Jasmine Hilton, John D. Harden, Keith L. Alexander and Emily Davies:
Carjackings — which involve violence or the threat of violence and are different from unoccupied cars being stolen — have become so prevalent in the District that they became a political talking point as Congress debatedD.C.’s crime and policing bills. D.C. currently averages one reported carjacking per day compared with every three days in the two years before the pandemic.
Cities nationwide are facing the same burden. According to a Post analysis of crime reports from 2018 to March 2023, Chicago, Fort Worth, New Orleans and San Francisco also recorded an increase in carjackings during the pandemic.Data shows those crimes have remained at elevated levels in each city.
Officials and community leaders have said gaps in the social safety net that were widened by the pandemic explain some of the uptick in carjackings and increased arrests of juveniles charged with the crime.
In the end, scores of victims are left traumatized. Some have been injured or killed.
Lee Alexander Thomas, 54, was killed in December by teens trying to steal his BMW at a gas station in Largo, according to police. The Washington Commanders fan and local bus driver was shot after assailants confronted him and he wouldn’t give up his car, according to hisolder brother, Ernest Thomas.
“There’s no safeguard,” Ernest Thomas said. “He wasn’t doing anything that a normal citizen wouldn’t be doing, getting gas in his car. … You can’t stay in the house all the time.”