Late Saturday night Capital City Diner tweeted “Unfortunately, we have to close this evening until 6am for a family emergency. We will reopen Sunday at 6am.” The “family emergency” referred to was the shooting of one of their servers. The Diner’s Facebook page additional details on Sunday, “Our dear friend and waiter, Wade, was robbed at the end of his shift Saturday, apparently chased the suspects, & was shot about 2 blocks away.” He was taken to the hospital and is expected to recover. They have surveillance footage of the kids, which had been turned over to police.
Then, as if the Diner hadn’t already been through enough in one night, someone broke in while they were closed and helping Wade.
Please keep Wade in your thoughts and stop by the Diner this week to show some support.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Actually, the Diner itself was not robbed. From the Frozen Tropics thread:
“Just to clarify: he was robbed at the end of his shift, apparently chased the suspects, & was shot about 2 blocks away from the diner. The diner wasn’t robbed, but the little bastards that shot him did come into the diner last evening, so we have decent video of them.
I left the hospital this morning, and he was talking & recovering.
We’re really shaken up by all of this, and appreciate your support. Please keep us, and especially Wade, in your thoughts.
Matt
Capital City Diner
P.S.: we were shaken up, so closed around 1am until 6am this morning. Some low-life crackhead (yes, he actually dropped some crack at the scene so I can say that) broke in last night while we were closed.”
http://frozentropics.blogspot.com/2010/11/lots-happening-last-night.html
I simply cannot bite my tongue anymore. Burglary and robbery are two very different crimes. Please use the proper terms:
Burglary: The crime of entering a building (whether a residence or business) to commit another crime. In DC burglary is either classified as a burglary one or two. One is when a person (most often the resident of a building) is present at the time of the offense, whether asleep or a witness to the crime. Two is when the no one is present at the time of incident.
Robbery: The crime of illegally taking property from a person, especially by using force, violence, or threats. Can be armed or unarmed. In DC there is a seperate classification of Robbery of Establishment when a suspect enters a business and takes goods or money by using threats, force, or violence towards an employee of the establishment.
So the Capitol City Diner was burgled and the employee was the victim of a robbery.
To Anomymous:
You are using “rob” to narrowly. The dictionary lists your preferred definition as the first option but does contain a third usage: “to plunder or rifle as a house”.
On behalf of grammar-nazis everywhere, I say careful with your criticism please.
i agree with alex.
i want to support the diner, but i have a small child. that part of town is just still too rough.
To BBG:
The definitions I provided are the classifications used by the Metropolitan Police Department when classifying crimes. The classification of robbery is incorrect when speaking of the incident that took place overnight at the diner. That was a burglary.
It isn’t criticism and I am not being a grammar nazi. I am clarifying who crimes are classified within the District of Columbia.
Anon, stop being a myopic little twit.
What shame.
It’s really sad when thugs rob a hard working individual trying to make an honest living. When will the city really crack down on this sort of violence? My wife and I were talking for some time about eating there … now we likely won’t ever go. It really upsets me that lawless individuals dictate where I will go eat or entertain myself in the city.
Wade will be in my thoughts and prayers.
@Eric, what is sadder than thugs robbing a hard working individual trying to make an honest living is when other individuals doubly penalize the business (and employee) by not dining there due to some percieved threat.
Leaving aside the fact that going to the diner apparently requires a lengthy period of deliberation (huh?), the best way to support Wade and the Diner staff is to support their enterprise and perhaps stop behaving like a scared suburbanite.
Regarding “this violence” – the city will be able to crack down on such violence when council members like Phil Mendelson are either (a) not re-elected, or (b) are otherwise pursuaded that catch and release for juvenile offenders committing armed assualts is not a sound policy.
(Courtland, that just made me laugh. Thank you.)
Eric, please don’t let these lowlifes dictate your choices. Let’s not all declare this portion of the city off limits, after all isn’t every part of DC dangerous at one time or another? There was a mugging right on Penn near Jenkins Row….stop going to Harris Teeter? And a brutal and horrendous knife attack and home invasion right around the corner from potomac Ave metro stop, do we stop using that station?
I am concerned and fed up as the rest of you. But the city has a part to play and we have a part to play. We need to keep supporting these businesses, walking (alertly) on OUR city sidewalks, and keep calling 911 on any suspicious activities until these aholes start to realize thay have no place to go and nowhere to hide.
@Awads…how often are you taking your small child out at 1:00 a.m.? We’ve taken our daughter to Capital City several times because the food is good and the atmosphere family friendly. And there are always other kids there.
Not to pile on to Awads, but we’ve gone with our kids several times and it’s been perfectly fine. The only problem, of course, is that it’s quite small and we end up waiting for a booth for a couple of minutes.
On second thought, it’s very, very dangerous. Especially Sunday mornings at around 7:30. Do not, I repeat, do not go then.
OK, I’ll pile on then. “that part of town is just still too rough.”
So was the 1300 block of a street ne. miraculously it cleaned up the moment I made my peace with living there. Was once said of Capitol Hill east of 7th Street, Lincoln Park during the day, Lincoln Park at night, 8th Street after dark, the parking lot next to Union Station. (Now the Marshall office building.) The diner was mobbed Sunday morning. It was as comfortable as my living room.
that’s cool. i can take the piling on. i’ve lived on capitol hill for 20 years so i’m quite aware of all the changes and how my very own street (north of lincoln park) was once perceived. i’m just sayin’…it’s still too sketchy over there for me with a kid. on my own, i’d probably go. plus, as pointed out: the diner is small. if i had to wait outside with my toddler for a table, on bladensberg road, i think it would suck. i’d rather eat at pete’s.
As a restaurant employee I can say that my restaurant employee friends have been robbed in every neighborhood in Washington, dc. Thugs target bar and restaurant workers because they know they have cash and they know they are tired and on their way home. Support the businesses by dinning at these establishments. Don’t bring toddlers to out at 1am but do bring them in for pancakes at noon.