Del Ray Resident Robbed at Gunpoint

Del Ray resident Marquita Thompson was robbed at gunpoint Monday morning while sitting in her car near the intersection of E. Howell and Leslie avenues.

Thompson, 27, was leaving her home in the 300 block of E. Howell Avenue with her fiancé, Miguel Crouch, when she saw a man kneeling behind a white van parked behind her black Nissan. The man got on his knee, Thompson said, and it appeared as if he was tying his shoe.

Thompson said she was examining the rear tire of her car for a persistent slow leaking problem when she saw the man, who she described as a “light skinned, African American about 5-foot-9, wearing a black baseball cap, black shirt and dark blue jeans with tan Timberland boots.” She later saw that he had brown eyes, she said.

His most distinctive characteristic, Thompson told Patch, was that the man had many, many freckles on his face.

The man moved toward the passenger side of the car, she said, where Crouch was sitting. Thompson thought he was going to ask her fiancé for a cigarette, but the man said: “Give me that bag!” Thompson recalled. Thompson handed over her $600 Chanel bag including an iPad, Wi-Fi connection device and her birth certificate, which she had just gotten a copy of from Richmond.

Crouch put one foot out of the car, according to Thompson, when the man pulled out a gun, cocked it and pointed it at Crouch’s genital area and said to Crouch: “If you move, I’m going to shoot you in the ass or in your private area.”

He also patted down Crouch’s pockets and took $1,000 from him, according to Thompson. 

Thompson, a Del Ray resident her entire life, said the man told them to exit the car and walk to the house. “If you turn around I will shoot,” Thompson said the attacker told them.

Crouch told a police officer on the scene that the man did not sound like he was from the area because of “the lingo he was using.” Crouch said he did not have an accent but thought maybe he was from Washington, D.C.

“I just want everyone to be on the lookout for him, and I just want him to be caught,” Thompson said.

The white van, which had been parked at the corner of E. Leslie and E. Howell avenues for about two to three days, according to Thompson, disappeared shortly after the altercation but no witnesses saw anyone drive it away and it is not clear if it’s tied to the incident, Thompson said.

Alexandria Police spokesman Lt. Mark Bergin said it's an open investigation with police still on the scene. 

No additional details are currently available.