Gunfire in the shadow of Nationals Park and hordes of teens ransacking businesses in the area have left some visitors and business owners unconvinced that crime is down in D.C.’s Navy Yard neighborhood — despite police data that says otherwise.

The upscale enclave in Southeast has seen a sizable drop in violence this year, according to Metropolitan Police statistics, as the District as a whole puts 2023’s spike in killings and carjackings in the rearview mirror.

But Navy Yard, with its luxury apartments that sport rooftop pools overlooking the nearby U.S. Capitol, is also sandwiched between neighborhoods that have long struggled with shootings and robberies.

Those issues continue to leak into the restaurant-lined streets surrounding the ballpark, and the area often finds itself being one high-profile crime away from scaring off the people who fueled its transformation into a regional hotspot.

“If something happens in the Metro station, or something happens anywhere in the neighborhood, the crime could be down because it can be an isolated incident, but it still takes a minute for us to recruit the business that’s lost,” said Antonio Hurley, a managing partner at The Big Stick bar near Nationals Park.

Mr. Hurley said recent crime around Buffalo Wild Wings factored into the eatery’s permanent closure earlier this month. D.C. police reported a man was critically wounded during a July shootout on the restaurant’s block, which is a stone’s throw from the baseball stadium.

Mr. Hurley also pointed to Lululemon’s closure last Christmas, which came barely a week after an armed robbery at the business.

And then there are major incidents that linger in the minds of visitors, including the carjacking of Congressman Henry Cuellar last fall. Mr. Hurley said those crimes stack up over time and “chip away at us from a business standpoint.”

Police statistics show that violent crime in Navy Yard has fallen significantly year-over-year, with the decrease coming from fewer homicides, weapons assaults and a sharp decline in robberies.

But brazen crimes, especially ones committed by minors, have peppered Navy Yard throughout 2024.

In June, authorities said four boys between the ages of 12-15 held up a man at gunpoint while the victim waited for an Uber near the ballpark.

One of the juveniles pistol-whipped the man and the others cleaned out his pockets, according to police. All the boys were arrested shortly after.

A CVS store was hit hard in April after scores of teens took over the location on the 1100 block of New Jersey Avenue Southeast.

Bystanders recorded youths riding electric scooters in the aisles and throwing bottles at security guards during a chaotic scene that D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb called “disturbing.”

MPD said they arrested 11 children between the ages of 14-17 on various assault, burglary and theft charges. Two 15-year-old girls were also accused of attacking someone on the National Mall before they went to the store.

And a barricade situation shook the neighborhood in February when a man shot a Housing Authority officer in the gut on the 400 block of M Street Southeast.

The officer survived, and the suspect was eventually taken into custody after holing up in a parking garage. But the early morning standoff saw apartment residents startled awake by barking SWAT officers and caused a nearby elementary school to go on lockdown until the area was cleared.

Those who frequent the neighborhood said they believe people may be witnessing or even victimized by crime, but are not reporting incidents because the process is time-consuming and often unhelpful.

Jack Heretik, a parishioner at Saint Vincent De Paul, had that experience earlier this month driving a friend home to an apartment on First Street Southeast.

As he pulled up to the building’s drop-off lane, the car in front of him started backing up. Mr. Heretik poked his head out the window to see why, and noticed a man waving a pistol around and yelling angrily at someone. Mr. Heretik flung the car in reverse and called 911 — only to be put on hold for about two minutes until a dispatcher could answer.

He said the brief, yet critical delay from the dispatcher, which is not managed by police but D.C.’s Office of Unified Communications, might discourage other people from reporting crimes they see on the street.

“I’m not calling customer support because my internet is down. I’m calling because there’s a guy with a gun [who’s] pulling it out in the city,” he said. “I don’t know what this guy’s going to do. No one does.”

A D.C. Fire and EMS crew member who works in Navy Yard told The Washington Times that police are typically slower to act on calls that aren’t actively violent.

He said cops will watch idly as people speed past them or deal drugs. And even if you do get through to a dispatcher in time, the police response may not be hasty enough.

“They come late as f—-,” the crew member said. “I mean, I’d already be dead by the time they come.”

Mr. Hurley, the bar owner near the baseball stadium, acknowledged that crime may be no worse in Navy Yard than it is in other parts of town.

He added that the visible police presence in the neighborhood has been a welcome change throughout the year.

But he also said he knows restaurants that tell their servers not to leave work in uniform so thieves won’t mug them for their cash tips.

And he knows that robbers often prowl around Navy Yard and similar neighborhoods, such as The Wharf in Southwest and Shaw in Northwest, because they attract well-to-do targets.

Mr. Hurley said crime is significant enough that it’s often used as a bargaining chip when businesses renegotiate a lease, showing just how much shine has been taken off the neighborhood’s storied revival.

“It’s hard for us to justify rent increases and all this other stuff in a neighborhood that I would probably say, 10 years ago, when we first opened, was not what it is now,” he said.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.