Mayor Muriel Bowser responds to Baltimore prosecutor's comments on DC crime crisis

WASHINGTON - D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser spoke about handling D.C.'s rising crime rates Monday after Baltimore’s State's Attorney recently criticized the District's response, saying the violence is spreading to his city. 

The damning comments came as part of a statement from Baltimore’s top prosecutor after investigators announced last week that the two Morgan State mass shooting suspects identified by police, are D.C. teens.  

One of the suspects is a 17-year-old in police custody. The second is an 18-year-old Baltimore Police still have a warrant out for as of Monday. That suspect is identified as Javon Williams out of Northeast D.C.

This is the same person federally indicted over the summer after D.C. Police and federal investigators announced the arrest of multiple people in connection with alleged "Kennedy Street Crew" criminal activity, including gun and drug trafficking.

Baltimore’s State’s Attorney wrote on Friday in part of a statement, "In the past, D.C. would worry that Baltimore crime would somehow make its way down there, but now it appears D.C. crime has actually come to Baltimore."

"I don’t know that I have a response to that," Bowser said when asked how she felt about that portion of the statement. 

"What I know is almost immediately when law enforcement officials put out those pictures, the [suspected] individuals were identified, and that information shared with local law enforcement. I think what’s important to focus on is that the U.S. Attorney, the FBI and MPD have been working on a months-long investigation of families related to these suspects. And I don’t remember, I think 15 or 17 people were arrested during that investigation. This highlights, and while I can’t say much about the specifics here, the need when there are arrests and serious investigations, that people are off the street," she continued. 

D.C. Police confirmed to FOX 5 on Monday that at 15 years old, Williams was reported missing in the District. The Deputy Mayor for Public Safety’s Office will not say whether the city had any contact with him as a juvenile due to juvenile privacy laws. The office’s spokesperson does claim agencies coordinate to perform a post-investigation when a D.C. youth is involved in a serious crime.

FOX 5 also learned Williams was arrested back in January in connection with the federal indictment announced over the summer. He and multiple other suspects were picked up in a Northeast home, where multiple guns and ammunition were also found after a District Court search warrant was carried out. Williams was later released.

"Mr. Williams was federally indicted in June 2023 for possessing a firearm recovered in January 2023 after we had developed sufficient evidence to link him to the firearm and has been wanted on those charges since the time of his indictment," the U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson tells FOX 5.

FOX 5 also asked D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser about last Thursday’s Republican-led Congressional Committee hearing on D.C. crime. That’s when she told us, four days later, she had not watched it yet. We, respectfully, asked why.

"Because it was an hours-long hearing and it was just on Thursday," the mayor said. "And I probably won’t watch all of it, but I will get some reports back out from staff."

Ron Williams, a D.C. native in tune with local politics, told FOX 5 that he would have done the same.

"You have Republicans that are dysfunctional and fractured, so why take the opinion of folks that don’t have our best interest at heart from the Judiciary Committee, i.e. Jim Jordan? You know what I mean? So, I think it’s politics at play, the reason why she didn’t pay attention to it and her staff didn’t brief her," Williams said. "Should she have been? I think she should’ve."

The mayor also spoke about her office now working on possible changes to address issues with the police reform legislation. No date was given for when that would be announced.