Two men robbed, assaulted by large group in SE DC

WASHINGTON — Two men were assaulted and robbed by a group of people in the Navy Yard neighborhood in Southeast D.C. Saturday night.

One man was walking on the sidewalk in front of 79 Potomac Avenue at the same time as a group of 40 to 50 people around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday. While passing them, a person in the group punched him in the face, according to a police report. He tried to defend himself, but more people from the group tripped and assaulted him and stole his phone and wallet from his pockets, the report says.

Ten minutes later, another man was walking home on the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. Near 125 O Street SE, he passed the same large group. People from the group attacked him, like the first man, and stole things he was carrying.

The suspects got away with a black wallet, a black duffel bag, an El Salvadorian ID, $500 in cash, gray AirPods Max, a black iPhone 12, clothing, house keys, cologne, a pair of black and brown Warby Parker glasses, a leather wallet containing credit cards and IDs and a pair of black and silver Bose headphones.

Between 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 a.m., police say the suspects attempted to use stolen credit cards at two different restaurants, according to fraud alerts received by the second man.

It is unclear how many people within this larger group were involved in the assaults and robberies.

The area where these robberies were committed has many restaurants and bars. A bar, Dacha Beer Garden, and two restaurants, The Salt Line and All-Purpose Capitol Riverfront, are all located at 79 Potomac Avenue SE, as well as the Dock 79 apartments.

Dacha Beer Garden hosted a Halloween murder mystery scavenger hunt throughout Navy Yard between 3 and 10 p.m. Saturday. According to EventBrite, around 2,800 people registered to attend the event. Police have not said if the people involved were attending the event.

There was also an officially sanctioned bar crawl in Navy Yard on earlier Saturday that included multiple bars in the area nearby around Nationals Park. That bar crawl ran from noon to 8 p.m., and 5,000 people registered according to Eventbrite. Police have not said if the people involved were attending this event.

Police have not released any descriptions or lookouts for the suspects.