A Democratic candidate for DC Council At-Large was carjacked at gunpoint at a gas station on Saturday.
The DC Metropolitan Police Department (MDP) has released security footage of the broad-daylight attack in an effort to identify the four masked suspects who pointed a gun in DC Council candidate Nate Fleming‘s face and took off his car, WUSA reported.
The incident occurred shortly before 2 p.m. on Jan. 15 at a gas station located on the corner of Minnesota Avenue and Nannie Helen Burroughs.
Security footage showed Fleming walking to the driver’s side of his car as an SUV pulled up alongside him. Shortly after, a masked subject wearing a hoodie jumped out of the vehicle and pointed a gun at Fleming, who quickly backed away. According to the police, one of the suspects demanded Fleming give him the keys.
On Wednesday, Fleming tweeted that he threw his keys up in the air towards his vehicle and took off back towards the store to get help.
Security footage from inside the business shows one of the masked subjects entering the store and forcing the victim back outside. “I saw them leave, and I went into the store to get help. Then I see someone coming in, he ordered me to leave the store. That was the scariest part,” he continued to tweet.
The gunmen ultimately fled the scene, taking the SUV and Fleming’s BMW 328i with them, according to the police report. The DC Council representative said he immediately called the police and that several witnesses also saw the attack take place.
In a press release, he mentioned how being “threatened at gunpoint is “extremely shocking,” but apparently, he isn’t surprised by the incident. On Sunday, he tweeted, “I had a feeling this would happen to me.”
“These carjackings are evidence that the perpetrators of violent crimes are getting younger and younger,” Flemming continued in his statement. “We must attack public safety as a short-term issue, but we must recognize that violence is a symptom of long-term issues like educational inequality, lack of economic opportunity, and the lack of mental health care in our communities.”
Fleming said he is pushing to dump $20 million into “a young adult employment program focused on underemployed residents” between the ages of 18-30. He also has plans to increase free afterschool programs for every student.
