The shooting of Washington Commanders player Brian Robinson this weekend renewed scrutiny of a problem that is gripping the nation’s capital: a rise in violent juvenile crime.
Police blamed two black juveniles for the crime on Sunday evening that left Robinson, the Commanders’ running back, with non-life-threatening injuries in the course of what reports described as an attempted carjacking.
Robinson’s status as a football star elevated a problem D.C. residents in some neighborhoods have faced every day for the past year.
The city experienced 41 carjackings over the past month alone, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
Homicides in Washington, D.C., have climbed significantly as well: Police have recorded 141 murders so far this year, more than what they had recorded at this point last year.
That puts D.C. on pace to experience more murders than any year in two decades.
Young Washingtonians have landed at the center of several other high-profile crimes over the past year, highlighting the scope of the problem.
A 15-year-old suspect was arrested in connection with a shooting in April 2021 outside the Nationals Stadium, which had sent baseball fans scrambling in terror from the stands.
A 13-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl wound up behind bars last summer after the two attempted to carjack an Uber Eats driver who died while trying to escape.
A 17-year-old boy was arrested in January after allegedly carjacking a candidate for D.C. City Council, Nate Fleming, at gunpoint.
In August, police arrested a 15-year-old boy for a fatal shooting that took place at a black culture festival weeks earlier.
Carjackings have increased dramatically in Washington, and juvenile offenders are responsible for most of them, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
Between Tuesday and Thursday of last week alone, for example, D.C. police arrested four juvenile suspects for carjacking crimes; their ages ranged from 16 to 19 years old.
But the spike in juvenile carjacking arrests this year has been concentrated heavily in certain parts of the city, although they have occurred throughout the district.
Juvenile carjacking arrests have increased 1400% in what the police department considers its third district, which encompasses the northwest quadrant of the city. The highest number of juvenile carjacking arrests have occurred in the sixth police district, which encompasses the less affluent southeast quadrant of the city, including neighborhoods over the Anacostia River.
Juvenile carjacking arrests are down 18% this year compared to this time last year; however, total reported carjacking incidents are up 27%.
This indicates police are arresting fewer people despite a higher number of attacks. Indeed, police have struggled to keep up with the explosion of violent auto thefts.
The city has recorded 326 carjacking incidents so far this year; only 87 carjacking cases have been closed this year, and that number includes cases involving offenses that may have occurred last year.
That means police have not closed at least 73% of cases involving carjackings since January.
The most common age of the carjacking suspects who have been arrested this year is between 15 and 16 years old.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser earlier this year blamed the problem of juvenile crime increases in part on the length of time the city’s public schools remained shuttered.
“That’s why we’ve been so adamant about getting kids in school, in person, so that they can be around adults,” Bowser said in January while discussing the spike in carjackings. “Maybe that kid has some mental or behavioral health issue that needs to be addressed. We can better figure that out if they’re in school.”
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MPD Chief Robert Contee has said his officers have recovered significantly more illegal guns from the city streets this year. Last week, he said officers had so far this year recovered more than 2,000 guns.
Many have ended up in the hands of young people, he said.
During the first week of August, for example, police arrested 14 suspects ranging from 14 to 19 years old on illegal gun charges.
Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera said Monday that Robinson is “doing well,” although he gave no timeline for the running back to return to the team.
