A knife-wielding suspect in a black ski mask carried out an armed carjacking near Petworth Metro on Tuesday night, according to Metropolitan Police Department units dispatched to the 3600 block of New Hampshire Avenue NW around 8:30 p.m. The suspect is described as a Black male, about 5 feet 10 inches tall with a skinny build, wearing a black hoodie and blue pants in addition to the mask.
MPD units were investigating the armed carjacking, according to PoPville, which first reported the incident in the Park View section of the neighborhood. AlertDC, the city's emergency notification system, told residents not to take action themselves and instead to call 911 and reference event number 260471892 if they had information.
What We Know — and What Remains Unclear
The details released so far are limited to the suspect's description and the location and timing of the carjacking, which occurred at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 3600 block of New Hampshire Avenue NW. No information has been made public about the victim, the vehicle involved, or whether anyone has been arrested or identified in connection with the case.
The incident lands amid a broader downward trend in carjackings across the District. Reported carjacking in Washington, DC fell 63 percent in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, according to the Council on Criminal Justice. The organization's mid-year report, which examined 13 offenses recorded in DC and 35 other American cities from 2018 through June 2026, also found the city's carjacking rate was 1 percent lower in the first half of 2026 than during the same period in 2019.
A Steep Drop From the 2023 Peak
The same report found the District's carjacking rate in the first half of 2026 stood at 8.9 incidents per 100,000 residents — 87 percent lower than the peak rate recorded during the same period in 2023. The decline wasn't unique to Washington; the average change among the seven study cities reporting carjacking data was a 47 percent decline over the same stretch, per the council's analysis.
MPD also maintains an interactive carjacking dashboard that tracks incidents reported from January 1, 2023 through October 3, 2026 by day of the week and hour of the day, according to Congress Heights on the Rise. The tool offers residents a closer look at patterns citywide, though it does not speak to any individual case.
Past Clusters Show How Quickly Carjackings Can Spike
Even with the broader statistical decline, DC has seen carjackings cluster in short, intense bursts before. Police investigated three carjackings that occurred within just over an hour in the District on a single Wednesday night, as reported by WUSA9.
A similar string unfolded on October 26, 2025, when MPD investigated three carjackings that occurred within blocks of one another in Northwest DC, according to WJLA. The first happened around 7:15 p.m. at 7th Street and Rhode Island Avenue NW, where a group of juveniles allegedly surrounded and assaulted the driver before taking the car. The third struck around 11:30 p.m. near 12th and Q Streets NW, where about seven or eight people allegedly assaulted a driver and attempted to take the vehicle.
No connection between Tuesday night's Petworth-area incident and any other carjacking has been established. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 and reference event number 260471892.
