WASHINGTON — A man and child were assaulted with a brick Sunday morning in the Capitol Hill area of D.C.
Officers were called to the 600 block of E Street Southeast around 10:05 a.m. for a reported assault.
D.C. police said they arrested one suspect in custody who was at the scene when police arrived.
At this time, the condition of the man and child is not known.
Hours after the crime occurred, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) identified the man arrested as 44-year-old Jerome Razor. Investigators said Razor had no fixed home address.
Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) member Denise Krepp later posted details from a neighbor who witnessed the aftermath of the assault to Twitter.
The person wrote that they heard screaming outside their window and saw some of the attack happen.
“I ran and got towels and ice and held it on the father’s head as he tried to console the screaming baby who had a gash in its face bleeding everywhere,” the person wrote. “... really shaken. Just utterly horrific.”
Commissioner Krepp later spoke to WUSA 9 and said more must be done by city leaders to prevent similar types of crime from happening.
"All they were doing was going out for a walk. This is not acceptable behavior," she said. "Neighbors should be able to walk with their children safely and that’s not happening.”
Krepp took particular aim at DC Council and called for the suspect to be properly held accountable and put behind bars for the crime.
"What I’d like to hear from the DC Council is that crime should be prosecuted," she said. "What I want to hear from them is that crime is crime. The individuals who perpetrate crime should serve their full sentences.”
Krepp also believed more funding and resources should be provided to the police department.
"From what I’m seeing is they appear to want to cut their budget and I’m not happy with that," the commissioner said. "If we have fathers with babies being hit with bricks, I want more police on the street, not less.”
Violent crime is up 2% this year in D.C. compared to the same time in 2020, according to MPD data.
Moving forward, Krepp hoped DC Council would hear the concerns from neighbors and do more to stop crime.
"What we have right now are parents, myself included, that are looking at the situation going, 'Do I feel safe?' That’s a problem," she said. "These types of actions make people unsafe and make them feel like they can’t go outside.”
Just a few weeks ago, a woman was hit 20 times with a brick by a man, also in SE, on Naylor Road. She suffered severe injuries from the attack and surveillance video was released by the department in hopes of identifying the suspect.