‘Supposed to help': DC man says officers didn't assist him after hit-and-run

A D.C. man said he was hit by a car while crossing the street this week and when he tried to flag down police officers parked nearby, he was ignored. 

Michael Philip said he was on his way to work and crossing the street at 14th and U streets in Northwest around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.

“I had about 15 seconds to make it to the other side of the street and then I saw light through my umbrella,” he said.

“They were still holding on to the wheel,” Philip said. “They were, like, gesturing I’m sorry, and then they just sped off.”

He took a picture of the car before the driver took off, but it didn’t have license plates.

Philip said two police cars were parked nearby and he asked the officers for help. 

“’Hey!’ I was still holding my phone; I was shaking,” Philip said. “’I got hit by that car, can you do something about it? Can I file a report? Can you chase after that car?’”

“They didn’t do anything,” he said. “They just looked at me and then they drove down 14th Street, and everybody at the bus stop that saw it, they all just said, ‘What the?’”

Philp said he reported the hit-and-run later that morning but hasn’t heard anything from investigators. 

He wasn’t seriously hurt, physically, but believes he deserves better. 

“I feel disappointed and some sort of betrayal,” Philip said. “I thought the police were supposed to help us.” 

“Our Third District looked into this and found no indication that officers in the area were aware that a crash had occurred,” a representative for the Metropolitan Police Department said. “There is regularly a visible patrol presence in the area of that intersection. The complainant in this case reported the crash later that morning at a nearby district station.”

Philip said he isn’t going to stop trying to get answers.

“If this happened to me, it could have happened to anyone else, in a far worse situation than I have ever been,” he said. “Like, you’re supposed to help people.”

He posted his story on Reddit looking for advice and said he plans to reach out to his ANC commissioner and D.C. Council.

“It still lingers, the memory of the impact, that I could have died right there,” Philip said.