Tag: washington dc

Potential DC school shooter arrested with guns after social media threat: ATF, MTPD report

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Metro Transit Police Department (MTPD) say that they stopped a school shooting in D.C. just one day after a mass shooter opened fire on a mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school.

The investigation began with an “alarming” social media post referencing a potential threat to a DC public school, according to MTPD’s Criminal Investigation Division. They have not yet revealed which school was targeted.

On August 27, MTPD and ATF conducted a search warrant at a District residence where multiple firearms were recovered, and a teen was placed under arrest.

“As part of our participation in a longstanding ATF task force, we’re proud of our officers who disrupted this significant public safety threat,” a MTPD spokesperson said. “We are focused on keeping our Metro system and community safe across the region.”

Keep reading

President Trump to Sign Executive Order to End Cashless Bail by Defunding Soft-on-Crime Liberal Jurisdictions

President Trump will sign an executive order on Monday to pressure liberal jurisdictions across the country into ending policies like cashless bail.

The order will threaten to federally defund cities and towns that enforce these policies that are an “obvious threat to public safety,” the order states.

Earlier this month, President Trump declared a “public safety emergency” in the nation’s capital and federalized the DC Metropolitan Police, citing high crime and unsafe streets. He further authorized the use of National Guard troops and deployed federal agents across the city to tackle the rampant crime, homelessness, and illegal immigration crises.

Following the federal takeover two weeks ago, there have been almost no murders in the District. There have been zero homicides in the last eleven days.

Keep reading

Pirro: Those carrying rifles or shotguns in D.C. will no longer face felony charges

United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro has announced that federal prosecutors will no longer pursue felony charges for mere possession of rifles or shotguns in Washington, D.C.

This change means that, except in certain cases, felony charges will no longer be implemented under a D.C. law that made it illegal to carry rifles or shotguns within its boundaries.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office will, however, continue to seek charges whenever a person is accused of committing a violent crime with a shotgun or rifle, or if the individual has a criminal record that prohibits them from possessing a firearm. The new policy also includes large-capacity magazines, but excludes handguns. Officials are also able to prosecute individuals in possession of unregistered rifles and shotguns in the district.

Pirro made a statement explaining that the policy change is in alignment with Supreme Court (SCOTUS) rulings protecting gun rights, and was enacted under the guidance of the Justice Department and the Office of Solicitor General.

The first SCOTUS ruling the former Fox News host referenced overturned a New York gun law in 2022 and held that Americans have a right to carry firearms I public for self-defense. She asserted that a blanket ban on the possession of shotguns and rifles violates this opinion. The second ruling cited was from 2008, where the court blocked D.C.’s ban on handguns within the home.

Keep reading

Washington D.C. Has The Highest Unemployment Rate In The Nation

The U.S. labor market remains resilient in 2025, but unemployment figures vary widely by state.

While the national unemployment rate stood at 4.1% in June, some regions are experiencing far higher (or far lower) joblessness.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, highlights the unemployment rate by state using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for June 2025.

Keep reading

Biden judge sticks it to Trump by releasing teens who assaulted Big Balls as president celebrates DC crackdown: ‘Everybody’s safe now’

A Biden-appointed judge has defied President Donald Trump by releasing two teenagers accused of assaulting a DOGE employee on the streets of Washington D.C.

The revelation comes shortly after Trump celebrated his success in cracking down on crime in the capital, telling Americans ‘everybody is safe now’ in a Thursday press conference.

Trump had dedicated mass resources to Washington in the weeks after 19-year-old former DOGE staffer Edward ‘Big Balls’ Coristine was attacked on the streets.

Coristine was left bloody, badly beaten and fearing he was concussed on August 5 when he tried to stop a carjacking. 

Judge Kendra Briggs, who was appointed by Joe Biden during his presidency, on Thursday ordered the release of the two teenagers believed to be responsible for the crime.

The two suspects, a boy and girl both aged 15, are accused of an attempted carjacking and assaulting Coristine on August 3. Police later shared photos of a third suspect.

The duo, who cannot be named due to their ages, are from Hyattsville, Maryland, and have been placed under strict rules in order to be released from juvenile detention. 

The girl will move into a youth shelter house, while the boy is permitted to live at his mother’s home.

Both will be required to attend school and will have a strict curfew, as well as electric monitoring.

‘School and home, that’s it,’ Briggs told the duo, according to The Washington Post.

‘The fact that this court is stepping you down from Youth Services Center is a serious step,’ the judge added.

The pair are forbidden from contacting one another, and Briggs assured them that if she heard of any breaches, there would be an emergency hearing scheduled to deal with the consequences.

Each teenager had one parent virtually present at the hearing.

The girl has another pending matter in Maryland, and prosecutors objected to her release, describing her as a danger to the community and a flight risk.

Keep reading

Liberal media rages at arrest of ‘family man’ in DC—turns out he’s an illegal immigrant wanted for child sex assault

A brief scene on the National Mall in the nation’s capital on Wednesday drew attention after a local reporter captured the arrest of a man by federal agents. The Department of Homeland Security later confirmed the suspect was an illegal immigrant with a serious criminal record.

NBC Washington reporter Aimee Cho posted on X: “BREAKING: Just saw DC Police + federal agents detain a man on the National Mall. He appeared to try to escape, then was quickly tackled to the ground by several agents + was screaming in Spanish ‘please, I’m not a criminal, I work here, I want to be with my family’” — @AimeeCho4

The Department of Homeland Security directly replied to Cho’s post, saying: “This illegal alien from Mexico was previously arrested in January 2024 in Fairfax County for aggravated sexual assault of a child under 13.”

“He entered and had a final order of removal and chose to voluntary return- twice. Illegally entered 3 times. Thank you to law enforcement for getting him off of Washington DC’s streets.” — said the DHS.

Keep reading

Federal Agent Warns DC Residents Trump Is ‘Tired Of’ Public Marijuana Consumption Amid ‘Surge’ To Combat Crime In Nation’s Capitol

President Donald Trump is “tired of” marijuana and alcohol being consumed in public, a federal agent told a group of people sitting on a porch in Washington, D.C. in a video that was highlighted by Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver.

As the National Guard and multiple federal agencies—including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)—take part in the federalization of law enforcement in the District of Columbia, there was one interaction over the weekend that caught national attention.

In the clip featured on Oliver’s HBO show Last Week Tonight, an agent approached a group, apparently on suspicion that they were publicly using cannabis outside their residence.

“We’re doing checks, keeping everybody safe down here,” the agent said, asking if they had “heard of the federal surge that Donald Trump’s putting out.”

He was referencing an executive action that activated the National Guard and other agencies to participate in policing in the nation’s Capitol, with the aim of tackling violent crime. Local officials have disputed the justification for the “surge,” pointing to lower-than-average crime rates in D.C. in recent years.

But as federal agents swept the streets of D.C.—which White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday resulted in 465 arrests over about two weeks—questions are being raised about the nature of the crimes those officers were targeting.

Oliver said that “the purest expression” of the disconnect was “this cringe-inducing encounter where a group of agents approach a man they mistakenly think is smoking marijuana on his back porch, which, by the way, is completely legal in D.C.”

(For the record, possession of limited amounts of marijuana by adults is legal in the District under a voter-approved law—but public consumption is prohibited.)

Keep reading

Jeanine Pirro Launches DOJ Investigation Into Whether DC Has Been Faking Crime Data

Four weeks after a DC police commander was suspended amid accusations that he manipulated crime statistics, the Department of Justice has launched a wide-ranging investigation into whether the department has been faking data to make crime rates lower, the Washington Post reports, citing two senior law enforcement officials.

The investigation is run out of DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office following the accusation lodged against Metro PD commander Michael Pulliam, who was put on leave in May after the department began investigating whether he altered crime data. Pullman has denied the allegations. 

Pulliam’s paid administrative leave came a week after he filed an equal employment opportunity complaint against an assistant chief over accusations that the department deliberately falsified crime data. The Police union, meanwhile, claims police supervisors in the department manipulate crime data to make it appear violent crime has fallen considerably compared to last year.

The DOJ investigation, however, will go much further – and will include other police and city officials who may have also fabricated or altered crime data. 

“D. C. gave Fake Crime numbers to create a false illusion of safety,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday night. 

Keep reading

Anti-Marijuana Groups Narc On D.C. Dispensaries In Letter To Trump, Saying They Are Too Close To Schools

Anti-marijuana organizations are formally narcing on several locally licensed cannabis businesses in Washington, D.C.—sending a letter to President Donald Trump, the U.S. attorney general and a federal prosecutor that identifies dispensaries they allege are too close to schools despite approval from District of Columbia officials.

Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) President Kevin Sabet and the head of a D.C. organization called “1000 Feet” recently sent the letter to the White House and DOJ, saying they “support prioritizing public safety and reducing drug use in the District of Columbia.”

This comes as the president considers a proposal to federally reschedule cannabis, which he said last week will be decided imminently. The issue has divided key voices in the MAGA world, and SAM is among the most vocal opponents of the reform.

But as Trump has moved to federalize D.C. law enforcement by putting DOJ and the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in positions of power to subvert local police control, the letter from the anti-cannabis groups encourages the administration to address the “ongoing lawlessness” allegedly associated with certain marijuana businesses in the jurisdiction.

Specifically, they say that over the last two years, “the DC government has licensed marijuana retailers to operate in close proximity to several elementary schools and daycare centers, over the strenuous objections of parents and educators, and in blatant violation of the Federal Drug-Free School Zones Act.”

The groups said that while they were “pleased” to see former interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin “take initial steps against one of the worst offenders” by threatening a locally licensed medical marijuana dispensary with criminal prosecution back in March, “we have not seen any public progress since then.”

Martin, for his part, has since been tapped by Trump to serve as U.S. pardon attorney.

“We hope the initiative you announced this week will provide another opportunity for you to protect the District’s children by taking swift action to close down all the offending marijuana retailers near schools and to inform the DC government that any further licensing of retailers at locations in violation of the Federal Drug-Free School Zones Act will be treated as a criminal conspiracy,” SAM and 1000 Feet said in the letter, which was sent on Friday.

Keep reading

NPR’s Langfitt: Some D.C. Residents Told Me They Stopped Reporting Crime Because Much of It’s ‘Unpunished’

On Wednesday’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” NPR National Correspondent Frank Langfitt stated that in the Congress Heights area of D.C. some of the people he spoke to told him “crime is worse than the statistics show,” because some “have given up reporting to police because they feel a lot of crimes go unpunished.”

Langfitt stated that in the U Street area, people he spoke to “said crime didn’t seem that bad to them.”

Langfitt further stated that after talking to people in the U Street area, “I went across the Anacostia River to Congress Heights. This is among the poorest areas of the city, vast majority of the population is black. And, also, the D.C. Police say this is part of an area with among the highest crime — violent crime rates in the city. But unlike U Street, people in Congress Heights said crime is a really big problem there, shootings, robbery, burglaries. In fact, some say crime is worse than the statistics show, because, many say, have given up reporting to police because they feel a lot of crimes go unpunished.”

He added that “there was a general sense that any greater armed presence would be a good thing” but people in Congress Heights were skeptical that any federal agents would be in their neighborhood because many there view the dispatching of federal agents as just about style, and people said that it would be better to increase federal funding to hire more police.

Keep reading