On March 5, during spring break , a female Georgetown student was the victim of a robbery at approximately 9:15 p.m. Metropolitan Police Department and Department of Public Safety officers both responded to the situation, but no suspects yet have been identified.
Anna Huffman (SFS ‘01) and her mother were walking north on 39th St. after parking their car when Huffman noticed the aggressor following them. When Huffman and her mother reached the intersection of 38th and S Streets, Huffman reported that the aggressor began to accelerate his pace and intercepted them at the intersection.
Huffman said that the aggressor struck her in the lower back and knocked her to the ground. He then forced her to give him her purse, which contained 30 dollars, her driver’s license and several credit cards. The aggressor then ran east on S Street.
Huffman said Metro police officers responded to her call in 10 minutes. “I was satisfied with their initial investigations,” she said. “First they sent Officer Rock to find out what happened and to do a report. A bit later, an officer from their detective unit came by to get some information. Metro even had a K-9 unit out on S St. to see if they could pick up a scent,” said Huffman. “They really did everything they could. In fact, the attention was a little overwhelming,” she said.
Huffman said that DPS Officers also responded to the situation. She said that DPS officer Peronneau and another University official called her after a few days after the incident to offer their assistance.
“I was really very impressed at their coordination and concern,” Huffman said.
Neither Huffman nor her mother were able to clearly see the suspect’s face at the time of the robbery because of the darkness. Huffman described to Metro officers that the suspect was African-American, approximately 6’1” and 225 pounds, with an athletic build. The suspect was described as wearing dark clothing and illuminated running shoes.
“I didn’t get a very good look at the suspect. In fact, in retrospect I’m not sure that he was black?just darkly toned, Asian perhaps. I’m really not sure there is enough information for Metro to investigate further,” said Huffman.
Detective Dan Lewis, the Metro officer assigned to the case, said that it would be difficult for him to do much further investigation with Huffman’s description of the aggressor. “She didn’t give a very good description. There’s not much we can do,” Lewis said.
Lewis said that he had not pursued further investigation into the incident since he was given the case last week. “There have been a couple of arrests in the 3rd District. We can put some photos together and see if she can identify one, or else unless someone gives a confession, we can’t really do much,” he said.
Lt. Brian Bray of Metro said that there was a robbery 20 minutes before Huffman’s on the 2900 block of Wisconsin Avenue. The victim in this earlier incident described the suspect with a description matching Huffman’s.
“We compared the description to a robbery a month ago, and it didn’t really match the description of the gunman, but [it may match] the driver of the vehicle. The student in that case didn’t get a good look at the driver,” said Bray.
Kathleen Kingsbury (SFS ‘01) was robbed at gunpoint on the evening of January 29 on the 1900 block of 38th St. Bray said that MPD has not yet arrested the suspect in this case.
“We showed her a photo spread, and she couldn’t identify him,” said Bray. “There is no way to arrest because she couldn’t give a positive ID. That is usually what happens,” he said. “She looked at the gun, not at the guy’s face. If we can’t get a positive ID, we can’t lock them up,” Bray said.
Huffman, who lives in the Burleith area, added that she would like to see Metro police officers patrolling the Burleith area more often.
