More than 10 days after a couple was kidnapped at knifepoint from their Northeast D.C. home, police arrested a 33-year-old man also suspected in a string of burglaries.
Donte Watson, who has no fixed address, was arrested by D.C. Police on six counts of burglary and one count of kidnapping while armed.
Police say security camera video shows Watson after he jumped over the locked gate behind a house on Morse Street Northeast and entered through an unlocked sliding glass door.
The two people in the home, who asked to remain unnamed, looked up Sunday after 11 p.m. to see a man armed with a screwdriver in their living room.
"I kind of just heard somebody open the door, turned around, and there he was," one said.
Their quick thinking may have kept them from getting kidnapped like their neighbors. The victim says he and his roommate kept calm, focusing on saying and doing what it took to get the man to leave.
The intruder eventually left. The roommates on Morse Street say they’re grateful to be safe and plan to be even more security conscious in the future.
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The men didn't know that police believe Watson kidnapped two of their neighbors days before, forcing them to a Circle Seven store at knifepoint to withdraw cash from an ATM.
Police say he climbed through a window of the couple’s West Virginia Avenue home around 3 a.m. on Thursday. Police say Watson ransacked the lower floors before waking them in their bedroom.
When they said they had no cash, he forced them to drive with him, in their car, to get cash from an ATM.
He then ran out of the store and the couple called 911.
Watson is also accused of several burglaries since Nov. 29 on West Virginia Avenue, Corcoran Street, Oates Place and 20th Street.
