UPDATE ON LINCOLN PARK MURDER
LINCOLN PARK NEWSLETTER: MPD releases a statement confirming the homicide on the south side of Lincoln Park on Tuesday night.
By the Lincoln Park Newsletter
The Lincoln Park Newsletter received a statement in an email today from Lee Lepe, public information officer for the Metropolitan Police Department:
“On Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at approximately 10:13 p.m., First District officers responded to the 1200 block of East Capitol Street, Southeast, for a report of a shooting.
“Upon arrival, officers located an adult male, unconscious and not breathing, suffering from a gunshot wound. DC Fire and EMS responded to the scene and after finding no signs consistent with life, the man was pronounced dead. Homicide Branch is investigating.”
The man was gunned down in front of 1209 East Capitol St. SE.
One witness saw a man wearing a ski mask flee from the shooting scene and hide behind a tree in Lincoln Park. The witness, a juvenile, reported the information to her parents and to the MPD.
Several witnesses reported seeing a man nervously pacing around the park as the police investigated the incident.
A neighbor across Kentucky Avenue checked her Nest camera and saw on all-terrain vehicle that matched the description of other witnesses who spoke to the Lincoln Park Newsletter.
The camera also showed several scooters, or motorbikes, accompanying the ATV. One witness saw the ATV loop around the park and head west on East Capitol Street NE.
“They're noisy, because another neighbor told me she's been hearing them go down East Capitol often lately,” the neighbor said. “So I'd say be on the lookout for a group on these scooters and an ATV. One police officer told me that the group had been in Navy Yard just before they went up to Capitol Hill.”
The 1200 block of East Capitol Street SE was reopened from the crime scene investigation at 9:45 a.m., after the evidence team departed.
About two dozen police cars and an ambulance responded to the scene. A group of witnesses to the crime were interviewed by police on Kentucky Avenue. One included a woman in a glittery nightgown.
Some people reported seeing a weeping woman whom they thought was the mother of the victim arrive at the scene, but that fact could not be confirmed.
EMT technicians arrived about 10:15 p.m. and were seen putting a pink blanket over the body of the victim on the sidewalk in front of 1209 East Capitol.
A large area on the south side of the park was cordoned off through the night into the morning as police officers looked for shell casings and other evidence.
EXCLUSIVE: NO CANNABIS SALES, SMOKE SHOP OWNERS SAY
By Tommy Woodward and Scherzer Bernstein
In an exclusive interview, the owners of Capitol Smokers at 5th and East Capitol SE said they do not plan to sell cannabis — despite the marijuana leaf in the store’s logo.
On Monday evening, Joe and Mustafa Ishhadesh, owners of Capitol Smokers, were unloading boxes of incense burners and glass pipes into the basement storage area of the old Congress Market at 421 East Capitol SE.
Stopped by your intrepid watchdog reporters, the Ishhadesh brothers said they plan to sell cigarettes, tobacco and vape products, smoking papers, water pipes and glass pipes along with salty dry snacks, such as potato chips, and soft drinks.
“There’s no cannabis,” Joe said.
The reason for the marijuana leaf in the store’s logo is that they plan to sell paraphernalia. “Most of the products they use for marijuana,” Joe said.
When the sign went up over the weekend, the pot hit the fan.
The Capitol Hill Corner blog jumped to a conclusion, saying that the sign indicated the shop “intends to open as a cannabis dispensary. Neighbors are up in arms at the prospect and a lot of them sent emails of protest to CM Charles Allen and ANC6B.”
The esteemed councilman told the blog that he had received 50 emails and leapt into action, checking to confirm that the shop didn’t have the proper licenses.
The blog, which is an uncritical supporter of the politician, patted him on the back for working on a Sunday! My goodness! Way to go, councilmember.
What the blog did not say was that the right honorable councilmember was part of the problem that caused the explosion of weed throughout the city, with marijuana being smoked on the streets by juveniles, motorists and pedestrians. Way to go, councilmember.
He was one of the leading advocates for legalizing marijuana. “Racial disparities in the enforcement of cannabis laws, and the accompanying harms to minority communities, have been well documented, but are often not sufficiently addressed,” he said when testifying for the Comprehensive Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Act of 2021.
Poor councilmember. He never learns the lesson of the unintended consequences of good intentions. As the proverb goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
And, of course, the councilman is among those who think the police should not make traffic stops for drivers blazing through the streets high on pot, even though the skunk stink of the marijuana is obvious a block away. Such stops are '“discriminatory.”
But now, the heroic member of the City Council is Mr. Anti-Marijuana Shops, though his advocacy of pot turned H Street NE into a living nightmare filled with stoners and smoke shops. How ironic. Hero of Ward Six to the rescue, the sycophantic Capitol Hill Corner trumpets.
And way to go, Charles. You’ve stopped a smoke shop from selling cannabis. Never mind that you never tried to talk to the young men opening the store to find out they hadn’t planned on it to begin with. But hey. You’re an anti-smoke-shop marijuana-legalizing hero. Yay.
Meanwhile, the poor Ishhadesh brothers, age 24 and 25, looked like deer in the headlights, caught in the buzzsaw of a weather-vane-like councilmember’s clueless and unaccountable good intentions (legalize marijuana!) and middle-class residents (take that junk out of here. When I said legalize it, I didn’t mean in my backyard!)
The brothers said they don’t know the neighborhood very well and said they didn’t know where Lincoln Park was located. “Are there many smokers in this neighborhood?” Joe asked our watchdog reporters.
In their tenuous defense, they pointed out that their other business, Oze Tobacco and Vape in Manassas, Virginia, also does not sell cannabis. An online check seems to confirm, and shows they have in the past sold at most CBD gummies, THC-laced products.
They said they are seeking the transfer of the liquor license from the owner of the building, which held the ABA license of Congress Market.
Spotted in Lincoln Park: How will it play in Peoria
A few hours before the Lincoln Park homicide, Congressman Darin LaHood, Republican of Illinois, was feted at a fundraiser on his birthday on Tuesday evening at Pacci’s Trattoria on Lincoln Park. Rep. LaHood, who represents Peoria, Illinois, comes with some serious committee appointments, including the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, the birthplace of the One Big Beautiful Bill.
After the event, Rep. LaHood skedaddled across Lincoln Park, intently staring at his iPhone (likely trying to figure out what his haul was for the evening.)
At Pacci’s, the bevy of lobbyists, thankful and deeply grateful for all the pork larded up in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, streamed out of Pacci’s donned in dressed-to-the-nines “business attire” straight out of Brooks Brothers and Ann Taylor. Lots of Fox News-style makeup to boot.
LaHood is the son of former Rep. Ray LaHood, who was the Secretary of Transportation from 2009 to 2013 under President Barack Obama. Unlike his father who worked for a Democrat, Darin LaHood has gone all Trumpy for the deficit-exploding One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Here are some of the junior LaHood’s greatest hits (via VoteSmart):
"As a father of three and a Pro-Life advocate, I applaud the Supreme Court's decision in the Dobbs case. Today is a huge victory for sanctity of Life." (twitter.com)
"I firmly believe that it is our constitutional right to bear arms and it shall not be infringed. I do not support unproven gun control measures targeted at law abiding gun owners, and in Washington I will continue to be an uncompromising defender our Second Amendment rights." (lahoodforcongress.com)
“For far too long the Federal Government has not been living within its means.* Our national debt is $30 trillion and growing and we continue to have a government that spends, taxes, and borrows too much. In Congress, I will continue to push to rein in spending in order to tackle the national debt, ensuring that our children and grandchildren are not forced to pay for the mistakes of our generation." (lahoodforcongress.com)
* Editor’s Note: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act would increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
FOREVER BROKEN BENCH IN LINCOLN PARK
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
This newsletter sucks. It is ‘fearmongery’
[The Lincoln Park Newsletter] is not a listserv where we can all post, but rather, a (by looks of the archives) "fearmongery" blog with a dark view of the neighborhood.
Sandra Moscato-Mills
100 Block of 13th St SE
ADOPT-AN-URN TO MARCH IN PARADE ON INDEPENDENCE DAY
Lincoln Park urn gardeners and others who have canine companions plan to the march as a group in the Barracks Row Capitol Hill Independence Day Parade. Plan to meet at 9:30 a.m. under the bridge on 8th Street SE on July 4.
Organizers have consulted their parent group, Friends of Capitol Hill Parks, the largest volunteer group serving Lincoln Park, and the organization president, founder, CEO and Queen of Lincoln Park Mary Farran has approved. She signed a decree allowing the parade group to go forward. A signup is coming. We will need marchers, a loudspeaker, a play list about dogs and flowers, decorations, dog treats, silly costumes and more.
https://www.capitolhill4thparade.com/
Here’s the urn map
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1VAZgfCet1HjsOZBS8_WRa9vYzJILYqlRLcaXCnOL7Lw/edit?usp=sharing
The Fine Print
Copyright © *2022* *Friends of Capitol Hill Parks, All rights reserved.
PLANTS People Living Actively Near Their Site *
We are dog-friendly, plant-friendly, tree-friendly, eco-friendly, NPS-friendly and just generally friendly (most of the time.)
THE BEST NEWSLETTER SERVING LINCOLN PARK
*People Living Actively Near Their Site *
All subscribers to the Lincoln Park Newsletter, a parody and news publication, become automatic members of FRIENDS OF CAPITOL HILL PARKS, the largest volunteer charitable organization serving Lincoln Park, Washington, DC, Mary Farran, president, chairwoman, CEO and Lincoln Park mayor-for-life.
If you do not want to be a free member of FRIENDS OF CAPITOL HILL PARKS, you can resign and subscribe to the newsletter and be a non-member subscriber by signing up for a very expensive, exclusive, premium over-priced pay subscription. Dogecoin is no longer accepted since it is part of an illegal global scheme linked to the richest man in the world.
Through consultation with NPS, PLANTS volunteers will purchase and install plants, which will also include aromatics.
The Lincoln Park Newsletter is parody, opinion and news serving the area sort of around Lincoln Park.