A 25-year-old Southeast D.C. man is facing armed robbery and firearm charges after police say he burst into a Northwest pharmacy wearing a black ski mask, jumped the counter, and demanded prescription drugs at gunpoint before crashing his getaway car a few blocks away and trying to escape on foot.
D.C. police officers responded around 6:22 p.m. Friday to the pharmacy on the 1700 block of 11th Street NW, according to FOX 5 DC. Police say Jamari Brighthaupt entered the store, jumped over the counter, and made demands while brandishing a firearm before fleeing with stolen prescription medications, according to WTOP.
Officers tracked Brighthaupt to the 1500 block of North Capitol Street NW, where he crashed the vehicle he was using to flee. No bystanders or occupants of other vehicles were injured in the crash, per the FOX 5 DC report. Brighthaupt then ran on foot before officers caught up with him, and police recovered a handgun along with the stolen medications at the scene, the outlet reports.
Charges Stack Up Against Southeast D.C. Man
WTOP reports that Brighthaupt was charged with robbery while armed with a gun, felon in possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, resisting arrest, and other similar charges. Under D.C. Code § 22-2801 and § 22-4502, an armed robbery conviction carries a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of up to 30 years, according to legal guidance published by Scrofano Law.
The felon-in-possession charge carries its own separate exposure. Under D.C. Code § 22-4503, that offense carries a mandatory minimum of one year and up to 10 years in prison, rising to a three-year mandatory minimum and 15-year maximum if the person's prior conviction was for a crime of violence, according to an explainer from Lotze Mosley PLLC.
A Documented History of Armed Robbery Charges
Court and law enforcement records show Brighthaupt's brushes with the justice system stretch back to his teenage years. In May 2016, at age 15, he was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile detention center for robbing a taxi driver in Washington, D.C., according to research published by Healing the Hurt examining District youth justice outcomes.
Then in September 2019, at age 18, Brighthaupt was arrested and charged by MPD detectives and FBI Washington Field Office agents after they executed a U.S. District Court arrest warrant tied to an armed robbery of an establishment on the 1500 block of 21st Street NW, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. That case followed a September 17, 2019 incident and marks the second documented gunpoint robbery arrest in his record before Friday's pharmacy holdup.
Pharmacies Remain a Target for Armed Crews
Friday's robbery fits into a broader pattern federal authorities have been tracking in the region. In November 2025, a federal jury in D.C. convicted three members of a violent robbery crew that targeted 12 pharmacies and cellphone stores across the D.C. area and New Jersey, with prosecutors noting the crew bound pharmacy workers and stole controlled substances during the multi-state spree, according to the Department of Justice.
The incident also lands amid a broader decline in violent crime citywide. FBI crime statistics released this month showed violent crime in Washington, D.C. dropped significantly in 2025, with murder rates reaching a 20-year low. That decline has coincided with a year of joint operations by the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, a coalition of federal agencies and MPD that has focused on violent street offenses and carjackings, the Department of Justice reported this month.
It remains unclear whether federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office will pursue additional charges against Brighthaupt under federal Hobbs Act robbery statutes given his history of violent felony convictions, or whether the specific medications recovered at the pharmacy could support additional distribution-level drug charges. Those questions had not been addressed in available reporting as of Saturday.
