New data from the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) shows a spike in underage carjackings, several months after the murder of an UberEats driver made national headlines.
There have been more than 1,500 motor vehicle thefts reported as of June 23. This represents a 30 percent increase from the entire year of 2020, in which there were about 1,200 incidents. A spokesperson for the MPD indicated to the Daily Caller this has been correlated to other types of crime.
“With regards to trends in carjackings, we have noticed that a large number of these crimes are committed by young teenagers (13 – 16-year-olds) and the vehicles are often used to commit other crimes such as robberies and shootings,” the spokesperson said. “With the prevalence of more delivery drivers on the road due to the pandemic, this provides more opportunities for them to become victims of carjackings.”
The data spike comes on the heels of the shocking video of two teenagers who carjacked delivery driver Mohammed Anwar’s vehicle in March, who died upon being ejected from the car. MPD started a task force in February to approach carjackings. D.C. officials partnered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), FBI, as well as police departments in Montgomery County and Prince George.
“The carjacking task force also utilizes resources from local jurisdictions such as Montgomery County and PG County as well as federal law enforcement to pool resources and analyze the current carjacking cases,” the MPD also said. “This helps our detectives with recognizing trends and suspects who are committing multiple carjackings.”
The newly released data also shows increases in homicides from last year by 17 percent, as well as the 20-year homicide trend moving in the wrong direction.
