On 04 Jun 2023, Richard <dick@beaver.com> posted some
news:u5jjub$1n6g3$1@paganini.bofh.team:

> Put this nigger in a cage at an insane asylum.

https://images.foxtv.com/static.fox5dc.com/www.fox5dc.com/content/uploads/
2023/10/1280/720/daycare-teachers-attacked.png?ve=1&tl=1

The teachers and toddlers from the D.C. day-care center were on a break
during their Monday afternoon stroll through Bloomingdale neighborhood�s
historic district when Marleni Etevina Diaz-Villalobos noticed a
disheveled man talking to a colleague.

He was standing uncomfortably close, the 20-year-old assistant teacher
recalled, and the �kids looked scared.� She said she yelled at the man,
who then turned and walked toward her, despite her threats to call police.

�Call them � they won�t do anything,� the man replied, according to Diaz-
Villalobos. By this time, she said, two frightened children were pressed
against her legs.

Then, as 24 toddlers and eight other day-care workers watched, Diaz-
Villalobos said, �He just started beating me up. � The kids were
screaming, telling the man to let me go.�

Police said the attack occurred shortly before 4:30 p.m. near Second and S
streets NW, a few blocks from the children�s day-care facility, Petit
Scholars, on Quincy Place. The teachers and students take a walk every day
around the same time, pausing at a small stone wall where they sit and sip
water on a street lined with two- and three-story rowhouses.

Sometimes, the school�s founder said, residents come out and talk with the
children, and listen to them sing songs.

But on Monday, the routine walk turned dangerous. D.C. police said the
man, identified as Russell Fred Dunkley III, 38, had been asking for
money. They said he repeatedly punched Diaz-Villalobos and another female
day-care worker in the heads and face when they asked to be left alone.
Diaz-Villalobos said she suffered a bloody nose and spent Monday night in
a hospital. Police said Dunkley, whom they described as unhoused and a
fixture in the neighborhood, exposed himself to the workers and children,
and committed another lewd act, before he ran away.

�Our children are our most vulnerable people,� said Carlos Heraud, an
assistant D.C. police chief in charge of the investigative services
bureau. �It�s extremely troubling when they�re affected by a crime like
this. I think we all have a responsibility to keep these children safe.�

Police arrested Dunkley a short time later, after a witness pointed him
out near where the attack occurred. He was charged with several crimes,
including two counts of assault on the day-care teachers and sexual abuse
of a child. Police said that while at a hospital, Dunkley spit at and
struck an officer, so he was also charged with assaulting a police
officer.

In D.C. bill, Bowser aims to curb retail theft, drug dealing, police
reform
The attack came amid a spike in violent crime in the District that has put
safety at the forefront of local debate and made crime in D.C. a national
talking point.

Although the escalating number of homicides and shootings garners the most
public attention, it can be assaults like Monday�s � in daylight,
targeting people and children doing everyday activities � that can frame a
vision of a city in distress.

�Everyone is not okay,� said La Shada Ham-Campbell, the founder of Petit
Scholars, which has five day-care centers in Ward 5, including the one in
Bloomingdale. �Our families are distressed. Our children were traumatized.
Our teachers were victimized.�

She added, �I don�t know what our children saw, because they are so
young.� She said one toddler went home �talking about a bad guy.�

Hours before the attack, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) proposed a new
crime bill vowing to �send the strong message that violence is not
acceptable in our city.� But the incident with the day-care workers
highlighted another front in the struggle to curb crime: how to deal with
people who need help with mental health.

Court and police records reveal a lengthy arrest record for Dunkley on
charges of aggressive panhandling, disorderly conduct, verbal abuse and
indecent exposure. In 2019, a judge barred him from Bloomingdale�s Crispus
Attucks Park, three blocks from where Monday�s assault occurred. Police
said Dunkley had been arrested in Bloomingdale on Oct. 3 on charges
similar to Monday�s, involving adult victims, and was released on a
citation pending a future court date.

D.C. surpasses 200 homicides for the year at earliest point since 1997
D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), whose district includes
Bloomingdale, said a law allowing authorities to involuntarily detain
people for 48 hours for mental health evaluation needs to be reexamined to
add more time. Police records show that, as of Tuesday, Dunkley was being
detained at a hospital. His initial court appearance has not been
scheduled, and it could not be determined if he has an attorney.

�We have a problem, and that is at a crisis level,� said Parker, who
rushed to the scene of the attack Monday and spoke to a victim and
parents, some of whom kept their children home Tuesday. The lawmaker said
he hopes Dunkley gets the help he needs, but he also said that �my
sincerest hope is that he will be detained and prosecuted.�

Parker said he is �frustrated because I see loopholes in our system.
People are not being held accountable, and our community is being violated
and traumatized.�

Ham-Campbell said Petit Scholars has four locations in the Brookland
community and one in Bloomingdale. She said gunfire near various locations
frequently prevents outdoor activities. At Bloomingdale, the staff members
walk toward residential areas to avoid North Capitol Street, where she
said there is drug dealing and other criminal activity. And they go out in
large groups � Monday�s outing included three classrooms � believing there
is safety in numbers.

�It�s the gunfire that normally we�ve been concerned about,� Ham-Campbell
said.

Diaz-Villalobos said the attack remains a blur, and she doesn�t recall the
man exposing himself, as police described in a report. She said she had
her phone out and dialed 911, but the man either knocked it away or she
threw it at him before she could talk to an operator.

�Everything was just so fast,� she said. �He was beating me and didn�t
stop until one of my co-workers pulled him away from the back.� She said
residents came out of their homes to help, and took her and the children
inside.

Diaz-Villalobos, a freshman studying education at the University of the
District of Columbia, said she and her sister came to the United States
from El Salvador in 2011, when she was 8 years old, crossing the border by
themselves to reach their parents, who were already in this country.

She said they made the trip to escape gang violence.

�It was no longer safe in my own country,� Diaz-Villalobos said. Now, she
said, �I�m not safe here either.�

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/d-c-day-care-teachers-with-24-students-
attacked-on-street/ar-AA1iMWfO