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| | | Hill East residents win promise from Fenty | | November 02, 2009 | | | | Voice Correspondent | | Neighbors upset by a summer spate of burglaries and alleged open-air drug dealing in Hill East recently received a visit and a promise from Mayor Adrian Fenty.
The visit, originally billed as a neighborhood walk-through, consisted mostly of a group of about 25 residents standing in one place on the 1000 block of 15th Street SE, telling Fenty, police and housing officials that their response to the apparent crime spree was not quick or effective enough. It was the third time Fenty visited a Capitol Hill neighborhood in October to talk to residents about recent crime, and he also agreed to return within a month and a half to assess police progress on the complaints.
“The neighbors felt we weren’t getting the attention we deserved,” said resident Tiffany Guarascio. Someone robbed Guarascio’s home over Labor Day weekend while she was on vacation. The thief or thieves, who broke in through a second-floor window, stole electronics and cash, she said.
There were 15 burglaries during a month and a half period ending with Labor Day weekend in the area south of the Potomac Avenue Metro stop, bordered by K, L, 14th and 15th streets SE. Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Daniel Ewell said police have made one arrest in connection to the burglaries and have talked with several possible suspects who live within a three-block radius of the burglarized homes. He said the person who was arrested was a juvenile who did not live in the neighborhood.
“We got a lot of intel from community members,” Ewell said. “The citizens have been much more engaged. The neighborhood knows that there’s eyes and ears out there now.”
Other neighbors, most of whom would not give their names to the Voice, also complained about drug dealing at various spots around Hill East and school children roaming the streets during school hours.
“I have not physically witnessed drug dealing but there are always kids [and] adults sort of furtively hiding things behind their backs when neighbors walk by,” one woman told Fenty.
In response to neighbors’ agitation, the police department has designated more officers to patrol the neighborhood, including Officer J.S. Martinez, who said the extra police helped end the spree.
“It pretty much changed once we got a foot beat here,” Martinez said. | | | | | Log in to comment on this article |
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