It doesn't really bother me that carjackings in Washington DC are down significantly in the first half of 2024 compared to a year ago, because I'm so sickened by what happened to Leslie Marie Gaines. She was 55 years old and the victim of an unarmed carjacking at MedStar Washington Hospital Center on Monday afternoon.
It's one of those events that gives you pause.
Gaines' day began at the hospital's rehabilitation facility on nearby Irving Street NW, where he underwent physical therapy at about 11:15 a.m. He ended at George Washington University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:38 p.m.
What happened in the interim has left me frustrated and infuriated that the real justice her family wanted for her — if justice also means showing mercy and compassion for one another — had even a fraction of that existed on Monday, Gaines would still be alive.
Court documents detail some of the key events in the case, and also explain why Washington DC police have charged suspect Kayla Kenisha Brown, 22, with murder, kidnapping and hijacking in connection with Gaines' death.
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Where was the mercy for Gaines that day?
According to court records, Gaines and her daughter parked their car at the entrance to MedStar emergency room because Gaines was not feeling well after physical therapy. Gaines' daughter went inside to get wheelchair assistance for her mother, who remained inside with the engine running, according to the documents. However, when she returned to the entrance, the car and her mother were gone.
According to a DC police news release, around 1:11 p.m., Brown was walking away from her family in Medstar just as Gaines and her daughter were about to pull over. After Gaines' daughter went inside the car to get a wheelchair, Brown got in the driver's seat and drove off, leaving Gaines inside, according to the police report.
Where was the compassion for his sick mother?
The document tells the story of how it ended.
Brown was driving with Gaines in the passenger seat of the car, which was traveling at a high rate of speed when it failed to make a turn at the intersection of NW 6th Avenue and D Street and crashed into a fence outside the U.S. Attorney's Office. Brown, who had taken the keys, attempted to flee on foot but was caught by police, who found Gaines unconscious in the passenger seat. Police provided first aid until paramedics arrived and transported Gaines to George Washington University Hospital.
How did Gaines and Brown meet? The answer relates to a key part of this story.
This account was also taken from court documents: Around the time Gaines and her daughter arrived at the rehab center, police had responded to a 911 call from a woman screaming for help before the call was hung up. Police and paramedics went to the apartment where the call originated, where they encountered Brown and her mother. Brown stared at them but did not answer any questions.
Brown's mother said her daughter “obtained some type of drug while out with a man she met on Instagram,” as outlined in court documents. Brown's father said her daughter “had been acting crazy for about three days,” according to court documents.
Emergency medical technicians determined Brown's blood pressure and heart rate were too high for a person's age and transported him by ambulance to MedStar, where he arrived at 12:40 p.m.
After determining that Brown was not the victim of a crime, police left the emergency room at approximately 12:46 p.m., where Brown remained until he left the room, separated from his family.
On Friday in D.C. Superior Court, I saw Brown in an orange jumpsuit in the dock and listened to Detective Roberto Torres explain the events surrounding the carjacking and Brown's arrest: Leslie Marie Gaines was missing.
At the end of the preliminary hearing, the court ruled that Brown's conduct was “highly dangerous” and that he must be “held without bail” until the next hearing. Still, where is justice?
I'm not talking about the hijacking charges against Brown. We'll see where that goes. I think about the story Brown's parents told me about their daughter going out with a guy, getting drugs, and acting crazy. And I ask myself, if what they say is true, why should we rethink the drug trade as reformers would like us to? This city is full of people in the drug supply chain. And it's full of innocent people who fall victim to behavior fueled by the poison drug dealers push.
Ah, but the dealers are likely men and women living in poverty who have to sell drugs to survive. I hear you might want to think again.
Instead, I picture Gaines strapped into her daughter's car and think of the shoplifting, car thefts, robberies and turf wars that plague our city, driven by the search for drugs.
Marcy asks us to think of all of these things, not just the dealers and users. But we never think about people like Leslie Marie Gaines, people her sister Erica Gaines called “angels on earth” who fall victim to people with substance use disorders. It’s an affliction so common it’s ignored. Until the car crashes into the wall and an innocent soul is pronounced dead.
May Leslie Marie Gaines rest in peace, but where is justice?
