We’ve seen many videos that show the suddenness, and frequently the violence, of a carjacking. But on Monday afternoon, residents of a Capitol Hill neighborhood decided they’d had enough when a group of people, one armed with a golf club, tried to carjack a driver.
“I saw a teen get into the front seat of the car. I at first thought that must be like an Uber pickup or something. Until I heard the driver start to scream,” witness Brian Beaty said.
Video of the attempted crime shows how one of the carjackers grabbed a golf club and rushed to the defense of a second suspected carjacker, who was being detained by a group of neighbors and at one point appeared to exchange punches with a man.
The police report said three suspects then got back into their black Toyota Camry and drove away from the 200 block of 13th Street NE. The target of the attempted carjacking told police that the car had followed him for some time before the incident began.
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Police strongly caution people not to risk their safety chasing criminal suspects. But Beaty, who pulled out his phone to try and get images of the alleged carjackers and their vehicle, described it as a spontaneous moment.
“It was really fast,” he said.
The attempted carjacking happened steps from Maury Elementary School at about 5:45 p.m. on the first day of school.
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The neighborhood is no stranger to the shocking rise in carjackings in the District, and Beaty said he wants neighbors to be aware of what’s going on so they can be on guard.
He also said he learned that a man who lives nearby recently had his golf clubs stolen during a vehicle break-in.
“It was very scary. Having a family myself, it’s one of those things that I would never want to happen to me and I know other people feel the same way,” Beaty said.
On Wednesday, D.C. police announced the arrest of five teenagers in a series or other car thefts and robberies. The suspects are two 13-year-old girls and three boys ages 14, 15 and 16. One of the 13-year-old girls also was charged in Monday's attempted carjacking in Capitol Hill.
