Dear PoPville – Woodley Park Mystery

Dear PoPville,

I’m a Woodley Park resident that lives in one of the apartment buildings in the row-of-three along 29th street between Woodley Rd. and Calvert St., NW. On Monday night, I went for a run around 7:30-8:00ish and on my way out, I was just crossing CT Avenue right by Open City when a ton, I mean, a TON of police cars, a fire truck, and some ambulances were rushing back towards that area by my apartment. Not thinking a lot of it b/c the local precinct is in that general direction but farther up past the Cathedral, I continued on my run. Getting back around 8:30, I was walking up Woodley Rd. from Connecticut Avenue when I noticed a ton of police tape and squad cars blocking at the 29th St. intersection. Curious, I along with some local residents, walked up. From Woodley, you couldn’t walk down 29th, and from Calvert St. at the bottom, you couldn’t walk up 29th – the whole block was cordoned off. And there were a ton of police officers, detectives, and EMTs walking around. Asking the beat officer at the intersection what was up, he said “he didn’t know” but they weren’t letting even foot traffic proceed down 29th – even if you were a resident. From the intersection – it looked like the focal point was the Delano Apartment building – the building situated in the middle of the 29th street block. After some hours, their investigation finished, but it was impossible to see at that time what, exactly, was the focal point of their investigation.

Fast-forward over the past couple days – slowly, some information has leaked out, none of it confirmed. On Tuesday, I heard that it was in response to a body found on the block – but no more information beyond that. And last night, additional word: police were responding to a naked body found, dead, on the front entryway outside the Delano. Allegedly, some unidentified person who didn’t live there had gotten in, gone up to the roof, stripped, and then committed suicide by jumping – but police didn’t know who he was or any information about him. And that’s…pretty much the last I’ve heard.

I’ve enclosed some of the clips from the DCPD twitter feed confirming the incident, as well as a Google Maps screenshot of where this occurred.

“DC Police Department‏@DCPoliceDept

1/2 The 2700 b/o 29th St, NW is closed in both directions until further notice (Police activity) Use Calvert St and Cleveland Ave as alternate routes.”

Would love to know more about what happened.