Police arrested a man accused of walking into the Minnesota Avenue Metro station without paying, throwing a bike onto the tracks and lighting a fire on the platform.
Demarcus Joseph Graves, 50, allegedly walked into the Northeast D.C. station about 7 p.m. Sunday without making any attempt to pay, police said.
He walked to the platform, where a LimeBike bike share had been left by another customer, police said. Graves picked up the bike and threw it on the Metro tracks, police said.
It landed between the two rails, where it laid for about 90 seconds, police said. Then, an Orange Line train arrived and struck the bicycle, police said.
Passengers were forced to leave the train, and Metro single-tracked around the area for more than 4 hours before the significantly damaged train was moved, police said.
At some point, police say Graves also picked up a paper food box and lit it on fire on the platform.
Then, he left the station and walked away, police said.
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Metro police quickly reviewed footage of the scene and notified police, who found Graves blocks away from the station on the 3800 block of Minnesota Avenue NE. He had an open warrant from the D.C. superior court and was arrested that night, police said.
Graves was charged with felony malicious destruction of property, malicious burning, impeding Metro operations, fare evasion and open warrants.
