DC STABBING: Good Samaritans intervened to save lives. They apprehended the attacker until police arrived.

Twitter ^ | April 3, 2025 | WUSA9 reporter Simone De Alba

[grundle]

DC STABBING: Good Samaritans intervened to save lives. They apprehended the attacker until police arrived.

Salvador Saucedo Guzman says the neighborhood is in shock.

"He chose the wrong block to come on, we put him down"

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“we put him down” — too bad they didn’t REALLY put him down like a rabid dog.

[Paladin2]

DC has yet to be totally lost?

Seems like in many Utopian, urban locales these days, that Committees of Vigilance would improve the situation.

[sphinx]

This was in Trinidad, a neighborhood just north of Florida Avenue and between Gallaudet University to the west and Bladensburg Road to the east. I couldn't read the cross street with Montello in the clip, but the area is about a mile from my house, which is three microhabitats away in urban terms, where things can change dramatically in a few blocks.

For most of my time in DC, Trinidad was one of the most notorious neighborhoods in northeast DC. At one point, the DC police had taken to setting up random roadblocks and searching all cars. Welcome to Third World cesspool of your choice da hood in DC.

As Capitol Hill gentrified to the south and then started to get expensive, the young and the bold pushed across H Street and into the no man's land between H and Florida. As that began to get civilized, the pioneers pushed across Florida into Trinidad.

The Trinidad rebound started at least ten, maybe 15 years ago. Prior to that, I could not have imagined that I would ever know anyone living there. Since that time, I've known several, including one young, single woman (white), a coworker. She loved it there and never had a problem, although I'm sure she maintained good situational awareness. (Most of the crime problem in Trinidad as elsewhere is thugs shooting thugs, usually with gangs and drugs in the mix. Stay clear of that and don't wander the streets alone, drunk, and at night, and you will be ok.) She could never have afforded to buy more than a small condo on Capitol Hill, but she was able to swing a good sized single family home with a generous yard in Trinidad. And she more than doubled her money when she sold almost ten years ago, after taking a big opportunity job to work abroad.

I'm not up there often enough to have a good sense of it, but I did the homesteading in Indian country thing over 40 years ago on Capitol Hill. Block by block, the bad'uns continue to be run out and the healthy neighborhoods continue to grow and link up. I don't know where the thugs will all end up; probably Baltimore, and that's fine with me because the Baltimore pols are still channeling their inner Marion Barry.

Note that the guy in the video is Hispanic and well spoken. That means he works for a living and probably has a family. He and his peers are no nonsense guys about taking out the trash, and they make good neighbors.

Immediately to the east, across Bladensburg Road, is the (in)famous Hechinger Mall, which is due for a complete teardown and comprehensive redevelopment into what will probably be a very upscale, midrise, high density development with ground floor retail and offices and a mix of apartments and condos above. The concept drawings look pretty nice.

The rest of the northern perimeter is enclosed by Gallaudet University, Mount Olivet Cemetery (a Catholic cemetery and very historic), and the National Arboretum. Capitol Hill is to the south. It's too close in not to gentrify, since the alternative at that price point is now the far suburbs and commutes from hell. Trinidad isn't there yet, but it is going to be a gem. The basic housing stock is standard DC red brick rowhouses, so it will probably become middle and upper middle class in character. But it's outside any existing historic district, so there is a danger that the wrecking balls and bulldozers will move in and Manhattanize the area. Our doofus of a mayor is happy to sacrifice single family homes for high density yuppie condo concentrations; she does not hesitate to sacrifice neighborhoods in the chase for tax base to fund her follies like the proposed football stadium boondoggle, which will be a mile and a half away.

If you are looking to make a nice nest egg with a canny DC real estate buy, you have missed your chance in Trinidad. It's the early movers who will cash in, and Trinidad is well beyond that point.

[lee martell]

The first part of what happened, before the Good Samaritans arrived is completely missing in that article (or Tweet).
Your detailed, first hand post helps the reader to develop some kind of back story about the present neighborhoods.

[sphinx]

A lot of people are operating on very old and outdated information about DC, and most ot course don’t know the neighborhoods.

It’s always important to start with the fact that DC proper is very small and contains less than 10 percent of the population of the metro area. The city-suburban things factors into the discussion anywhere, but here it dominates the discussion. DC has gentrification on steroids, and the suburbs are choking on accelerating sprawl and traffic congestion. The pace of change is amazing.

Since most people have some memories of DC from trips over the years, I always urge people to go to Google Maps and identify these “exotic” neighborhoods that they read about. Then go to street view and “drive around” a bit. Real destitution is largely concentrated in areas dominated by the housing projects, which are finally starting to get thinned out as they age out. And of course the drug trade lurks in the shadows and the alleys in some places. It’s not Marion Barry’s Washington any longer.