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There have been concerns about specific teens being stopped by police while trying to get home during youth curfew.
WASHINGTON — A D.C. mother says her teenage son was stopped by police while trying to go home during the city’s youth curfew — a policy that includes earlier start times in certain areas like Navy Yard and U Street.
Sixteen-year-old Aiden told WUSA9 he was leaving the Navy Yard Metro Station around 9:15 p.m. earlier this month when officers stopped him.
“It was like, what y’all stop me for? I was trying to go home,” Aiden said.
He says he had just finished eating nearby and tried to explain to officers that he lives close to the station.
“What they said was, I have to call a parent or a guardian if I live there or if I do not live there — no matter the cause — due to safety issues,” he said.
Aiden’s mother, Travis Young, says she had to come to the station to escort her son home.
“They said, ‘Oh, it’s a curfew. You his mom, you can take him home,’” Young recalled. “But I was like, ‘Did you ask him his address? Because I’m pretty sure he’s 16 — he can tell you his address.’”
Young says police didn’t ask for her ID, and her son only had his school badge with him. She also questioned why officers wouldn’t allow him to take the escalator toward their home.
“They told him, ‘You can’t go up the escalator where you live across the street from, but you can catch the train back to Waterfront and walk home.’ Why is he walking home from Waterfront?” she said.
According to D.C. officials, the city’s youth curfew typically runs from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., but in certain “curfew zones” — including Navy Yard — it can begin as early as 8 p.m.
Aiden says he felt singled out.
“I feel like they picking on us,” he said.
Young added that she noticed other teens who “weren’t [her son’s] complexion” were allowed to leave the station without issue.
This isn’t the first time residents have raised concerns. WUSA9 previously obtained cell phone video showing other young people being stopped from exiting the same Metro station on Halloween night — also during curfew enforcement.
A Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) spokesperson declined to comment on this family’s specific claims but confirmed there was an active curfew zone in the area that night.
Young says she understands the intent behind the curfew but fears her son could become a target.
“I feel like my son is going to be a target just because he looks like the average young person out here,” she said.
Despite the incident, Aiden says he knows police are trying to keep teens safe.
“They trying to do us a good thing — keep us safe and stay in the house because it’s a lot of teenagers losing their lives and stuff,” he said.
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