Virginia’s attorney general is saying that the District’s “crime explosion” is now affecting the neighboring commonwealth in the wake of Christy Bautista’s slaying at a D.C. hotel last week.
Top prosecutor Jason Miyares said it’s become clear that D.C.’s leaders can’t protect the thousands of Virginians who go to the nation’s capital every day — let alone its own residents — in a Thursday letter addressed to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson.
He pointed out that Virginians such as Aaron Bourne, Kenithy Manns and Ahmad Clark were killed in the District over the past three years.
The attorney general then zeroed in on Ms. Bautista’s death in Northeast last week, in which the suspect had been granted release from jail despite pleading guilty to attempted robbery charges.
“There is no deterrent for illegal behavior in Washington, D.C., as these repeat offenders know they will either not be charged or let back on the streets in no time. That’s why we lost Christy Bautista,” wrote Mr. Miyares, a Republican.
“D.C.’s lenient policies and perspectives are responsible for her murderer’s release when he should have been in custody. An innocent woman lost her life to someone who should have been in jail,” he said.
Mr. Mendelson’s congressional testimony last week, in which he said that “there is no crime crisis in Washington,” was also chided by the Virginia attorney general.
Mr. Miyares cited the District’s 31% increase in homicides and 84% increase in sexual assaults so far this year to suggest that “Washington, D.C. is dealing with a crime explosion.”
The commonwealth’s top prosecutor recommended that Virginia and the District work together to tamp down crime.
“Our nation’s Capital should be a beacon of hope and freedom for the entire world, not known as a place where attending a concert can end one’s life,” Mr. Miyares wrote. ‘I urge the city’s leadership to address the scourge of violent crime that is growing more intolerable by the day.”
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.