News (USA)

Stabbing outside D.C. theater listed as anti-gay hate crime

Stabbing outside D.C. theater listed as anti-gay hate crime

District of Columbia police on Tuesday night charged a woman and two men with assault with a dangerous weapon for allegedly stabbing a 16-year-old man during an argument outside the Howard Theater at 6th and T Streets, N.W. Police listed the incident as an anti-gay hate crime.

Police spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump identified the three defendants as Ali Jackson, 19; Alvonica Jackson, 25; and Desmond Campbell, 33.

A police arrest affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court says a witness reported seeing Ali Jackson stab the victim in the left bicep, lower back, and left leg after Campbell grabbed the victim from behind and held him in a “headlock.” The affidavit says Alvonica Jackson assisted Campbell in holding the victim against his will as the stabbing took place.

While the three defendants approached the victim, Ali Jackson “made several homophobic slurs directed at the [victim],” the affidavit says.

The victim “produced a can of pepper spray and sprayed all three defendants, who fled the location after being sprayed,” the affidavit reports the witnesses as saying.

A Howard University Hospital staff member said the victim was treated and released from the hospital’s emergency room on the night of the incident.

According to the affidavit, members of the Third District police Crime Suppression Team interviewed witnesses and the victim and a short time later located and arrested the three defendants.

The affidavit says Alvonica Jackson was also charged with “Theft II” for allegedly entering a lower floor bathroom at the Howard Theater and removing $3 from a tip bowl that belonged to one of employees who is among the witnesses to the stabbing incident.

Court records show the three defendants appeared in court the following day, on June 27, where they were released on condition that they stay away from the victim and the 600 block of T St., N.W., where the incident occurred.

The three were scheduled to appear in court on Friday, June 29, for a preliminary hearing before Judge Patricia Broderick.

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