by HEATHER MARLÉNE ZADIG
Students and families from Hyattsville’s Northwestern High School and the surrounding community are still on high alert today, Jan. 9, from last Friday’s shooting of a 14-year-old boy on the 3500 block of Carnaby Street directly behind the school. According to the press release issued that afternoon by the Hyattsville Police Department (HPD), two groups of teenage males got into a dispute around 12:05 p.m. One teen demanded that a teen in the other group (the victim) give up his Moose Knuckles brand jacket. When the victim refused, he was shot by one of three suspects in the opposing group, at which point all teens except for the victim fled the scene.
Hyattsville Police Chief Jarod Towers said in a Jan. 5 news conference posted to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that the victim was taken to a local hospital and was in critical but stable condition. Towers said that police were looking for three suspects, all young Black males, one wearing a black puffy coat, one in a red hoodie, and the third wearing a blue jacket. Anyone with information pertaining to the incident has been asked to call the tip line at 301-985-5060.
As of Monday evening — more than three days after the incident — HPD public information officer Suzanne Kennedy said there was no new information to share at this time regarding the suspects or the current condition of the victim.
WTOP News reported on Jan. 2 about a similar crime on New Year’s Day in Northwest D.C., when a man relinquished his luxury Canada Goose coat during an armed robbery with shots fired, hitting a nearby building (no injuries were reported). WTOP also reported that D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department warned community members last winter that people wearing luxury jackets and coats had become targets of a spate of armed robberies around that time.
Although the HPD did not release information on the specific type of jacket worn by the victim in Friday’s shooting, prices for new Moose Knuckles coats and jackets can range from over $500 to nearly $1300 online.
