In the past six weeks, three men with guns have been arrested at a Metro station, on a Metro train or on a Metrobus thanks in large part to WMATA’s extensive, high-definition camera system.
Most recently on May 16, a witness on a train shortly after 4 p.m. noticed a man pull a handgun out of a backpack, load it and cock it.
Within minutes, Metro reviewed the cameras on the train and isolated pictures of a man identified as 35-year-old Timothy Hetzel, an HVAC tech from Bethesda, according to court documents.
Metro Transit Police tracked Hetzel and found him getting off a Red Line train at Woodley Park, where police searched his bag and found a handgun and ammunition, court documents say.
On May 14, Metro Transit Police received a complaint that a man on a Metrobus threatened a passenger with a gun. Once again, police went to the cameras and isolated video of a man identified in court papers as Wayne Brown.
Photos included in court records show Brown with a gun in his hand on the C31 bus that starts at Navy Yard and weaves through Southeast D.C., police said.
According to the complaint filed in federal court, a Metro Transit Police officer recognized Brown from a previous arrest, and he was stopped and found armed with a gun two days later at the Navy Yard Metro.
The third took place April 15 inside Gallery Place station where a man disarmed a Brinks guard servicing an ATM. The man pulled the pistol out of the guard’s holster, there was a scuffle, and the suspect went to the ground before running out of the station with the gun.
Within 30 minutes, investigators had distributed a photo of the suspect, and he was spotted by D.C. police and the National Guard outside the station at 9th and G streets, police said. The man, identified as Semaj Meanuu, was found with the guard’s gun and taken into custody, according to documents filed in federal court.
In March, Metro General Manager Randy Clarke credited Metro’s safety in part to the cameras throughout the system.
“We have an amazing video system that when something goes wrong, we arrest them right away, and we hope that people get held accountable for the actions they do,” he said.
All three men remain in custody awaiting trial.
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