The Metropolitan Police Department arrested a suspect in connection with a shooting incident March 11 at the IHOP restaurant in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in which the victim was the subject of anti-gay harassment, Mayor Vince Gray and D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier announced Monday.
Police arrested LaShawn Carson, 27, who is charged with aggravated assault while armed. The shooting had been investigated as a potential hate crime, meaning that if convicted, Carson, who was arrested Monday morning, could face a jail sentence 50 percent longer than the normal maximum penalty if prosecutors present sufficient evidence she was motivated by anti-gay bias. (“Hate crime” is not a formal charge in and of itself, Lanier reminded reporters.)
The shooting happened about 6:30 a.m. on March 11 after the victim, who was dining with a group of friends, wound up in a verbal argument with Carson and her group, police said. The spat, which allegedly included the use of several anti-gay slurs, escalated into physical violence when one person brushed against another. Carson allegedly brandished a gun and shot the 31-year-old victim, who was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
“These incidents have caused all of us deep concern,” Gray said. All of our residents have the right to walk our streets free of fear.”
In the wake of the IHOP shooting and other recent violent crimes targeting members of the District’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities, nearly 700 people marched last Tuesday night from Columbia Heights to Dupont Circle in solidarity with the victims. About 9:40 p.m. March 12, a gay man exiting a taxicab at the intersection of Irving Street and Georgia Avenue NW was viciously assaulted and robbed of several personal belongings. Later that evening in the Trinidad neighborhood in Northeast D.C., a transgender woman was assaulted and knocked unconscious.
Police said last week they were investigating the Georgia Avenue assault as a potential hate crime, but not the Trinidad incident, although the victim in that case later told investigators she believes she was the target of a bias-motivated attack. Lanier and other police officials did not offer any updates on either incident at today’s press conference.
Lanier explained the two week gap between the shooting and Carson’s arrest as an ample amount of time to gather enough evidence to make an arrest. “I appreciate the community’s patience, because I know this is a crime all of us wanted to have solved immediately,” she said. Still, she continued, the decision to prosecute Carson for a hate crime is now in the hands of prosecutors.
Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who represents the Columbia Heights neighborhood and participated in nearly the full length of last week’s march, joined Gray and Lanier at the podium.
“What a relief this is,” he said. “This was a horrible hate crime that singled someone out based on a perception. This was also an insane act.”
