‘Offenders don’t need coddling’: Pirro calls for DC to prosecute teens as adults

U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro is again calling for District leaders to change the law so that young teens can be charged as adults after a massive fight broke out in Navy Yard over the weekend.

More than 200 young people were seen fighting near the Navy Yard Metro station on Saturday night.

Someone fired a gun at one point during the chaotic scene. Nobody was hurt.

Two teens, 15 and 16 years old, were arrested on gun charges, Pirro said. District law requires prosecutors charge them as juveniles.

That prompted Pirro to post a video on social media saying “the robbery, the gunfire, the assault and the chaos in the Navy Yard … intimidates the residents and impacts the businesses.”

“This weekend was no exception. Two individuals were arrested. However, because of their age, they’re being treated as juveniles,” Pirro said in the video posted on X.

Pirro goes on to say that D.C. should lower the age of responsibility to make a difference in teen crime.

D.C.’s new top prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, is seeking more authority to prosecute young people as adults in D.C.’s court system. Amid pressure from the White House to bring down crime, Pirro told the News4 I-Team she wants to prosecute suspects as young as 12 as adults.

Last year, Pirro made similar remarks to News4 I-Team Reporter Ted Oberg, saying she wants to prosecute pre-teens.

“There’s got to be punishment. We’ve got 12 and 13-year-olds who are trying to break into a car while a woman is in it, threatening her, telling her to open the door while her boyfriend’s getting the hell kicked out of them,” Pirro said in the August interview.

D.C. law would prevent Pirro from prosecuting 12 and 13-year-olds as adults. The I-Team asked, would she want to prosecute a 12-year-old as an adult?

“Sure. I have. As a DA, I have. To me, age is a context. It doesn’t determine what the consequence should be,” she said.

Juvenile arrests increased last year in several categories, including assault with a dangerous weapon, aggravated assault, simple assault and illegal gun possession, according to data from the Metropolitan Police Department.

Since taking over as D.C.’s top attorney, Pirro has publicly pushed for changes to District law, particularly around juvenile crime.

Neither the D.C. Council nor Mayor Muriel Bowser have made any moves to change those laws.