May 29, 1997

So it's about midnight last night, and we're laying in bed. We hear big engines pull up out front followed by police radio noise. We look out the window and the police are having a conversation with David.

Based on what we heard, our best guess is that: David, our ex-con neighbor, had discovered that his 13-year-old stepson had a gun. David, being a ten-year veteran of D.C.'s Lorton Maximum Security Correctional Facility, wanted to dissuade his stepson from following in his (David's) footsteps, and he administered some discipline to the child. I heard some banging around earlier in the evening, but no yelling what so ever. A fire truck arrived and the paramedics went in. They came back out very quickly and left. I guess he didn't do anything that required a doctor, if he did anything at all.

Anyhow, presumably, the kid called the police on David. David missed his appointment with his probation officer last week, so he potentially had a lot to lose from this. If we knew about it, I suspect everyone did. David's not what you'd call tight-lipped.

Now comes the part that we actually saw. After the cops talked to David for a while (and after Alice, his loudmouth wife/girlfriend showed up and started screaming at him in the street (at 1:00 a.m.)), David agreed to go to his mother's house for the night, and to come back in the morning to patch things up with Alice and the kids. In short, the cops were letting him go, not even caring that he was in violation of the terms of his probation.

David set off on his bicycle, but he didn't go to his mother's house. Instead, he headed into the alley. A few minutes later, after the cops had left, we heard shouting and loud banging noises from the backyard: David was breaking down the back door to his own house. He got inside, and then there was a lot of banging to be heard through the walls as well as some yelling. I listen a little closer, and I can hear Alice crying. This is an anomaly. Usually when the fight, I've gotten the impression that she takes care of herself pretty well. She's always yelling back and standing her ground. I figure David has actually hit her this time, probably repeatedly.

I have no interest in getting involved. I know this sounds cold, but Alice has told us in no uncertain terms that what goes on over there is none of our business. After that little party, I don't want anything to do with those people

On top of all this, David is on probation, and the cops have already been called out once this evening. If Alice wanted to get rid of him, she could. Hell, cops don't like getting involved in domestic squabbles. I'm sure as hell not going to jump in.

The police come back in force so soon after this that I think they were coming back anyway. They wound up arresting David and putting him in the back seat of one of the police cars while they sorted things out. When the cop charged with taking David to the pokey got in the car and started to drive away, he stopped again abruptly. I didn't really see what happened, but the cop got out of the car and started yelling at David through the back window. A few more cops started gathering around the car, watching David kick at the side windows and listening to him threaten to kill all of them.

Eventually, he succeeded in breaking out one of the windows, at which point two of the cops drew their guns (there was another in the background, who'd been holding a riot gun all this time) and at this point, Tino saw the others started zapping David with those zapping things that cops have.

He was still thrashing around, but eventually they got him laying on his face in the middle of D St. SE with five cops sitting on top. Another cop brought the wire ties and zipped David's ankles together. David kept yelling until the paddy wagon showed up and they loaded him inside. Actually, he kept yelling after that, but it was harder to hear what he was saying through the walls of the van. The paddy wagon driver stopped and started harshly a few times, then drove away.

At some point during all of this, two of the kids ran out of the house and down the street, past the police cars. Tino heard the one who was chasing was yelling "You come back here with my gun!" at the one in the lead. The cops appeared not to notice this. I still don't know if a gun was involved, or where this gun is. The kids were in their back yard this morning (it goes without saying that they rarely go to school) making noise and wrecking stuff like nothing had happened.