Rakesh Patel pulled his gray Mercedes to a curb near Florida Avenue and U Street in Northwest Washington on Tuesday night, got out and walked over to his waiting girlfriend.
He had a package for her, and he set it on the sidewalk. She hugged him, and he kissed her on her forehead.
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But as Patel had his back to the car that was still running, police said, at least one person jumped inside and sped off. The 33-year-old doctor at MedStar Washington Hospital Center chased after the Mercedes, police said, and was run over and killed.
“A nightmare,” said Patel’s girlfriend, Rachel Lincoln, who saw the tragedy as it occurred on the southern edge of Adams Morgan and tearfully recounted her boyfriend’s final moments.
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Police found the Mercedes E350 on Wednesday abandoned on a residential street near the Maryland line, according to a D.C. police department spokesman, but have not made any arrests.
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D.C. police released a video of what officials said is the victim’s Mercedes being parked on a street in Northwest Washington. Two people who appear to be men are seen getting out of the vehicle, one from the front-passenger side and other from the back. The video shows the people walking away from the car. The video does not show the person driving the vehicle. Police describe the two people as “persons of interest” in the case.
The death comes as carjackings and auto thefts mount nationwide and across the District, becoming a top concern of residents growing frustrated with crime. The District’s mayor and police chief have called for more officers to restore a sense of security to city neighborhoods, and authorities in the Washington region banned together hoping to crack down on violence related to car thefts.
Carjackings in the District spiked 200 percent from 2019 to 2021, and continue to rise this year. Auto thefts are up 9 percent in 2022. D.C. police and other jurisdictions have formed a carjacking task force with the FBI to confront the problem.
Someone tapped on his car window, then pointed a gun. It was yet another carjacking in the D.C. region.
Last month, a 71-year-old man who worked as a ride-hail driver was fatally shot in a carjacking in Prince George’s County. A 17-year-old was charged in the case. And last year, a 66-year-old food delivery driver was killed in a carjacking near Nationals Park, committed by girls 13 and 15 years old.
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Police have described the carjackings and car thefts as crimes of opportunity, with the vehicles used for joyrides or to commit other crimes. Authorities also point to a trend of what they call “jump-in” auto thefts of vehicles left unattended and running.
Officials have cited pandemic-induced disruptions in structured programs, school and family for the increase in such violence. Other cities across the country have experience similar spikes in such crimes.
Police said Patel, who lived in Silver Spring, was killed about 8 p.m. at the busy intersection — a confluence of streets, some lined with rowhouses, others with shops and restaurants at the western end of the U Street corridor.
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“I don’t think I have heard of an incident this brazen and tragic in Adams Morgan,” said Fiona Clem, who chairs the Advisory Neighborhood Commission for the area. “I’m at a loss, really, to say more than that.”
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D.C. Council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1), where the incident occurred, said in a statement she is “reeling from the senseless death … of which there have been too many recently.”
Patel, whose family is from Ohio, worked in the intensive care unit at Washington Hospital Center in Northwest. In a statement, the hospital said he had completed his internal medicine residency and an infectious-disease fellowship, and was training as a critical care fellow.
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“He will be greatly missed by those whose lives he touched,” the hospital statement said. A family member reached in Ohio said they did not wish to comment. Colleagues at the hospital could not be reached for comment.
Lincoln, in a brief interview, said she would remember Patel by his smile, and as a person who “would go out of his way for anybody, not just you or me, but his friends, his family and his patients.”
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She said that the people he treated were his biggest passion and that he wanted to “help them get through hard times.” She summarized part of an email the hospital sent to his colleagues, noting Patel would “stop and pick up a morning cup of coffee for a patient who was struggling and didn’t have a lot of support.”
To describe Patel as committed to his profession, Lincoln said, would be “an understatement.”