ABC News host recalls on-air being ‘jumped’ 2 blocks from DC studio after Trump announces crime crackdown

ABC News anchor Kyra Phillips recalled on-air Monday being “jumped” only two blocks away from her Washington, D.C., studio “within the last two years.”

Violent crimes in the nation’s capital have supposedly plunged since 2023, The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing data from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). However, Phillips noted that several alleged crimes have occurred around ABC News’ Washington, D.C., bureau, including two employees of the network who were allegedly victims.

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“We’ve been talking so much about the numbers, and yeah, usually that’s how you play devil’s advocate, is you talk about, ‘Oh, well stats say crime is down.’ However, I can tell you firsthand here in downtown D.C., where we work right here around our bureau, just in the past six months, you know, there were two people shot,” Phillips said. “One person died literally two blocks down here from the bureau.”

“It was within the last two years that I actually was jumped walking just two blocks down from here. And then just this morning, one of my coworkers said her car was stolen a block away from the bureau,” she continued. “So we can talk about the numbers going down, but crime is happening every single day because we’re all experiencing it firsthand while working and living down here.”

President Donald Trump announced his administration planned to combat violent crime in the district on Monday, including declaring a “public safety emergency” and deploying the National Guard. He also announced that Attorney General Pam Bondi would be overseeing the federal takeover of the MPD.

The president convened his top cabinet officials on Monday for the announcement of a collective crackdown on violent criminals in the nation’s capital.

Although violent crime has reportedly decreased 26% in comparison to 2024, there have been 99 homicides in D.C. in 2025, according to the MPD tracker.

However, D.C. police commander Michael Pulliam is under investigation for allegedly fudging crime data in the nation’s capital, NBC4 Washington reported in July. Pulliam has refuted the allegations.

“When our members respond to the scene of a felony offense where there is a victim reporting that a felony occurred, inevitably there will be a lieutenant or a captain that will show up on that scene and direct those members to take a report for a lesser offense,” Fraternal Order of Police Chairman Gregg Pemberton also told the outlet. “So, instead of taking a report for a shooting or a stabbing or a carjacking, they will order that officer to take a report for a theft or an injured person to the hospital or a felony assault, which is not the same type of classification.”

There have also been high-profile cases of violent crime in recent months across the district.

For instance, former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer Edward Coristine, also known as “Big Balls,” received a brutal beating when he intervened in an August 5 carjacking of a woman at around 3 a.m.

A June 30 gang-related shooting also killed 21-year-old congressional intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym near a Metro station after the suspects allegedly came out of their vehicle and shot at a crowd. In May, Elias Rodriguez allegedly fatally shot two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum.

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