Crime

Baby Found Safe in D.C. After PG Carjacking, Suspects Still At Large

THE AFRO — A carjacking inadvertently turned into a kidnapping but led to a happy ending- a saga that began in Prince George’s County and concluded in D.C.

Published

6 years ago

March 3, 2019

Oakland Post

By Mark F. Gray

A carjacking inadvertently turned into a kidnapping but led to a happy ending- a saga that began in Prince George’s County and concluded in D.C.

Prince George’s County Police are still investigating the incident that started at a Valero Gas Station on Martin Luther King Jr. Highway in Seat Pleasant on the DC/MD border. According to police reports, an unidentified assailant stole a 2013 Chevrolet Traverse while the woman was pumping gas with her child in the car Feb. 26.

Primary investigators have surmised the suspects jumped into the vehicle awhile the mother was pumping gas, and mistakenly drove off with the child inside, according to Seat Pleasant Police Chief Devan Martin.

Just after getting the frantic 911 call and starting the Amber Alert procedure, Martin said another driver spotted the baby during his press briefing outside the gas station. The unharmed child had been placed on the side of the road, in her car seat, on E Street between 56^th and 57^th streets in Southeast, D.C.

“We have come from terrible circumstances to triumph,” said Seat Pleasant Police Chief Devan Martin. “The baby has been located. The baby is safe.”

Though it’s not known exactly how long the baby girl was in the car with the unknown suspect she was taken to a local hospital to be examined and was ultimately released.

Local broadcast media reports gained access to a surveillance video from the gas station. WJLA-TV in Washington learned the mother went inside the gas station to purchase candy for the child while the pump was active which provided the opportunity for carjacking and abduction.

When the suspects ultimately recognized they had stolen an occupied vehicle, they dropped off the child in front of Dunn & Sons Funeral Home on Eads Street in Northeast, D.C. funeral and continued their escape. Two women inside the building noticed the car seat outside the building. They secured the child and notified authorities she was safe before relinquishing her to them. The baby girl was reportedly in custody of the people at the funeral home for approximately 30 minutes.

Seat Pleasant Police are still actively searching for the stolen vehicle: a 2013 Chevrolet Traverse, dark in color, with Maryland Tag 4CM8301. Anyone who has seen that SUV or has information on the whereabouts of the two people who stole it is urged to contact Seat Pleasant Police.

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

COMMENTARY: ‘Leaving Neverland’ is Michael Jackson’s Pandora’s Box

Don't Miss

Gun violence a public health crisis in Birmingham, mayor says

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

2 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Bo Tefu

California Assembly Passes Bill to Strengthen Penalties for Soliciting Minors

The revised version of Assembly Bill 379, authored by Assemblymember Maggy Krell (D-Sacramento), now allows prosecutors to file felony charges against adults who solicit sex from a 16 or 17-year-old, provided the accused is three or more years older than the minor. If the offender is within three years of the minor, the charge would remain a misdemeanor.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

The California State Assembly has agreed to amend a controversial bill that would increase penalties for adults who solicit sex from minors ages 16 or 17, following a wave of criticism from Republicans and concerns raised by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“From a prosecutor’s standpoint, this bill strengthens California law and gives us the felony hammer to prosecute the creeps that are preying on teenagers,” Krell said in a statement supporting the amended bill.

The new amendments also include provisions for a state grant program aimed at improving the prosecution of human trafficking and sex trafficking cases, as well as a support fund for survivors partially funded by increased fines on businesses that enable or fail to address human trafficking.

The bill faced significant opposition last week after the Assembly removed a provision that would have treated solicitation of 16 and 17-year-olds as a felony for all offenders.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

BOOK REVIEW: The Afterlife of Malcolm X

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely. He was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Book Cover of the Afterlife of Malcolm X. Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: by Mark Whitaker, c.2025, Simon & Schuster, $30.99, 448 pages

Who will remember you in fifty years’ time?

A handful of friends – at least those who are still around – might recall you. Your offspring, grandkids, and greats, maybe people who stumble upon your tombstone. Think about it: who will remember you in 2075? And then read “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” by Mark Whitaker and learn about a legacy that still resonates a half-century later.

As the news of his murder spread around New York and around the world, his followers and admirers reacted in many ways. His friend, journalist Peter Goldman, was “hardly shocked” because he also knew that Malcolm’s life was in danger, but the arrest of three men accused of the crime didn’t add up. It ultimately became Goldman’s “obsession.”

Malcolm’s co-writer for The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, quietly finished the book he started with Malcolm, and a small upstart publishing house snatched it up. A diverse group of magazines got in line to run articles about Malcolm X’s life, finally sensing that White America “’needed his voice even more than Blacks did.’”

But though Malcolm X was gone, he continued to leave an impact.

He didn’t live long enough to see the official founding of the Black Panther Party, but he was influential on its beginning. He never knew of the first Kwanzaa, or the triumphs of a convert named Muhammad Ali.

Malcolm left his mark on music. He influenced at least three major athletes.

He was a “touchstone” for a president …

While it’s true that “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” is an eye-opening book, one that works as a great companion to the autobiography, it’s also a fact that it’s somewhat scattered. Is it a look at Malcolm’s life, his legacy, or is it a “murder mystery”?

Turns out, it’s all three, but the storylines are not smooth. There are twists and tangents and that may take some getting used-to. Just when you’re immersed, even absorbed in this book, to the point where you forget about your surroundings, author Mark Whitaker abruptly moves to a different part of the story. It may be jarring.

And yet, it’s a big part of this book, and it’s essential for readers to know the investigation’s outcome and what we know today. It doesn’t change Malcolm X’s legacy, but it adds another frame around it.

If you’ve read the autobiography, if you haven’t thought about Malcolm X in a while, or if you think you know all there is to know, then you owe it to yourself to find “The Afterlife of Malcolm X.”

For you, this is a book you won’t easily forget.