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WASHINGTON -- Police found several weapons stashed in a Metro station as they investigated a fatal stabbing.
According to court documents, crime scene investigators found a gun behind a locker on the north end of the Woodley Park platform, a bloody knife on top of a pylon and another knife hidden in a phone booth at the other end. All the items are believed to have been placed in the seconds after 18-year-old Olijawon Griffin was stabbed to death on the mezzanine platform early on Nov. 17.
The Woodley Park Metro station exits on Connecticut Avenue, leading to the National Zoo.
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Prosecutors describe the murder as the result of a chain of robbery and violence that began as what one witness described as a setup to steal Griffin's expensive Helly Hansen jacket, which can retail for $300.
The nine suspects arrested ranged in age from 15 to 17. Only one was originally charged as an adult, but juvenile charges were dropped against four defendants, all 17, on Monday and they were charged as adults with armed robbery.
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How horrible a person was killed over a piece of clothing. That anyone could think a garment was worth a human life is simply terrible. How does one reach a value system like that? I hope that murderer is caught quickly and faces the fullest possible penalty for their cold blooded act.So they can understand some how, the value of what life is about, if that is possible at all.
My bad, missed the last lines. Looks like these nine will have the opportunity, being tried as adults to discover just how much that jacket really cost them in the end. And for the victim's family to see some justice perhaps. I pray they will find some peace eventually and their loved one RIP.
Guns in DC? Impossible, they're illegal there!
"How does one reach a value system like that?"
VERY VERY @!$%#ING EASILY in our society. If human life didn't have a price tag, Capitalism wouldn't exist. It costs money to keep people alive, so you're allowed to make money from sustaining life, or from taking it. That's the way THE ENTIRE ECONOMY functions. Otherwise, a starving man could legally DEMAND free bread, and all the bakers and wheat-farmers would eventually go bankrupt, unless subsidized by the government which would have to take that money from some other people, who might not like having to buy free bread for "lazy bums who can't get a job" - which is exactly where we are right now. Don't sit there and pretend that our great and glorious God-fearing nation doesn't *deliberately engineer* exactly the belief system that you're so horrified by.
This incident is a tragedy, make no mistake. But the blame lies squarely on the imbecilic sentimentality of those who continue to pretend that children are adorable little angels, boys will be boys, everybody makes up mistakes, and we shouldn't lock up cold-blooded killers unless they're over 18. Our society abandons its adolescents to fend for themselves in an urban war zone, and then acts all shocked and horrified when they start shanking each other for drug money. It's a hypocritical disgrace. We live in a mercenary state where life is cheap, and we could be more efficient about minimizing our losses it if we'd stop pretending to live in the white-picket-fence faerie tale we all grew up believing in. Don't give kids a slap on the wrist when they solve their problems with violence; if you're going to have a police state anyway, go the whole hog and make them grow up in terror so they never dare to try anything. Otherwise, accept that your lax supervision makes this sort of thing inevitable, and quit pretending you have a right to be shocked and appalled.
You either need to make it impossible to get away with murder, or give people no incentive to commit it, and the latter will never be possible as long as some people are poor (it'd be damn difficult even without that). So the most achievable solution is to have cops on every street corner watching every single teenager alive like a hawk 24/7, because they are all capable of an act like this - our society practically demands that they do it. (I am exagerrating slightly for effect.)
Who's gonna want a jacket with a knife hole in it? Scumbags.......
See, you can ban "anything" and perps will find a way...................
Now let's hear it... on three................................... BAN KNIVES!!!
There is no consequence for indiscriminate breeding,except for taxpayers
They need to exterminate these gangsta cockroaches. Large parts of Washington DC desperately need that treatment.
If the ability to trade your knowledge and labor for goods and services didn't exist, you wouldn't have a computer. Sometimes I believe that would be a fair trade.
So these nine defendants killed this 18 year old to steal his $300 jacket, which would be $33.33 for each one assuming they sold it at retail value. Considering that probably isn't the case on the streets, they killed this guy for $10 of profit a piece...just wow. These suspects are despicable for killing this man, hopefully justice is served.
How about all get charged with felony murder in the commission of a crime, all were involved in the attack that cost this young man his life, they were involved in the previous assault and robbery. At least one was carrying a illegal gun, and a knife was used as a murder weapon, so the attack on his friend and cousin should be assault with a deadly weapon.
I say fry the lot of them, reduce the risk of repeat offenders to ZERO.
M C GUSTO banned, political derailing, rereg of multiple accounter would-I-lie.
Just Me-1251562 got trolled by their avatar, apparently, and ended up posting a bunch of racism:
Also banned.
Obama is a great president but there is only so much an individual can do in a sick society.
Your "great president" (our as so many of you refer to him, "lord and saviour") is promoting this sick society! So I hold YOU responsible for destroying this country.
taken,
Where's your BAN KNIVES comment?
Also, what the heck does your post mean? WTF!?
subhuman659; Those who refuse to be part of the solution are the problem. The love of Money and Power, the driving force behind this and every such crime, has been working its wonders on "this society" for far longer than the U.S.A. has been a nation.
OK Agnon... I'll bite. What is YOUR solution? Please tell the world exactly what YOU propose the civilized people do to stop the low life street slug parasitic vermin from preying on the honest hard working people.
takanaka
im with creek dog, you were all over here yesterday with you "ban guns" routine....wheres the ban knifes? ...fess up boy... as gramps use to say.
GM Creek dog.
GM Scooter
gm Tramp, Creek Dog
He/she must have worn out the "ban guns" keys on his/her computer.
The locker next to it held a clip board and a coffee cup.
Darn!! You never can find an empty pay locker when you need one!
and the locker the gun was behind was a storage locker for dunkin doughnuts.
really what a shock , people there are guns is every state , gun sells are at there all time high , besides the secerct service has guns police have guns , its our right to get a permit an carry a hand gun , but these are illeagel so . so sad but thats life in america its not only the peoples fault it is the worlds fault , now its a fact of life
You need to change the law in your state. Millions of Americans have permits and carry guns. Every adult citizen who is educated in their use should carry where it is legal if they wish.
Hmmm ..... it's the world's fault that some juvenile thugs murder someone for a jacket? Hillary was right. It takes a village to raise an idiot.
And The Great Obama Crime Wave continues. Can't wait until the urban aborigines eradicate their entire race.
Oh, sure blame Obama -- as if nobody was committing murder,m rape, theft, etc, etc, etc when Reagan, Clinton, Bush 1, Ford, Carter, Nixon, Bush 2, and all the other ex-Presidents were in charge...............
Simple solution: You kill, we kill you back...publicly, so other scum get the message.
no kidding. That has been the correct answer for so long but they just don't get it. I agree completely. That would have to curb the enthusiam a bit
Look at the ages of the people involved. I doubt they thought too much about consequences, and carrying weapons is pretty much a habit of certain teenage males in groups, in certain environments. Why do you think teens have been recruited for wars practically since the dawn of time? The teenage brain isn't fully developed -- and guess which part? If they weren't brought up properly and their predatory instincts haven't been curbed by a carefully instilled fear of God or another powerful motivation, they think, "Designer jacket: See=Take." The fore brain isn't going to butt in with, "Designer jacket: Cool. Ask him where he got it. Maybe there's a sale or something."
Monkey see, monkey want.
sounds like it's time to get rid of the monkey
9 kids 15-17 yrs old, sounds like a pack of wild dogs, yet I do hope that the real instigators can be weeded out from just the followers. Are these kids just another example of people who will never contribute to society and will always be a burden for the rest of us?
Don't blame guns this time because guns don't kill - people do.
Killing someone over a jacket, and one that retails for 300 bucks is not a smart thing.
If you are going to kill someone make sure it is worth your own life. If these "kids" put a price on their own lives and gone from there this might not have happened.
Of course that is assuming that these murders can read, write, and do math. Schools just not as much fun as murdering someone, but in the long run it gets you a better trade.
We need a house cleaning.
The way this nation is going,it won't hold together another 300 years.That's ok.My descendants will persevere.The dregs will breed themselves to oblivion,as they neither toil nor reap. Self-centered minorities on one hand,gays and atheists on the other.Whether you are religious or not,a moral compass is being thrown out with the baby and the bath water
Are you kidding me? Grouping gay people in with these others. You sound incredibly naive.
Com'on DC, ban all knives so we all can watch that murder rate drop like a rock.
Can we start hanging people again? These guys deserve it. Killing someone for a jacket....What a waste of air.
please. Lets fix this once and for all this time.
They where in court on Monday so the reality is they were probably back on the streets before this article was published
The answer is available but not perfect. Trial for murder. Penalty death in three months, some people being wrongly executed but overall a successful system
I agree with a swift death penalty,but only in those cases where there is absolutely NO mistake about the guilty party
yea, Fisher--do you volunteer as the 1st wrongly executed person? Overall a successful system, right?
not a peep from reverend AL or Jesse oh that's right they can't politicize when inner city savages run wild
...
Oh sure !!
Guns and knives and immediately it is black folks who are the perpetrators.
When will the racism end ??
.
Joe Biden in 2016.
...
ok, maybe you're right... Let's see it. I'd bet my paycheck that it is black. Every day I see it in our local paper. Robbery, assaults, etc. 15-1. That's about the ratio black crime to white. Can't deny it. Can't blame it on society either. They get what they want. They even have one in the white house for god sake. It's in the genes and that's all there is to it. Prove me wrong!
If it's DC it sure as hell is. Oh, and that is Nothing New Here, it's the norm.
NNH.
great sarcasm.........
Laztsrall: " Prove me wrong!"
No need to--out of your own mouth (or fingers) are you condemned. But thanks for playing!
all for a jacket. a jacket not to keep them warm but to look cool.
morons.
TJ...
Please don't insult morons like that.
The perpetrators are nothing more than parasites preying on the sheep.
Let me see, 95% of murder's in DC 6 yrs. ago were from illegal firearm's. Supreme court uphold's Heller vs DC, people can now have loaded guns, (at least in their home's.) Decrease in Home invasions = decrease in murder's from illegal firearms'. Amazing!
They were attempting to steal a $300 jacket? The article doesn't mention anyone being charged with murder.
Apparently, life is cheap in D.C.
Everytime I put on my expensive jacket, I put my Colt on first under it. Too bad the guy didn't "Zimmerman" those poor impoverished youths...oops..I mean "youtes".
All I can say for ALL you FINGER POINTING narrow minded writers is ONE more reason to HAVE STRICTER GUN LAWS IN PLACE. I know I would feel more comfortable knowing the streets would have less guns that are easily had or purchased !!!
You are so right alain, i just hate it when people run around STABBING one another with their guns....
Anyone remember the late 80's early 90's where kids were getting shot/stabbed/beaten over "Starter" jackets?
I had a classmate who was shot for his Starter jacket, his story made the news. He survived the shooting and they caught the perp and returned his possession. He wore that jacket as a badge of honor bullet hole and all.
Less than 6mo later, he was shot again for the same jacket. True story.
The problem isn't as obvious as it would seem, the exploitation of the news to social/political ends manipulates public consensus.
Obviously a "hate" crime...
They hated him 'cause he had a jacket and they didn't.
Now I remember where I left my gun!
"Aside from the killings, Washington, DC is a safe place to live." -- Marion Berry -- You know, the DC mayor who was caught 'accidentally' smoking crack in his office by news cameras.