An unprecedented number of high-profile carjackings occurred in the nation’s capital last year, setting a new milestone for 2024. The most recent incident, which took place last week, resulted in the murder of Mike Gill, a former official in the Trump administration.
D.C. Metropolitan Police statistics show that there have been 56 carjackings recorded citywide at the start of the year, up from 59 reported at the same time last year, as of Saturday.
Gill was former President Trump’s chief of staff on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He is the latest victim of the soaring crime rate in the nation’s capital. He was shot as he sat in his car waiting for his wife, less than a mile from the White House.
According to statistics compiled by the city’s public safety agency, the number of carjackings in 2023 was 958, almost twice as many as in 2022 (484).
Reports show U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was one of many prominent 2023 carjacking victims. Three armed men took his vehicle less than a mile from the Capitol, holding him at gunpoint. Cuellar did not sustain any injuries.
Secret Service Agents guarding President Biden’s granddaughter opened fire on three assailants last November as they attempted to enter an unmarked car. Nobody was hit.
Politicians throughout the country have begun pointing fingers in response to the alarming increase in crime, and public anger is rising as a result.
The city’s carjacking arrest rate is 64 percent, with the most typical ages for offenders being 15 and 16.
Last March, a juvenile offender was handed a six-year jail term for his role in the August 2022 carjacking that resulted in the shooting death of another adolescent and two gunshot wounds to the knee and hip of running back Brian Robinson Jr. of the Washington Commanders.
Last October, authorities said that a federal security officer who was off duty was shot and killed by a 12-year-old. The boy was arrested.
In December, an FBI agent’s automobile was carjacked by a 17-year-old male who was later arrested.
The number of homicides in the nation’s capital saw a dramatic increase in 2023. There were 274 killings in the nation’s capital in 2023, the highest number since 2003.
