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| Officers honored for arresting knife-wielding man who abducted baby | Officers honored for arresting knife-wielding man who abducted baby |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| A D.C. police officer on the force just three years was among those honored for helping subdue a man who had abducted a child in a stroller and was swinging a knife. | A D.C. police officer on the force just three years was among those honored for helping subdue a man who had abducted a child in a stroller and was swinging a knife. |
| The officer, Ammar Rahim, was named the 3rd District officer of the year during the department’s annual awards ceremony Thursday night at Gallaudet University. The incident occurred March 3, 2015, in Northwest Washington. | |
| Rahim, along with officers Perry Morgan, James Da’Re, Christopher Brown and Matthew Rider, had earlier been awarded the Medal of Valor, the department’s second-highest honor. | |
| Police said a man, apparently high on PCP, stabbed a woman in the neck on a street near Howard University and took off with her baby. Police said the attack was random. | |
| As police officers pursued the man, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said, he lunged at Rahim and cut him on the left side of his neck. “He throws the baby down on the sidewalk and then runs,” Lanier told the audience at the ceremony. “We’re very lucky we didn’t lose an officer. We’re very lucky we were able to get that child back unharmed.” | |
| [D.C. police statement on Medal of Valor] | [D.C. police statement on Medal of Valor] |
| Rahim and the officers who helped him were among 40 sworn and civilian members of the D.C. police force recognized at the 16th annual ceremony. | Rahim and the officers who helped him were among 40 sworn and civilian members of the D.C. police force recognized at the 16th annual ceremony. |
| In her opening remarks, Lanier noted that while driving to the event, she listened to the police radio as officers responded to an elderly man found unconscious on a sidewalk. She said one officer began CPR and another, using a portable defibrillator, revived the victim. | |
| “Happens every day,” she said to applause. | “Happens every day,” she said to applause. |
| Others received awards for solving decades-old murder cases, making an arrest in nine burglaries in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood and catching a robber who targeted taxi drivers. One officer was recognized for making 65 arrests and seizing eight weapons. | Others received awards for solving decades-old murder cases, making an arrest in nine burglaries in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood and catching a robber who targeted taxi drivers. One officer was recognized for making 65 arrests and seizing eight weapons. |
| Also honored was Officer Keith Byrd, who was one of the first emergency workers to rush into the Metro tunnel at L’Enfant Plaza on Jan. 12, 2015, to reach dozens of commuters trapped on a train in blinding smoke. One woman died, and more than 85 people were injured. | |
| [D.C. police officer recounts rescuing people trapped on smoky train] | [D.C. police officer recounts rescuing people trapped on smoky train] |
| In an interview last year, Byrd said he helped firefighters care for the woman who died, and then jumped onto the tracks and made his way 386 feet to the back of the stalled train. He and firefighters put a man having a heart attack onto a cart that runs on rails and pushed him to the station, all while doing chest compressions. The man survived. | |
| The incident involving the baby occurred about 2:30 p.m., when officers dispatched for the woman’s stabbing saw a man holding a knife and pushing a stroller south on Fourth Street near Bryant Street in Northwest. | The incident involving the baby occurred about 2:30 p.m., when officers dispatched for the woman’s stabbing saw a man holding a knife and pushing a stroller south on Fourth Street near Bryant Street in Northwest. |
| Officers Da’Re and Brown closed in on the man and called for help. Morgan, Rider and Rahim, who had completed crisis-intervention training three months earlier, also responded. | |
| “They did all the right things that day,” said D.C. Police Cmdr. Stuart Emerman, who heads the 3rd District. “The officers communicated loud verbal commands for the suspect to put down the knife and let the baby go. The child’s safety is always a priority during any encounter.” | |
| Police said officers pursued the man several blocks south, near the Howard campus, to Anna J. Cooper Circle. There, police said, the man “turned towards the officers while pointing the knife.” Rahim “bravely moved closer to the suspect in an attempt to subdue him,” according to a police statement. “The suspect lunged at him with his knife,” cutting the officer on the neck. | |
| The statement adds, “The suspect then unexpectedly began using the baby in the stroller as a shield.” Rahim said in a statement: “I wanted to apprehend the individual safely and without any incident.” | The statement adds, “The suspect then unexpectedly began using the baby in the stroller as a shield.” Rahim said in a statement: “I wanted to apprehend the individual safely and without any incident.” |
| Police said the man finally dropped the knife and “threw the baby stroller to the ground” and ran away, “leaving the child facedown.” The man was caught a few blocks away, and the baby was unharmed. | |
| The 25-year-old suspect pleaded guilty to assault with intent to kill and assault with a dangerous weapon, and is scheduled to be sentenced next month. |