A D.C. man has been arrested and charged with attacking two people in what the police say might be hate crimes.
Besufikad Beshanu Tujuba, 23, of Northwest D.C., was arrested Wednesday and charged with robbery (force and violence) and simple assault, D.C. police said in a statement Thursday.
The two incidents happened about 24 hours and about a five-minute walk apart. In the first, Tujuba allegedly assaulted someone on Monday, Sept. 16, at about 11 a.m. in the 7600 block of Georgia Avenue Northwest; in the second, he allegedly assaulted and robbed someone at about 9:30 a.m. the next day in the 7700 block of Eastern Avenue Northwest. Both locationss are just south of Blair Road and the Maryland line.
In both instances, the police said, Tujuba “used language towards the victim which indicated a potential bias towards the victim’s perceived gender identity/expression.”
They are investigating the incidents as possible hate crimes.
