Dear PoPville – 2nd mugging at gunpoint next to Fort Totten metro

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Dear PoPville,

I’m a resident of the Fort Totten/North Michigan Park neighborhood and hope you can post something about yesterday’s mugging in Fort Totten. I can’t get the original alert to come up, but it happened at 6th Pl NE and Gallatin St NE at 2:54pm on Monday at gun point. You can read the discussion about it here (and try to get back to the original alert here.)

I just went to look up the alerts again and saw this – only about 2-3 blocks away on South Dakota Ave NE:

Robbery (Gun) of Establishment 2221 hrs 4900 blk So.Dakota Ave NE LOF: 3 young B/M in blk ski mask & guns S1-18-20 yoa,5’6-5’7″, dk complx, gray long slv sht, dk pnts, blk ski

Robbery (Gun) of Establishment 2221 hrs 4900 blk So.Dakota Ave NE LOF: (3) young b/m’s armed w/guns in blk ski mask

As you’ll see on the facebook page, there was a neighborhood meeting that was largely unproductive less than a week ago. The solution from MPDC and the Park Police is to stay out of the woods, go around, and not go in after dark. After dark, fair. During the day is tough – there is a path which everyone has been using for years and NPS refuses to clean up, light, etc. Plus, daylight is no longer a deterrent.

The last two muggings were at 8:30A in the morning (when a lot of people use that path to go to the metro for work) and 2:54 pm, off the path and in the neighborhood more. If they are mugging at gun point in broad daylight, what’s next? And what will it take to get MPD and the NPS/Park Police to do more – a gun shot, a sexual assault, or worse? And, you’re telling me you are okay with criminals that mug and attack people with guns on your National Park Land that is so precious, you won’t clean it up or put lights up so law abiding citizens can use the space?

I just can’t be okay with this. The alerts above scare me even more. Things are escalating, fast – not getting better. I get that MPD can’t be there constantly but this is getting out of control – even patrols would help.