Former Trump official injured, another man dead amid spike in D.C. area carjackings
A former Trump administration official was critically injured during a deadly spree of carjackings in Washington, D.C. and Maryland Monday night, according to news reports.
There has been a recent spike in violent car thefts in the nation's capital, including heists that targeted a member of Congress and an FBI agent.
The latest incident unfolded over one night, police said, when a man in the grip of a mental health episode stole multiple vehicles in the district and neighboring Prince George's County, fatally shot one victim and severely wounded another. The suspect was killed by police, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
By Wednesday afternoon, police had not released the suspect's name.
The chaotic events on Monday occurred as officials are tracking an uptick in crimes like this: carjackings in 2023 nearly doubled from the year prior, according to Metropolitan Police Department data.
"The violence that we saw yesterday was senseless and tragic and we know that two families are experiencing an unthinkable tragedy," Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a news conference Tuesday, referencing the victims.
The events began around 5:45 p.m. Monday when the man climbed into an occupied car parked on K Street in downtown Washington, less than a mile from the White House, officials said. The suspect shot the driver and then fled the car on foot.
Local news reports identified the driver as Mike Gill, the former chairman of Washington's Board of Elections under the Trump administration. Reports indicated Gill was critically wounded in the shooting.
Police said the man who reports identified as the former Trump official exited the car, walked to the sidewalk and collapsed, according to MPD Executive Assistant Chief Jeffery Carroll.
The man was hospitalized for "life-threatening injuries," according to a police press release. Police did not update his status on Wednesday.
Less than two hours after Gill was shot, police said the same suspect tried unsuccessfully to gain entry to another car in the Northeast part of the city, around 1.5 miles away.
Ten minutes afterward, the suspect approached 35-year-old Alberto Vasquez, Jr. and a female companion in that neighborhood and demanded Vasquez hand over his keys to his nearby car. The suspect then shot Vasquez and stole the car, officials said. Vasquez died at a hospital later that night, according to police.
Family members of Vasquez did not respond to a request for comment.
MPD officials said the suspect then drove to neighboring Prince George's County, Maryland, where he carried out two other carjackings in the hours that followed.
Carroll, from the MPD, said detectives used witness accounts to narrow in on a potential suspect from Prince George's County who fit the description of the man they believed had carried out the string of crimes.
About 3 a.m. on Tuesday the suspect was driving on a Maryland Interstate highway in one of the stolen vehicles when he fired shots at a passing Sixth District police cruiser, Carroll said. Authorities did not apprehend him at that time.
The man was ultimately found after New Carrollton police encountered one of the stolen vehicles four miles northeast of the Maryland-District of Columbia border. Police were investigating the scene, near a commercial area, when the suspect approached the officers and brandished two handguns. Officers fired at the suspect and struck him, the Maryland Attorney General's Office said. The suspect was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, the attorney general's office said.
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MPD initiatives fail to stop spike in carjackings
Three years ago, MPD formed a special task force to respond to carjackings; however, statistics show it did not make significant progress in curbing the trend. Carjacking did briefly dip in the spring of 2021 after the initiative was launched, but the incidents resumed at similar levels.
The task force assigned a specialized group of detectives to investigate carjackings in the District that would collaborate with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the local field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, according to a press release.
In 2022, the Washington mayor announced she was expanding the program and enlisting officers from the Prince George's County Police Department. Again, the interventions did little to curb the crime. Instead, carjackings rose to 140 incidents in July of 2023 – more heists than had happened during the prior three Julys.
The local trend drew national attention after several high-profile carjacking incidents, including one in October involving Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, whose vehicle was stolen by three armed assailants in the trendy Navy Yard neighborhood, officials said. Cuellar was not harmed and his car was recovered. Police never announced any arrests in Cuellar's case. The following month, an FBI agent was also carjacked at gunpoint, MPD said. Days later, police arrested a 17-year-old and charged him with the crime.
Recently, local law enforcement has adopted several new strategies to cut down on this crime. Earlier this month, MPD announced it was giving away free Apple AirTag tracking devices to residents in areas "where MPD has seen the greatest increase in vehicle theft," according to Bowser's announcement. The digital tracking devices, police said, would make it easier for officers to track stolen vehicles.
In February of last year, police in Washington also handed out free steering wheel locks to city residents who own a 2011 to 2021 Kia or Hyundai. A defect in the car models prompted a noticeable increase in carjackings nationwide after the popularization of a Tiktok challenge that encouraged thefts of the vehicles, according to an analysis from the Brennan Center of Justice.