DCPD On Sex Club Death: "Not Yet" a Homicide; Looking to Shut Down Club

EDIT (10/8/09): NBC4 did a story on yesterday's newscast about the club, which has now been identified as both a "gay sex club" and a "men's social club". ANC2F Chairman Charles Reed has also indicated that he would like to see the operation shut down.

EDIT: Amanda Hess over at the City Paper has more information about the investigation into the man's death.

At this evening's ANC2F meeting, DCPD PSA307 Lt. Vanessa Moore was questioned about the recent death of a man inside the sex club located at 1618 14th Street, and a few new details emerged.

It seems that a 47 year old white male was found at the bottom of a staircase in the building, possibly with a broken neck. Moore indicated that the circumstances of his death, or even the cause of death, remain unclear, and that the police were not yet ready to rule as to whether or not the death was a homicide. Lt. Moore did indicate that the police were looking into allegations of illicit drug use at the club, which is unlicensed and operating as a nonprofit.

Although professing to know next to nothing about the operation or its history, she did indicate that the DCPD was working with DCRA to "shut the club down." At 14thandyou, we question how sincere the District is at looking into the operations of the club. A fire at the club in 2005 raised similar questions about the legality of its operations, although to our knowledge nothing against the club was ever pursued.

Lots of Police Activity

Mr. 14th & You and I were driving from Capitol Hill to Logan last night between 9:15 and 9:45 and we happened to spot several police cruisers along the way. We saw three cruisers at the Shaw Metro and another two as we traveled up R Street. They weren't responding to any events as we drove by; they were just parked at various cross streets along R. Like the crime cameras, I'm never sure if I should be thankful for their watchful eyes or concerned about the neighborhood factors that led to their presence. Unless there was some sort of incident before we got back into town last night, I'm guessing that police are increasing patrols in various areas in response to the violence over this past weekend.

We've gotten a few questions about the sound of shots fired in our alley. Neither the Dupont Current nor the Washington Post have published recent enough statistics for us to follow up. Crimereports.com does not appear to have any information posted either. (Though there would need to be a reported crime, not just a police call, in order for them to plot it on the map.) We do anticipate seeing Lt. Smith at the next ANC meeting (Wed., May 7) and we plan to ask him about the incident then.

In cheerier news, the Express recommended our blog as a good DC neighborhood-centric read. Check out the blurb posted on Friday. Mr. and Mrs. 14th & You are given credit for our "candid" coverage of neighborhood events even if we don't paint a "rosy picture" all the time. Now I have blogger guilt about the recent lower volume of posts. In our defense, I worked 52 hours last week, and Mr. 14th and You didn't fare much better. We hope to have more time in the near future for exploring our area and writing about it.