It happened at around 10:10 p.m. when the officer was helping a motorist whose vehicle broke down in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 695, according to a news release from D.C. police.
An image of the crash on I-695 that injured a D.C. police officer. (WTOP/Dave Dildine)
An image of the crash on I-695 that injured a D.C. police officer. (WTOP/Dave Dildine)
A police officer is seriously injured after being struck by a vehicle near South Capitol Street on Tuesday night, according to D.C. police.
It happened at around 10:10 p.m. when the officer was helping a motorist whose vehicle broke down in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 695, according to a news release from D.C. police.
Police said another motorist struck the officer, who was outside of his cruiser, at a “high rate of speed.”
The officer was hospitalized with serious injuries. As of early Wednesday morning, police said he was still being treated at the hospital.
The striking driver stayed on the scene and was taken to the hospital with injuries that are not considered life-threatening.
Police said the driver of the broken-down vehicle wasn’t hurt in the collision.
D.C. police are continuing to investigate the crash.
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The relatives of Justin Robinson believe police didn’t do enough to de-escalate the situation before opening fire on the 25-year-old who worked as a violence interrupter in the city.
The family of a man who was shot and killed by police outside a McDonald’s in Southeast D.C. earliest this month is calling for the U.S. Justice Department to launch a civil rights investigation into his killing. The relatives of Justin Robinson believe police didn’t do enough to de-escalate the situation before opening fire on the 26-year-old who worked as a violence interrupter in the city.
“This was somebody that had a bright future, and, unfortunately, due to the aggressive actions of MPD officers, that life has been tragically cut short,” said Andrew O. Clarke, an attorney for the family.
Justin Robinson (Courtesy Robinson family)
At 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 1, police found Robinson unconscious in his car with a gun on his lap, after he had crashed into the fast-food restaurant at 2529 Good Hope Road.
Police body camera footage appears to show officers coming up to the car as Robinson began to wake up. Robinson could be seen partially lowering the driver’s side window as officers surrounded the vehicle. That was followed by officers sticking their service weapons into the open window and demanding that Robinson raise his hands and not touch his weapon.
Last week, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said the video showed Robinson grabbing an officer’s gun before officers opened fire, killing Robinson. Smith also said the video shows Robinson’s gun falling from his left hand.
“The police are saying that they saw a gun in his lap, but how do you justify then placing a firearm within inches of somebody’s face that was just unconscious and is coming to consciousness at that time, and they really have not been able to explain that part of it,” Clarke said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the office, as well as the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, is aware of the “circumstances surrounding the tragic shooting of Justin Robinson.”
“If evidence reveals potential violations of federal criminal statutes, the Justice Department will take appropriate action,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement to WTOP.
The Metropolitan Police Department said the case remains under investigation.
“The entire case will be independently reviewed by the United States Attorney’s Office,” the department said in an email.
The officers involved are on paid administrative leave.
Robinson’s family reacts
Robinson’s sister Tralicia Robinson remembered her brother as a “bubbly individual” who cherished his job with the D.C. Office of the Attorney General’s “Cure the Streets” program.
Robinson had a criminal past, but his sister said he had turned his life around and wanted to help others not make the same mistakes he did.
“Helping people was his passion,” she said.
Tralicia recalled getting a call from Justin’s twin brother while kayaking. She recalled thinking her brother was calling to see her on the water with his niece, but instead, she said through tears, he told her what had happened.
“I just remember paddling back to shore, breaking down. My knees were buckling. They were collapsing,” she told WTOP.
His sister said days later, she saw the body camera footage before it was released to the public and what she saw left her outraged.
“I thought poor tactics. I was furious, I was sad. I was confused. Now, I was stuck with a thought of, ‘I can’t believe that this happened to Justin,’” she said.
The loss of her brother, she said, has not only shaken their family, but the community as well.
“It left pain. You have some people again who are outraged. You have some people who feel unprotected. You have so many people asking, Where do we go from here? It just left the community in shock,” Tralicia said.
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A new Office of the D.C. Auditor report says the District has enough officers on patrol but should deploy them differently to better handle the workload.
D.C. police have enough patrol officers on the street to do the job. That’s the upshot of a new staffing audit, but there’s push back from the department.
A new Office of the D.C. Auditor report says the District has enough officers on patrol but should deploy them differently to better handle the workload.
The report gave an example: “As of July 2023, a third of all officers assigned to Police Service Areas were allocated to the midnight shift, yet only a quarter of the calls for service occurred during this shift.”
Ron Serpas, a senior adviser for the Public Financial Management Group Consulting, the management group that organized the audit, told WTOP that the number of detectives on duty should match the average workload.
“Are the right number of detectives in a particular unit based on the amount of work, touch time, how many hours? How many days? How many witnesses? How many warrants?” he said.
It also identified how detectives accumulate “more than double the average overtime and compensatory time hours per employee” than all other department employees.
The report recommends the department hire 65 more detectives.
D.C. police said in a statement that the report is “at odds with reality and does not align with the feedback from residents and businesses throughout the city.”
“Chief Pamela A. Smith hears continually from residents and businesses that want to see more officers in their community,” the statement said. “With MPD’s current sworn workforce at a 50-year low, we are listening to residents and continuing to work to increase staffing while making the Department more efficient.”
One suggestion in the audit that D.C. police agreed on was efficiency. The study suggests the department should shift administrative roles held by officers to civilians, which would allow those officers to return to working in the streets.
Eric Melancon, part of the audit team and former Baltimore police chief of staff, said the shift would allow the department to “maximize its resources” for other responsibilities, including calls for service and monitoring local neighborhoods.
D.C. police also said that the department plans to hire dozens of civilians next year to take over administrative roles and “move sworn officers to more operational roles.”
The audit says its findings are based on a workload-based staffing model, recognized as an industry standard for assessing police staffing needs.
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