Crime and Courts

Father of Doctor Killed in Unsolved DC Carjacking Worries Killers Could Harm Others

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A year after carjackers killed a doctor while taking his Mercedes in Northwest D.C., his father worries the thieves in the unsolved crime may still be harming others.

Dr. Rakesh Patel was doing advanced medical training at Washington Hospital Center, caring for the sickest, most injured patients, when the thieves jumped into his car near Florida Avenue and 18th Street in Adams Morgan on March 8, 2022.

He’d left it running while he dropped off a package for his girlfriend.

Patel attempted to stop the men, but they ran him over and drove away.

Security video shows two masked men leaving the car at 16th Street and Roxanna Road in Northwest later that night. They returned the next day with what looked like a bottle of bleach and they took a floor mat.

“Once they said they had a lead, and then they said they lost the lead, and that’s about it,” said his father, Dr. Raj Patel.

He said the grief of losing his son has not diminished.

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“It hurts to know that, you know, nobody can reverse what happened, nobody can change it,” Patel said. “But I think the people that committed the crime, that if they don’t go after them, they keep on doing it.”

With the passing of a year and no arrests in the case, he wonders if they’re still stealing cars or might kill another innocent person.

“My son is not going to come back, but at least somebody else’s son might be saved,” Patel said. “Maybe it’s next the mayor of Washington, D.C.’s son might be there. You don’t know. It could be the president’s son. You never know, but they can be saved, right?”  

D.C. police ask anyone with information that could help find the killers to contact them.

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