After what Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis described as what could have been a “line-of-duty death scenario” at a Springfield street takeover, he said his department and others around the National Capital region are taking action to thwart similar events.
A street takeover or “banger” event is when large groups of young, masked men in cars gather and drive recklessly in circles.
During one such takeover in a commercial parking lot on Electronic Drive in Springfield early Sunday, the disorderly group surrounded a police cruiser. They jumped on her cruiser, continuously banged on the windows, and tried to get into the vehicle. They also tried to remove the vehicle’s license plates.
“I believe they fully intended to drag her out of that car. She escaped unharmed and we’re very grateful for that,” Davis said at a news conference Wednesday. Davis said the officer had been “proactively policing” when she came upon the crowd and called for assistance.
“It’s unacceptable. This is not going to happen again in Fairfax County.”
Davis said this happened just hours after a contingent of Fairfax County officers attended the funeral of a New York City officer who died in the line of duty.
“I believe we narrowly escaped a line-of-duty death scenario of our own because one of our officers was surrounded by a bunch of masked, wanna-be thugs who surrounded her car and acted in a criminal manner in a way that I’ll tell you is never going to happen again in Fairfax County,” Davis said.
Another officer who responded to the scene and was on foot sustained minor injuries after being struck by a driver speeding from the scene. Detectives obtained warrants for Ronal Urrea-Hernandez, 18, of Catonsville, Maryland, for felony hit and run, speeding to elude police, and not having a driver’s license.
A warrant was obtained for Dylan Heckard, 20, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, for abduction, assault on a law enforcement officer, obstruction of justice, and wearing a mask in public. A 17-year-old Arlington boy will be charged with disorderly conduct and abduction for jumping on the police cruiser and the officer from leaving. Another driver, Carlos A. Matinez Jr., 18, of Woodbridge, received a summons for reckless driving after a crash with a cruiser.
Davis said the participants learn about the weekend gatherings on discrete websites and show up “for the purpose of utter chaos and disorder.” They know jurisdictional lines and may go to multiple jurisdictions in NoVA and suburban Maryland in a weekend, he said.
“There’s nothing neighborly about what they do. They do doughnuts. They drive at high rates of speed. They endanger the lives of themselves. They endanger the lives of their other enthusiastic and masked supporters,” he said.
When officers encounter similar events in the future, Davis said the department will have a civil disturbance unit respond to the scene. Civil disturbance units involve highly trained officers who are typically deployed during large-scale protests and demonstrations to maintain peace and crowd control.
“We’re not going to be caught in a situation again where it is one of us against dozens of them doing us harm,” Davis said, adding that the young men involved in these street takeovers have a “mob mentality” and are often intoxicated or on drugs.
Police departments across the region are working together to try to stop the mass events before the participants gather. Davis says analysts at two fusion centers — the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center and the Northern Virginia Regional Intelligence Center — are learning where the groups will meet. Fusion centers are facilities where federal, state, and local law enforcement work together to analyze and disseminate information. The meetups occur in other East Coast cities, so Davis said Fairfax County is also using helicopters, cameras, and license plate readers to identify participants.
The aggressive nature of the young men has grown and is “beyond unacceptable behavior,” Davis said.
“They operate in a secret society and that secret society deserves our undivided attention because this cannot go on.”
Calling the behavior “intolerable in any society,” Davis said the young men have combined criminal acts with their passion for cars. “This isn’t boys being boys.”
Social media pictures of the 3 a.m. Springfield street takeover showed at least one man wielding an assault-style long gun. Police have yet to identify him.
Davis said officers deployed in mass from across the county to help the officer who was in her cruiser dealing with the rowdy crowd.
“What does this mean for your community? It means you didn’t have any cops protecting your neighborhoods, your communities, your businesses because these criminals diverted all of our attention to handle an attack on one of our police officers, and that’s exactly what this was,” he said.
Davis said his department plans to work with legislators on legislation aimed at the owners of the cars involved in street takeovers. “We need to start holding the owners of these vehicles accountable,” he said.
Feature image courtesy Fairfax County Police Department
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