DC officer's wife assaulted by ATV and dirt bike riders, knocked down and spit on
A D.C. police officer's wife said she was assaulted by a pack of ATV and dirt bike riders early Sunday morning in Southeast D.C.
The woman said she was simply trying to get these illegal riders to slow down on her residential street near the Prince George's County line when they took offense to what she was doing.
It is a traumatic experience that left her badly shaken.
"We yelled at them to slow down and they came back and came into my yard and charged at us with the ATVs," she said. "One of them knocked me over on the ground. I got up and he spat in my face and they tried to tear up my front lawn and then they left."
We asked her if the group said anything to her.
"They called us some terrible names," said the victim. "Other than that, not really."
The woman suffered cuts and scrapes to an arm and one of her legs.
The police were called, but no arrests have been made.
"Our kids were outside less ten minutes before that with us," said the woman. "Our kids play on the street. This is a neighborhood. The playground is on that street.
"They come through like 30, 40 miles an hour in a group. Anybody could have been walking. There are elderly people. There is a woman in a wheelchair who lives down the street. Anybody could have been crossing the street. Their vehicle could have been coming.
"How many people have to die or get hurt before MPD does something to stop these people? Let the police do their job. Enough of the community policing -- put the law back in the police officer's hands."
As the policy stands now, D.C. police officers are not allowed to chase these riders and therefore catching them is tricky.
When we talked to D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier on Monday, she said she had not heard about the assault on the officer's wife, but said the department is not ignoring the problem.
"We have multiple strategies that we are working on," said Chief Lanier. "We announced a bonus to bonus program for cash rewards for information on the ATV problem. I think we have recovered in the last 90 days 37 ATVs, so we have been recovering quite a few of them. So we are making progress, but still lots of challenges."
Just last month, reporter Charnice Milton was shot to death by a man on a dirt bike and this is certainly not a new problem.
Ten years ago, FOX 5 reported extensively on the problem showing ATVs and dirt bikes racing up and down District streets. The police have been unable to stop them. And ten years later, it is clearly still a big problem.
The woman who was assaulted said all of the riders were very young -- teenagers -- and said she wants the chief to come up with some new ideas on how to get these riders off the street before they hurt or even kill someone else.
Related Stories:
Videos show illegal dirt bike riders taunting DC police
Recent DC homicides put spotlight on trouble police have with illegal dirt bikes