Deputy U.S. Marshals assigned to the security detail of Justice Sonia Sotomayor fired their service weapons last week after an armed carjacking suspect apparently threatened one of their lives.
In the wee hours of the morning last Friday, at least two deputy U.S. Marshals were sitting in separate unmarked vehicles outside Sotomayor's residence in the Beauregard Condominiums complex located in Washington, D.C., as part of their security responsibilities.
Suddenly, just after 1:15 a.m., a silver minivan pulled up nearby, and a male suspect hopped out of the vehicle. The suspect drew a gun, aimed it at a security officer identified only as "Deputy US Marshal Black," and demanded that Black hand over his car, the Daily Mail reported.
'In most US cities, juveniles spend the summer hanging out with their friends, working summer jobs, visiting family members. In DC, juveniles carjack.'
A statement from the D.C. Metro Police Department indicated that Black then "drew his service weapon and fired several shots at the suspect," and at least one of those shots struck the suspect in the mouth, the Daily Mail said.
By that time, a second deputy Marshal had exited his vehicle "and fired his service weapon," though whether any of his shots struck the suspect is unclear. Afterward, Black rendered first aid to the suspect, later identified as 18-year-old Kentrell Flowers of Washington, D.C.
Flowers was then transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, but his apparent accomplice did not stick around to assess Flowers' condition. Shortly after the Marshals fired their weapons, "The silver van fled the scene travelling northbound on 11th Street Northwest," said a statement of facts filed in D.C. district court by Deputy U.S. Marshal Tyler Wells.
A vehicle matching the van's description was later found, but no other suspect has yet been identified. The weapon allegedly used in the commission of the crime, a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson, was recovered at the scene. No Marshals were injured in the incident.
Flowers has been charged with armed carjacking, carrying a pistol without a license, and possession of a large capacity ammunition-feeding device. The case remains under investigation.
The Daily Mail noted that Metro PD issued a statement about the Marshal-involved shooting within hours of the incident, but that initial announcement made no mention of the connection with Justice Sotomayor. According to the outlet, Sotomayor's D.C. residence is a two-bedroom, two-bath condo currently valued at over $860,000.
In 2013, Sotomayor likened the area to New York's East Village. "It has a touch of the East Village in it," she told the New York Times. "I picked it because it's mixed. I walk out and I see all kinds of people, which is the environment I grew up in and the environment I love."
Blaze News reached out to the public information officer of the U.S. Supreme Court for comment but did not receive a response.
K. Denise Rucker Krepp, a former elected D.C. official who once worked in the Obama administration, is outraged that violence perpetrated by young people continues to proliferate in her area.
"Washington DC, the District of Crime, has a juvenile carjacking problem," she told Blaze News in a statement. "In most U.S. cities, juveniles spend the summer hanging out with their friends, working summer jobs, visiting family members. In DC, juveniles carjack. As was demonstrated last Friday, no one is safe from juvenile carjacking in the nation's capital."
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