A panhandler was sentenced to eight years in prison for viciously attacking an elderly couple over a dollar he was being offered, prosecutors said. Claudia Hopkins never recovered and can no longer walk, speak or recognize her husband of more than 50 years, John.
One night in February 2022, Alexander Adams stopped the Hopkins outside a Giant store in Northwest D.C. and asked them for money. He told them the dollar they offered wasn’t enough and grabbed John Hopkins’ cane and attacked the couple, who were in their late 70s.
“I feel haunted; I feel emotionally haunted,” Hopkins said. “I feel anguished. It has given me anxiety, and I realize I am depressed. And I fear that it will last me for the rest of my life.”
His wife will never be the same, either.
“She is incapable of talking, she cannot walk, she has a feeding tube,” Hopkins said. “I have lost my wife forever.”
She is bedridden in a nursing home.
The prosecutor says Adams had 32 contacts with the judicial system over the years, including 11 assaults and 13 convictions. The judge called him extraordinarily dangerous.
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The day after the assault, Adams’ father told News4 his son had also attacked him, breaking his hip. His son is bipolar, Tom Adams said, and he becomes violent when he doesn’t take his medication.
“It’s the city’s and the United States government’s responsibility to protect its citizens, and we suffered that neglect,” Hopkins said.
Alexander Adams has been in custody since the assault two years ago. In court Friday, he apologized for what he did.
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