I care less that D.C. carjackings are significantly down in the first half of 2024 compared with a year ago because I’m so sickened by what happened to Leslie Marie Gaines. She was the 55-year-old victim of an unarmed carjacking at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center on Monday afternoon.
Washington, D.C
Opinion | Anatomy of a D.C. carjacking: Two paths cross and an innocent life is lost
It’s one of those events that stops you in your tracks.
Gaines’s day began at the hospital’s rehab facility on nearby Irving Street NW, where she went for physical therapy at approximately 11:15 a.m. It ended at George Washington University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:38 p.m.
What happened in between leaves me frustrated and mad as hell because the true justice that her family wants for her is impossible. That is, if justice also means showing mercy and compassion to one another. Were a sliver of that present on Monday, Gaines would be alive today.
Court documents detail some of the key events in this case. The documents also point to reasons D.C. police charged Kayla Kenisha Brown, 22, in connection Gaines’s death.
Where was mercy for Gaines on that day?
According to the court records, Gaines and her daughter pulled up to MedStar’s emergency room entrance because Gaines wasn’t feeling well following her physical therapy. Gaines’s daughter went inside to seek wheelchair assistance for her mother, who remained in the car with the engine running, the documents say. But when the daughter returned to the entrance, both the car and her mother were missing.
A D.C. police news release reported that at about 1:11 p.m., Brown walked away from her family at MedStar just as Gaines and her daughter were pulling up. After Gaines’s daughter went inside for the wheelchair, police report, Brown entered the driver’s seat and drove away with Gaines inside the car.
Where was compassion for an ailing mother?
Documents tell us how it ended.
The car, with Brown at the wheel and Gaines in the passenger seat, was observed traveling at high speed when it failed to negotiate a turn at Sixth and D streets NW and collided with a barrier outside the office of the U.S. attorney. Keys in hand, Brown tried to flee on foot and was caught by the police, while Gaines was found unconscious in the front passenger seat. Police provided first aid until emergency medical services arrived to transport her to George Washington University Hospital.
How did Gaines and Brown end up crossing paths? The answer gets at an important part of this story.
This account is also drawn from court documents: Around the time Gaines and her daughter were arriving at the rehab center, police were responding to a 911 call from a woman screaming and asking for help before the line disconnected. Police and emergency medical technicians went to the apartment that the call was made from, where they were met by Brown and her mother. Brown stared at them but didn’t respond to their questions.
Brown’s mother said that her daughter, as summarized by court documents, had “gone out and gotten some sort of drug while out with a man she met on Instagram.” Brown’s father indicated “she had been acting crazy for about three days,” court documents state.
Emergency medical technicians found that Brown’s blood pressure and heart rate were too high for her age and transported her by ambulance to MedStar, where she arrived 12:40 p.m.
After determining that Brown was not a crime victim, the police left the emergency room around 12:46 p.m. That’s where Brown remained until she walked away from her family.
In D.C. Superior Court on Friday, I saw Brown at the defendant’s table in an orange jumpsuit. And I heard Det. Roberto Torres describe the events surrounding the carjacking and Brown’s arrest. Missing was Leslie Marie Gaines.
At the end of the preliminary hearing, the court found that Brown’s actions were “incredibly dangerous” and that she must be “held without bond” until the next hearing. Still, where’s the justice?
I’m not talking about the carjacking charge against Brown; we’ll see what happens with that. I’m thinking of the words of Brown’s mother and father about their daughter going out with a man to get some kind of drug, and her acting crazy, and ask why, if the parent’s representations are true, should I rethink the drug trade, as reformers want me to? This city is full of people in the drug supply chain. And this city is also full of innocent people who end up on the receiving end of behaviors fueled by the poison that drug dealers push.
Ah, but those sellers are likely to be men and women experiencing poverty and selling drugs for survival. Rethink, I’m told.
Instead, I’ll think of Gaines strapped in her daughter’s car. Think of the shoplifting, car thefts, robberies and turf wars plaguing our streets, all fueled by drug-seeking.
Mercy demands we think of all that, not just the dealer and the users. But we don’t give a second thought to people like Leslie Marie Gaines — “an angel on earth,” her sister Erica Gaines called her — who day in and out fall victim to people with substance use disorders. It’s a torment so commonplace that it is ignored — until a car smashes into a wall and an innocent soul is pronounced dead.
Pray Leslie Marie Gaines is at peace. But where’s the justice?
WASHINGTON – A sunny, dry and mild Tuesday for the Washington, D.C. region, with highs near 71 degrees.
What we know:
The day starts chilly, with temperatures in the 40s and a few upper 30s in the area. Plenty of sunshine with some light winds that will make for a pleasant afternoon. FOX 5’s Taylor Grenda says it’s a good day for outdoor plans, with temperatures climbing into the low 70s by mid‑afternoon. Winds may turn a bit breezy overnight, but conditions will remain cool and dry.
Rain chances return Wednesday as clouds increase. The morning and early afternoon look mostly dry, but the evening commute could turn soggy on Wednesday. Grenda says to expect two rounds of showers tomorrow – one around 5 p.m. and another after sunset – with a slight chance of isolated thunderstorms. The severe weather threat appears to be limited.
Behind the system, Thursday turns cooler and breezy, with highs only in the mid‑60s. Temperatures rebound into the 70s Friday before a warm, more humid stretch arrives over the weekend. Highs could reach the 80s by Saturday and Sunday and the 90s by Monday.
The Source: Information in this article comes from the FOX 5 Weather Team and the National Weather Service.
Washington, D.C
Nonprofit sues the federal government over plans to paint Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue
With a blue sky above the Lincoln Memorial, people walk along the reflection pool in Washington, D.C., on June 9, 2023.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
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Jose Luis Magana/AP
A nonprofit is suing the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum over the decision to resurface the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool at Washington D.C.’s National Mall, and to paint the pool’s basin blue.
The suit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), an education and advocacy organization. In the suit, TCLF is asking a federal judge to halt the project, saying that the Trump administration failed to have the project reviewed federally, as is dictated by the National Historic Preservation Act.
President Trump revealed his plans for the pool do-over last month in “American flag blue,” saying that the project would take one week and $2 million, and that it would be completed in time for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. A few days later on Truth Social, the president posted a fake image of himself and several of his administration officials in swimsuits, along with an unidentified woman in a gingham bikini, lounging in the water with the Washington National Monument at the rear. (Swimming in the reflecting pool is prohibited by federal law.)
In a YouTube video posted by the White House on April 23, Trump called the pool “filthy dirty” and said it “leaked like a sieve.” In that video, Trump said he was going to call three companies that he has worked with in the past – “all they do is swimming pools” – and say, “Give me a good price.”
The New York Times reported last Friday that the contract for the reflecting pool’s resurfacing was awarded in a $6.9 million no-bid contract to a company called Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which previously has never held any federal contracts.
An employee at the Atlantic Industrial Coatings confirmed in a telephone call on Monday that it has been contracted for this project, but referred all other questions to the Department of the Interior.
The Times reported on Monday that the final cost of the project could be upward of $13 million, per documents it says it has obtained. The Department of the Interior did not confirm the cost of the project, but wrote: “The contract price reflects the effort necessary to expedite the timeline of completing the leak prevention coating project—more people, more materials, more equipment and longer hours ahead of our 250th.”
In an unsigned statement emailed to NPR Monday afternoon, the Interior Department wrote: “The National Park Service chose the best company to expedite the repair of the iconic Reflecting Pool ahead of our 250 celebrations. The choice of American Flag Blue will enhance the visitor experience by making the pool reflect the grand Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. NPS is also investing in a state-of-the-art ozone nanobubbler filtration system and will now have a dedicated crew who will maintain the grounds’ from wildlife. The Department is proud of the work being carried out by our Park Service to ensure this magical spot can be enjoyed for not only our 250th, but for many generations to come.”
Critics of the project, including TCLF, don’t share that vision – and are taking particular umbrage at the color.
“The reflecting pool should not be viewed in isolation; it is part of the larger ensemble of designed landscapes that comprise the National Mall,” Charles A. Birnbaum, the president and CEO of TCLF, said in a statement emailed to NPR Monday. “The design intent, to create a reflective surface that is subordinate, is fundamental to the solemn and hallowed visual and spatial connection between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. A blue-tinted basin is more appropriate to a resort or theme park.”
The National Park Service regularly cleans out algae, goose droppings and other detritus from the reflecting pool. The last major renovation of the reflecting pool, which included the installation of a new circulation and filtration system, took place during the Obama administration at a reported cost of $34 million.
Before founding TCLF in 2008, Birnbaum served for 15 years as the coordinator of the Historic Landscape Initiative for the National Park Service.
TCLF has another open lawsuit against the federal administration: it is one of eight cultural and architecture groups currently suing President Trump and the Kennedy Center board over the planned renovations of the complex, which are planned to start in July.
The memorial service will be held at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial at 1 p.m.
WASHINGTON D.C. – A brave K-9 hero from the region will be honored at the Annual National Police K9 Memorial Service on Monday afternoon.
K-9 Knox died in the line of duty last year after he was accidentally hit by a police vehicle while pursuing a suspect involved in a stolen vehicle incident. He was a 3-year-old German shepherd and had served as a narcotics detection and patrol apprehension K-9 for the Roanoke Police Department since May 2023.
The memorial service will include a wreath-laying ceremony and will be held at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., at 1 p.m. The event will open with a musical performance by Frank Ray, and the guest speaker will be Deputy Jared Hahn of the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit.
The San Antonio Police Department Blue Line Choir will sing the national anthem, and the Emerald Society Pipes & Drums band will also perform.
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