Mayor reinstates juvenile curfew after chaotic Halloween night brawl in District’s upscale Navy Yard

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser reinstated a juvenile curfew after a wild Halloween night melee in the swanky Navy Yard neighborhood saw teens confronted by National Guard troops.

Ms. Bowser’s citywide curfew requires all children under 18 to be off the streets from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. The current curfew order lasts through Wednesday night.  

“This is in response to several weeks of disorderly juvenile behavior which endangered both themselves and others,” the mayor said on X.

Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith also has the authority to declare special juvenile curfew zones throughout the District, which bar youths from entering certain parts of the city where they are known to cause trouble.

On Saturday, police classified Union Station, the U Street Corridor in Northwest, Banneker Recreation Center near Howard University and Navy Yard as special curfew zones.

Ms. Bowser’s order came in response to videos of a massive teen-led brawl erupting in the Navy Yard on Friday night. 

Police said the teens gathered around 7:30 p.m. at a park on the corner of M and 1st streets in Southeast and were getting into fights that disrupted traffic.  

Officials said D.C. police, Metro Transit police, federal agents and National Guard troops tried to break up the unruly youths, who began to confront the authorities.

An MPD sergeant was knocked to the ground during the chaos, police said. 

Police made five arrests related to the brawl, including four teens between the ages of 14-16 and an 18-year-old who was charged with having a knife on him. 

“The behavior displayed last night in Navy Yard is unacceptable, and MPD and our law enforcement partners will have an increased presence tonight to ensure this does not happen again,” Chief Smith said Saturday. “This group chose not to visit any of the events hosted by MPD or our DC agency partners and instead gathered in this manner.”

Ms. Bowser can declare a juvenile curfew for up to 15 days, but said she would like to see the D.C. Council vote to revive a prior, more robust emergency curfew that was in place throughout the summer. 

The council will vote Tuesday on whether or not to approve another 90-day curfew. The previous curfew ended Oct. 5.

Council member Brooke Pinto, the Ward 2 Democrat who leads the public safety committee, said during a Thursday roundtable that police recorded no curfew violations or juvenile arrests in this summer’s seven special curfew zones.

Chief Smith testified during the roundtable that teens are becoming rowdy without the curfew zones.

She said a group of at least 60 teens ransacked the movie theater in Gallery Place on Oct. 13. The chief said the juveniles stole about $200 worth of candy and one of the youths threw a bottle that hit someone in the head. 

In other instances, Chief Smith said large groups of juveniles have tried carjacking people throughout the city.

Ms. Bowser said she wants to bring back the curfew “to ensure that the police can disperse large groups of teens.” 

“But we also want it to be clear to parents out there throughout the region, in D.C., Maryland and Virginia, that young people need to be with an adult after 6 p.m., [or] they will be required to disperse,” the mayor told WTOP on Sunday.  

Ms. Bowser said she hopes the council will take up legislation to make the curfew zones permanent in the near future.