“Smart and Talented” 13-Year-Old Boy Killed After Trying To Carjack Security Officer’s Car

While off-duty, a federal security officer shot and killed a 13-year-old boy who attempted to carjack him.

The officer claimed the boy “had his hand in his front waistband pocket as if he had a handgun.”

Washington, D.C., has been experiencing an influx of crimes recently.

Mayor Bowser has started taking a more firm stance on policing the area.

Read about that here:

Democrat Mayor Back Peddles On Police Funding After Skyrocketing Crime

The 13-year-old boy was identified as Vernard Toney Jr., who was involved in previous carjackings when he was only 12 years old.

Amid a a surge of carjackings in DC, including a 13-year-old who was shot and killed during a carjacking attempt, authorities have shared the following tips for driving in the area: https://t.co/npyPIGRz3g pic.twitter.com/ZoNgJEZ3Cr

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) October 30, 2023

NBC Washington shares more on the story:

Vernard Toney Jr. died Sunday after he was shot on D Street NW, in the Penn Quarter area, the previous night. Police say an off-duty federal security officer shot Toney after he and another young person tried to carjack him. One of the juveniles held his hand in his pocket as if he had a gun, police said, and then the officer opened fire. Toney was shot and the other person ran.

Toney was a seventh grader at Kelly Miller Middle School in Northeast D.C. He was smart, funny and talented, his principal said in a letter to families.

"He had a natural comedic ability and loved to make people laugh, especially when he would joke that he was the principal of Kelly Miller MS. Vernard also loved to play basketball and spend his free time on the court with his friends,” the letter said.

Toney had been accused in a string of previous carjackings. Two sources familiar with the investigation say Toney was arrested in May in connection with a number of armed carjackings in Southeast D.C. He was 12 at the time. It wasn’t immediately clear what happened with the cases.

Mayor Muriel Bowser called Toney’s death a tragedy.

This incident truly is a tragedy.

I feel bad for the kid who lost his life.

Now, I'm not excusing what he did, don't get me wrong.

But you must understand that something encouraged that young boy to turn to a life of crime so young.

This was easily preventable had his parents taken better care of him.

Watch what Mayor Bowser has to say about the incident:

DC leaders react to 13-year-old killed during alleged carjacking

Mayor Bowser says after arrest, some kids need to be held in detention instead of being sent to shelters or back home. @WUSA9 https://t.co/e5i1XuoNZL pic.twitter.com/znkwzNFtw4

— Lorenzo Hall (@LorenzoHall) October 31, 2023

Mayor Bowser has had a rude awakening recently with the crime occurring in the capital city.

These Democrat mayors continue to drive their cities into the ground.

The Washington Post shares more on the story:

The shooting comes amid heightened concern over carjackings, which had soared 108 percent in the District this year, compared with the same period in 2022. As of Friday, police said there have been 821 carjackings in the city since January. Carjackings involving juveniles are also up this year.

In an incident last week, D.C. police said a 16-year-old girl driving a carjacked vehicle crashed into a utility pole in Northeast Washington and was killed. Police arrested a 15-year-old girl who police say was involved in the carjacking. The teen was previously in the custody of the city’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services because of robbery and theft charges, but the judge said she ordered the teen released because the agency had no available housing for her.

Violent crime in D.C. is up 41 percent this year, compared with this period in 2022, according to police statistics. Capital One Arena is several blocks north of where the youth was killed Saturday night, and the Washington Wizards played a home game there that started about three hours before the shooting. The area around 6th and D streets also includes the D.C. Court of Appeals and the D.C. police department’s headquarters.

An increase of 41% in violent crime is insane.

It's been a long time since I visited the D.C.

From what I remember, it was always a dirty place, with the exception of federal buildings.

I can not begin to imagine the state of things there now after hearing the crime reports.