21-05-2025
Teens who fled youth detention were involved in D.C. shooting, police say
Three teenagers who absconded from a youth detention center in Pennsylvania on Sunday were involved in an armed robbery and nonfatal shooting with a rifle in D.C. shortly after arriving in the city in a stolen SUV, police said.
One of the teens, 17-year-old Daijon Bourn, was arrested and charged as an adult with robbery and other crimes. Police were still looking for the two other juveniles Tuesday.
Authorities said the three had been in the custody of the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, or DYRS, and confined to the Clock Tower School, a contracted facility in Pennsylvania from which the fled.
It was unclear what offenses led to their being committed to the school, in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles west of Philadelphia. Criminal proceedings involving juveniles are generally confidential by law. Officials at the school did not respond to requests for comment.
At his initial hearing Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court, Bourn's lawyer argued that there was no evidence her client was involved in the robbery and that no money or weapon was found on him when he was arrested.
On Sunday, after fleeing the school, police said, the teens stole a red Land Rover and drove back to Washington, where they were joined by two other people. Police said all five took part in the robbery and shooting of a man just before 11 p.m. in the 700 block of 8th Street NE.
The victim told police about the red SUV. Police used a helicopter in their search of the neighborhood and saw the SUV traveling east in the 1100 block of H Street NE. After the five bailed out of the vehicle and ran off, two of them returned and drove away, police said.
Minutes later, police stopped the SUV as it traveled on Alabama Avenue SE and arrested one adult, 19-year-old Jamal Hawkins, along with Bourn. Hawkins was also charged with armed robbery and illegal possession of an AR-15 rifle.
Magistrate Judge Heide Herrmann ordered Bourn and Hawkins jailed until their next hearing, scheduled for Friday.
