D.C. police found weapon several weapons stashed in the Woodley Park Metro Station as they investigated the fatal stabbing of a man there earlier this month.
According to court documents, crime scene investigators found a gun behind a locker on the north end of the Woodley Park platform, a bloody knife on top of a pylon and another knife hidden in a phone booth at the other end. All the items are believed to have been placed in the seconds after 18-year-old Olijawon Griffin was stabbed to death on the mezzanine platform in the early morning hours of Nov. 17.
Prosecutors describe the murder as the result of a chain of robbery and violence that began as what one witness described as a setup to steal Griffin's expensive Helly Hansen jacket, which was black with two distinctive horizontal white stripes across the chest and sleeves and can retail for $300.
The nine suspects arrested ranged in age from 15 to 17. Only one was originally charged as an adult, but Monday juvenile charges were dropped against four defendants, all 17, and they were charged as adults with armed robbery.
Griffin’s death raises the question: Is the District seeing more violent crimes committed with knives instead of guns? Statistics seem to support that, Police Chief Cathy Lanier said.
“One, I think our efforts to reduce the number of illegal firearms on the street has paid off,” she said. “In the 23 years I’ve been here, and for most major cities if you look at homicides for example, my whole career homicides with guns have accounted for anywhere from 90 to 95 percent of all murders. This year, guns are only used in 63 percent of the cases.”
