Teen attacked near Metro station while on phone with mother

D.C. police are investigating the attack of a 16-year-old near the Congress Heights Metro station.

It happened at around 9 p.m. on April 16 while the victim was on the phone with his mother.

Sabrina Lancaster says her son had just gotten off a train and was walking toward the Giant Food store along Alabama Avenue in Southeast D.C.

She listened helplessly as he was hit and the phone dropped to the ground. A few minutes later, he called back saying a group of people came up behind him. Someone punched him on the right side of his face and he fell to the sidewalk.

Lancaster's son did not get a good look at his attackers, but when she saw a FOX 5 report about a similar incident, she reached out to us.

"It was only five days apart, so when I saw it, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I hope this is not something that's going to continue to happen,'" says Lancaster.

In that case, on the night of April 11, a 23-year-old man had his jaw broken when he was jumped at the Congress Heights station.

He says he was punched in a similar manner, then thrown to the ground and repeatedly hit and kicked by a group of men.

The motive isn't clear in the most recent attack involving the teen victim as nothing was stolen from him.

But the man who was attacked on April 11th had his cell phone taken. He also says there were also some anti-gay slurs used.

Metro Transit Police were looking into whether it may have been a hate crime or a mugging. Investigators believe they have identified two of the suspects in that case. They are juveniles and charges are pending.