D.C. detectives were on the trail of two robbers for nearly a month before the men allegedly killed a London man in Georgetown last week, to law enforcement officials said.
The death of British activist Alan Senitt highlights the burdens that police and prosecutors go through to investigate their cases while protecting the rights of citizens, law enforcement officials said.
Before Senitt’s death, detectives had a lead on an address, but they couldn’t positively connect its residents — Christopher Piper, 25, and Jeffrey Rice, 22, with the robberies, sources said.
D.C. police spokesman Sgt. Joe Gentile said he could not discuss the Senitt case because he didn’t want to jeopardize the investigation. But in general, he said, knowing who committed a crime and developing enough evidence for probable cause to make an arrest are two different things.
To get access to credit card records and cell phone records stolen in a June 11 robbery, police had to go to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and open up a grand jury to subpoena the records.
D.C. police began working with the U.S. attorney’s office on June 15, said U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Channing Phillips.
Credit card records led detectives to an apartment building at 2705 Robinson Place SE. An Internet company shipped items purchased with a stolen card, sources said. But that’s not enough information to prove that whoever lived at the address was implicated in the June 11 robbery, sources said. Police had to investigate further.
Police had to watch the apartment and get photos of the suspects in order to conduct a lineup with the woman who was mugged, sources said. That can take weeks.
“The process frustrates us, too,” said Sgt. Delroy A. Burton, a former detective in the second district where the homicide took place. “But it’s a process we have to protect you and me.”
