It started as a routine spring morning. Commuters were busy driving to work and a DC woman stepped out of her house to walk her dog. It was around 8 a.m. on Tuesday, March 19 at the 3200 block of W Street SE.
“I did spot him when I came out the door, it was almost like when you forget something he looked – I couldn’t see him – and then he turned around like I forgot something,” the woman who did not want to reveal her identity recalled. "He crossed the street over and I wanted to stay behind him. I didn’t want him to get behind me.”
Little did she know that man had been lurking in her Hillcrest neighborhood in Southeast D.C. for about two hours. He was caught on a neighbor’s back alley surveillance camera as early as 5:48 a.m. As the sun came up, the suspect - wearing a gray hoodie and wearing what appeared to be a mask - paced back and forth and then sat on a nearby retaining wall and just waited as cars continued to drive by.
“No one found it strange that there was a man with a mask on sitting and pacing?” she asked.
This was no random attack. The victim, who is pregnant, was targeted; staked out by the suspect. So, when she finally stepped out of her house – he made his move.
“I made a right and that’s when he came up behind me and put the gun to my back, I yelled at the top of my lungs and he said, ‘shut up B let’s walk.’ He kept saying something about the truck ‘I want the truck," she said.
"I said you can have it, let’s go back to my house I can give you the keys," the victim said.
"He then said, ‘well who’s in the house?’ I said, ‘my husband.’ He said, ‘is your husband armed?’ I said ‘yes.” He said, ‘is he registered?’ I said ‘yes.’ I said, 'Look what do you want? I’m pregnant I can get you whatever you need,” she said. “Then he continued to say 'I don’t give an F I will kill you and your baby.'”
The terror continued for 15 minutes until she was able to get close to a construction site. She broke free and ran.
“I’m just thankful to be here,” she reflected. “My heart sunk when that gun pressed into my back. It was like I didn’t have a voice I was saying ‘help me’ to cars that drove past me and no one was looking - no one saw me.”
The gunman didn’t even alert her dog.
“...He wasn’t yelling," she said. "His voice was very low mellow, it was like we were having a conversation, but he was very firm with what he wanted me to do and he kept saying ‘I will kill you.'”
The suspect took off in the construction worker’s truck. Detectives told neighbors that truck was recovered behind Spingarn High School near Langston Golf Course off Benning Road, NE. The suspect is still on the run.
“We’re sitting around like ducks because it’s quiet,” the victim said. “This is a quiet neighborhood but it’s a perfect scenario for a crime because you don’t have police officers on foot or driving around. There has to be accountability.”
Police told WUSA9 they will increase patrols on foot, Segway and mountain bike. The case is still under investigation.