A cane-swinging confrontation in Southeast D.C. resulted in a man being sent to a hospital Thursday afternoon, police said.
The victim was swinging two objects wildly in a parking lot of Alabama Plaza on 22nd Street SE when he was assaulted by two other men nearby, surveillance video shows.
"I was sickened by it," said Seventh District Commander Andre Wright. "The sheer brutality of it and just the brazenness of it that it happened in the noon with a lot of children and adults walking around."
The victim was carrying two walking canes, police said. He was shown walking into the parking lot swinging the canes when a man holding an object approached him.
The two men appeared to size each other up before a full fight broke out. The victim appeared to use the canes to contact with the man before the other man used his object to knock the victim over.
The victim and the man threw punches at each other before a third man came and tackled the victim to the ground. The two men then punched and stomped the victim in the face repeatedly.
The victim was taken to Howard University Hospital with injuries to his upper body and face. He has since been released.
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Wright said the level of violence has no place in the community.
"It's senseless and this is the thing the community has to come out hard on and take a stand and say enough is enough," Wright said.
Business owners said that the victim is known around the area. Wright said that while the men may have thought they were protecting people, their actions were out of bounds and they're now wanted by police.
The video is reminiscent of the violence that plagued the strip mall in summer 2018, when a triple shooting occurred in broad daylight as police officers sat across the street.
Since then, police and the attorney general's office have worked to reduce crime near Alabama Plaza.
"It's been very successful, and I think what you saw in the video was an isolated incident."
If arrested, the men will likely face assault charges.
Anyone with information on either of the suspects should call police.
