Cyclist Murdered,Let's Be Careful Out There
 

We just had a cyclist murdered in DC over the weekend. He was found strangled not far off of a local trail. The police think this drugged-up guy they caught nearby might be the perp,but they aren't sure.

I haven't seen much posted in the forums about being wary,but I think it needs to be emphisised that in alot of the places we ride,we're on our own. Mechanical breakdown isn't the only thing to be concerned about. The trails here in DC aren't all that far off from some pretty rough areas. I got a little nervous just the other month when I took a side trail off of the C&O Canal trail. Went down a gully that leads to the Potomac river and saw a bunch of MS-13 graffiti. I decided maybe the main trail was more interesting afterall and beat feet.

Let's all be aware of our surroundings.

What is MS-13 graffiti?

I'm pleased I don't have to worry about such a thing, but nevertheless, you're right. We should always be aware of our surroundings. It's a shame this happened :(

yea i probably dont have to worry about it either... thats really a terrible thing to happen though.. watch out

MS-13 is an El Salvadoran street gang, similar to bloods, crips, etc, but not quite as notorious yet, or as many members.

It's tragic that so many American cities have turned into war zones. I used to live in Atlanta and wouldn't move back there for anything. It's just not worth it.

I carry my handgun if biking at night or go far from home.

They've killed three people here in the last month, including one of their own.

Does anyone have any more info on this or have links to articles?

The Washington Post has had the same article online- the same one that was in print in the Sunday paper. The last I had seen, was that the death was "suspicious"

I was in DC this past weekend and rode there for the frst time. I stayed in Crystal City and rode the Mount Vernon Trail every morning at sunrise. I am not used to ridiing in cities in the first place, so I was a little nervous to begin with.

Death by strangulation seriously qualifies as "suspcious" and then some.

Unfortunately, the street gangs are spreading into areas of the country that previously did not have a problem. And the issue is complicated by the fact that at times, the gang in the U.S. is "run" by a boss somewhere across the border.

Unless we all wake up and find a way to deal with it, it will only get worse and not better.

My sympathies go out to the victim and his family.

Unfortunately, such actions will spark off the ACLU, the media and other civil liberties organizations as being bigoted. As such no politician is willing to touch the issue due to the potential controversy.

Can you imagine what Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would say if street gangs were targeted like terrorists?

Yo, no gangs are being implicated in this case, hijackers :rolleyes: !

And for those of you not familiar with DC, the trail where the cyclist was killed is very heavily traveled by all kinds of cyclists (especially commuters and poseurs) and is not in a "bad" neighborhood. In fact, it is not in a neighborhood at all, which might be part of the problem. I ride through bad neighborhoods (some folks would say that I live in one), and there are always old ladies sitting on their porches keeping track of neighborhood doings. It's a good thing.

I'm very sorry for the gentleman who lost his life and his family and friends. Apparently he was an avid cyclist. This is not going to keep me, however, from riding my bike to work on this trail.

Last year a Long Island man was walking home from the Long Island Railroad station and was shot and killed on his door step by some MS-13 gang members. He was a regular working guy minding his own business, not buying drugs or doing anything illegal, just coming home from work.

MS-13 is the currently the fastest/largest growing gang in the U.S. They're comprised mainly of illegals coming up here from Latin America. Yet our politicians still see no need to crack down on illegal immigration.

As far as I know from some of my friends who are(or were) in gangs, MS-13's "rite of passage" is a killing or brutal beating.

Symbolizes the male or female leaving life as a law abiding citizen and entering the world of organized crime.

edit: was there a reason for the killing? Or was it just a killing? Not that a killing isn't bad, it's terrible. But what I mean is, was there a motive?

Oh man that's awful :( I'm out of town right now and didn't hear about it. I ride the DC trails all the time, do you know which one in was?

EDIT: Here's the Washington Post article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...053101403.html

Rest in peace, Mark Creasy......

This is why I'm pizzed off that Ashcroft has apparently retired. We need a guy like that, he could have been put in charge of domestic security. And the beauty of Patriot, Patriot II etc is used properly, those acts can be used to clean up gangs like that.

The police think they've caught the guy. Apparently he was naked and drugged out and running from the police near the Old Town part of trail. Mark was killed not long after the crazy guy disappeared off into the woods near the trail. According to the newest Post article, there were lots of witnesses to this crazy guy near Dangerfield island, where Mark was killed. Man, that trail is packed with people all the time and I guess you have to really keep an eye out and be prepared for anything.

:eek:

Dang... I hope this never happens in my area! There's some pretty effed up ppl in this world.

Sgt. Scott Fear... not the best name to have when you are trying to calm people's... err fears, about the safety of the park.

Hmm. Granted, the assailant in this case is suspected to be a drug crazed individual, but the post originator mentioned the M-13 street gang issue in his initiating post, so I don't think a discussion of that aspect of criminal activity is too much of a hijack.

A question that immediately comes to mind is, "How can an assailant assault and strangle a male in (apparent) good physical condition?" It has to do, to my thinking, with the matter of the drugs.

Years ago, one of my neighbors was a sheriff's deputy, and they answered a domestic call on a particular evening. When they got into the house, they arrested a man and his wife, and they suspected there were others in the home. My friend (who I'll call David) was in the kitchen and heard something. He turned to find a guy standing across the room who had come from somewhere else in the house. The distance between them was about 12 feet.

The guy had a knife in his hand, and David put his hand on his weapon.

The guy then said, "It's a nice night to die, isn't it?"

David replied, "Place the knife on the floor, turn around, and put your hands behind your head." Without taking his eyes off the guy, David shouted out the door for help.

With that, the guy stuck the knife all the way through his forearm and said "Oh no, I'm going to kill you, and then I'm going to kill myself."

David drew his weapon (a .45 cal Glock), and said, "No, I'm not going to die. But if you make one wrong move, I will blow your head off right here." (As he observed later, drugged up or not, a headless body is harmless).

Several other deputies came in at that moment, and they were able to disarm the man without incident. He was hyped up on PCP.

On another occasion, it took the same friend and five other deputies to restrain and handcuff an average sized man on the same drug. The fight literally tore up two rooms of a house -- broken furniture, holes in the walls -- just absoute wreckage of the place to simply restrain and arrest a guy on drugs.

And I have seen this myself. I personally witnessed an incident in which a small framed teen aged boy had to be restrained to a hospital bed. It took four male nurses to hold him on the bed while two others bound his arms and legs -- for his own safty, and that of others.

Most of the law abiding public has no idea of how drugs can impact the mind and body, and what type of sheer physical strength a drug-crazed individual can exercise. Most of us think, "I'll ride fast and get away," or, "I'll fight him off and escape."

Maybe. Hopefully. But probably not. Either way, it is a gamble all the same.

The street gangs are up to their eyeballs in the drug business. Maybe a gang member did not kill this bicyclist, but they are a menace to all of us all the same. And I agree with the idea of treating them as terrorists. Get them out off the streets, and out of the country -- ASAP.

IMHO

If I remember my late 70s drug education correctly, one effect of PCP (they called it Angel Dust then) is that it makes the user unaware of muscle pain. Someone high on PCP seems to have great strength because he does not respond the the pain signals muscles send when they are being damaged.

Folks,there's no evidence a gang was involved in this incident. I mentioned seeing the graffiti to highlight the fact that you have to be aware of your surroundings. Bad guys like quiet places to do bad things,and most trails qualify. Alot of trails are also near enough to where the bad guys are for them to use them. Back where I grew up in PA,the only real concerns I'd have about being out in the woods would be a bear or maybe a snake. But here in the DC area,the mere fact that back country trails have gang graffiti ratchets up the danger level.

The whole point of my posting was to raise awareness about a potential danger on the trails that didn't seem to get much discussion,not start a political debate. I think that when most of us ride the trails,we're either alone or in a very small group,we're quite a distance from any police/medical assistance,and we're engaging in an activity that uses up most of our physical energy. Think about the last hill you cranked up that kicked your butt. By the time you got to the top,you prolly couldn't wrestle a pre-schooler,much less defend yourself against an attacker,until you got your second wind.

Basically,what I'm trying to say is,let's be careful out there.

Might have been auto-asphyxiation.
I hear the hipster kids are doing it to enhance the pleasure of cycling.
They may have gotten the idea from INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence.

Enjoy

The crazy guy probably knocked the cyclist off his bike, which would surely disorient (and most likely hurt) him enough that the druggie could strangle him. The fact that it happened to a cyclist is inconsequential; he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Oh dude, that really hurts! Hutchence and I are the same age and INXS was one of my favorite groups of the 80's. It really affected me when he died in '97. Still hurts. When I heard that it was a real wake-up call.

If a guy like Hutchence that had so much going for him (ladies man, $30 million, talent, etc.) finds things so hopeless, what does that leave for the poor slobs like me that have had their careers outsourced to India? Not too f'ing much I can tell you that.

Here's an update on this case:

Alexandria, Va. (AP) - A man who was arrested shortly after a bicyclist was killed along a popular bike and jogging path in Alexandria (website - news) has been charged with murder.

Federal authorities have charged 35-year-old Andre Suggs of Alexandria in the May 28th death of 48-year-old Mark Creasy on Daingerfield Island.

Suggs arrested after he ran naked across the George Washington Parkway and bit a police officer.

Prosecutors contend in court documents that Suggs killed Creasy during a robbery, then threatened a witness and took Creasy's bike. He ran into the woods when two other people approached.

After Suggs was arrested, he allegedly bit one of the arresting officers and screamed, "AIDS! AIDS! I got AIDS!"

Suggs is also accused of assaulting a second man on a bike on the Mount Vernon trail the same day and a woman riding a bike on the Capital Crescent Trail near Georgetown, on May 21st.

Suggs is being held pending a detention hearing next week.


Lovely. As if errent drivers weren't enough,now we have to watch out for the fringe element. :(