Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) expressed that she was “disappointed” after hundreds of teenagers flooded the neighborhood of Navy Yard on Saturday night, leading to two minors being arrested.
During a press conference on Monday, Bowser asked about a “juvenile takeover” that took place over the weekend. Bowser explained that she was “very focused” with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the approach to using the city’s “juvenile curfew to be prepared for that kind of occasion.”
“I am disappointed that we’ve seen children act in this way again,” Bowser responded. “I am very focused with MPD and our approach that we’re going to fully use our juvenile curfew to be prepared for that kind of occasion.”
In a Sunday press release from the MPD, it was revealed that First District officers “observed a group of juveniles congregating in the park area” around 6:30 p.m. Roughly two hours later, there were 200 juveniles gathered.
MPD went on to reveal that a 15-year-old male juvenile was arrested for Unlawful Discharge of a Firearm, Endangerment with a Firearm, and Carrying a Pistol without a License after the “suspect discharged a firearm into the air inside of the park area” around 9:47 p.m.
“No injuries occurred,” according to the press release.
A 16-year-old male juvenile was also arrested for allegedly Carrying a Pistol without a License, after United States Secret Service officials “observed a suspect matching a lookout enter a rideshare vehicle” around 10:34 p.m. Secret Service officials then “conducted a traffic stop” on the vehicle and “observed the suspect attempt to discard a firearm.”
“The behavior displayed last night in Navy Yard cannot be tolerated, and we are very thankful that no one was seriously injured,” Jeffrey W. Carroll, the interim Chief of Police for the MPD, said in a statement. “I commend our members and our partners for their professionalism, and for safely recovering two firearms from individuals within this group. We need parents and guardians to be proactive and know where their children are and who they are with at all times.”
One person, Edward Daniels, who serves as “an advisory neighborhood commissioner (ANC),” explained to ABC7 News that “the neighborhood is tired” of the chaos from these “takeovers.”
“I’m tired of it,” Daniels told the outlet. “The neighborhood is tired of it. It’s putting a stain on our neighborhood at this point because it always ends with some sort of violent incident in the end.”
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