them 48 hours will … ensure that we keep them alive, but also we’ll send a very quick message to their friends that are out there,” Chief O’Hara told the local Fox affiliate KMSP-TV at the time. “The way that it’s set up now, we’re not taking the fun out of this. And I feel like a lot of these kids think they’re just living in a video game.”
The District’s locally elected prosecutor handles most juvenile offenses in the city. The attorney general’s office is also tasked with arguing whether or not to hold minors before trial or pursue charges at all.
A spokesperson for the office rejected the MPD’s characterization that the prosecutors aren’t carrying through with charges against underage defendants.
“We prosecute all serious and violent crimes committed by juveniles, including carjacking and armed robbery, where we have the evidence needed to do so,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Times. “We don’t use diversion in serious violent cases, and when it is necessary to protect public safety, we request that youth be detained in secure confinement.”
D.C. law stipulates that children can be held before trial if they are deemed dangers to the community or if they can’t be trusted to show up to court on their own. Although prosecutors can argue to hold the young suspects, much of the onus falls on judges to agree that juveniles meet the standard for detention.
That was evident last week in a court hearing for the 14-year-old boy accused of gunning down construction worker Rafael Adolfo Gomez on Howard University’s campus.
The boy is accused of working with a group to carry out two armed carjackings and an armed robbery before the fatal encounter with Gomez near Sixth and Bryant streets Northwest around 6 a.m. on July 13, according to The Washington Post.
D.C. Magistrate Court Judge Sherri-Beatty Arthur determined that the evidence sufficiently showed that the boy was present during the crimes. He was ordered into the custody of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.
Other judges routinely turn juvenile offenders loose.
The 17-year-old who pleaded guilty for his role in the attempted carjacking turned shooting last year of Washington Commanders running back Brian Robinson Jr. skipped his sentencing hearing this spring after he was placed on house arrest.
The boy returned to court weeks later after police arrested him on drug distribution charges.
New acting Chief Pamela Smith credited the emergency crime legislation passed by the D.C. Council last month with helping detain juvenile offenders.
Twenty-one young carjacking and robbery suspects have been kept off the streets thanks to the temporary law, which expires in October. A total of 43 juveniles had been arrested for those two crimes in recent weeks.
Cmdr. Robinson said Chief Smith plans to unveil an initiative aimed at stemming the District’s carjacking epidemic soon.
In the meantime, D.C. police are advising drivers to be aware of their surroundings, especially when they are idling in their car.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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