A construction worker, identified by D.C. police only as a complainant, said he was installing windows Saturday in Northeast Washington when a robber walked up to him, pointing a pistol.
The Spanish-speaking worker told police through an interpreter that the assailant demanded money. When the complainant handed over his wallet, containing $22, the stickup man, looking down at the bills, griped, “This is all the money you got?”
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That was the robber’s big mistake: looking down.
Unlike several dozen workers, many of them immigrants, who were robbed at gunpoint at 19 other construction sites in the city over the previous three months — allegedly by the same man — Saturday’s victim fought back, grabbing the barrel of the 10mm Glock while the assailant was distracted by the meager loot, police said.
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As the two wrestled for the pistol on the third floor of a building under construction in the Trinidad neighborhood, the gun went off and the worker suffered a hand wound, police said. But he finally got the better of the robber, identified by authorities as Antonio D. Ussery, 26, of Southeast.
In an affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court, a detective wrote, “The Complainant … stated he stood up and pointed the firearm at Defendant Ussery and told Defendant Ussery ‘Don’t move or I’ll shoot you.’” Then he used the gun to smash one of the newly installed windows and cried out for help.
Police alleged in court papers that Ussery is responsible for daylight robberies at 20 construction sites beginning Oct. 22, victimizing about 40 workers, most or all of them non-proficient in English. Until Saturday, they seemed to have been relatively easy crimes. Some of the victims gave up their money while pleading to keep their immigration cards, the affidavit says. A few were too frightened initially to report the robberies.
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Ussery made his first court appearance Monday on charges related only to Saturday’s robbery and was ordered jailed pending prosecution. It is unclear whether he entered a plea. The affidavit says he denied any wrongdoing in a police interview after his arrest. The lawyer who represented him at Monday’s hearing did not respond to a voice mail seeking comment.
By themselves, the construction-site holdups account for an increase in year-to-date robberies in the city. In 2021, when police recorded 2,040 robberies, 107 had occurred by Jan. 18, compared with 114 this year, according to the police department’s website.
The lengthy affidavit describes stickups in scattered parts of the District in which men who were busy working — digging a trench, clearing debris, spreading concrete, carrying tools from a truck — suddenly felt a gun pressed to their heads or backs. The robber spoke plainly, saying, “Money.” Or, “Give me the money.” Or, “Money, money, money.” The victims understood and reached for their wallets or cash rolls.
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One told police through an interpreter that he lost $2,000. Some surrendered $100 to $200. A father and son said they were robbed of $20 and $7, respectively. Another worker hid in a portable toilet and kept his money.
On Nov. 9, after two men laboring with shovels were robbed of $580 and $350, the affidavit says, they “were so scared and didn’t come out of the hole for at least 20 minutes to make sure [the gunman] was gone.” A week later, after four workers were robbed, two of them followed the fleeing assailant from a distance. One threw a rock at the robber, who turned around and fired the handgun once, according to the affidavit. No one was hurt.
“Leave my papers, take my money,” a victim implored the robber on Nov. 17. A month later, after a half-dozen stickups at different job sites on Dec. 15, one victim waited hours to report that he had been robbed. He “was too scared and thought [the gunman] was watching him,” according to the affidavit. The victim of a Dec. 18 robbery waited 10 days to file a complaint, saying “he did not know what telephone number to call.”
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Then came Saturday’s robbery and gunshot. After the incident, in a police interrogation room, Ussery said he found the semiautomatic handgun on the street and went into the building, which he thought was vacant, to inspect the firearm in private, according to the affidavit. He said he was attacked by the complainant.
The affidavit says, “Defendant Ussery stated, after asked if he was employed, that he quit his job as a construction worker approximately four to five months ago.”