D.C. police released a video showing two suspects and a vehicle they believe the suspects used in committing the robbery of Bryan Smith that led to his death. (Screen capture via MPD YouTube)
D.C. police have confirmed that a gay man who worked as a hairstylist and a DJ and who was found unconscious about 5 a.m. Oct. 27, at the intersection of 5th and T Streets, N.W. near the gay bar Uproar has died.
Friends who knew the victim, Bryan Smith, stated in a GoFundMe message seeking support for his medical expenses that he was hospitalized for a severe head injury. His family members told Fox 5 News that he was in a coma.
A D.C. police spokesperson confirmed that Smith died on Nov. 7 and the cause and circumstances surrounding his death were pending with the Northern Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office. “Once we have more information, we’ll be putting that out,” D.C. police spokesperson Thomas Lynch told the Washington Blade.
The information released by D.C police indicates Smith at some point was transferred from a D.C. hospital where he was taken by ambulance at the time he was found unconscious to a Virginia hospital, most likely at the request of family members.
Police also released a video showing two suspects and a vehicle they believe the suspects used in committing the robbery of Smith.
“The ongoing investigation has determined that the man was robbed by two suspects while walking on the block,” according to an Oct. 30 police statement released before Smith died. “Detectives are still working to determine how the victim sustained his injuries,” the statement says.
The statement adds that the suspects have been linked to three other offenses that took place that same morning, two of which were attempted robberies and one of which was a robbery of victims on nearby streets.
Smith was found unconscious on Oct. 27 about five hours after another gay man, Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarra, 22, was reportedly attacked and beaten by as many as 15 men and women at the McDonald’s restaurant at 14th and U Street, N.W., according to a D.C. police report and information provided by Lascarra’s husband.
D.C. police announced they made an arrest Nov. 5 of a 16-year-old juvenile male in connection with the McDonald’s case. The arrest came on the same day police released photos of seven suspects in the McDonald’s assault case taken from video cameras at or near the McDonald’s.
In their release of the video showing the two suspects in the Smith case, police are asking that anyone who may recognize the two individuals should contact police at 202-727-9099 or text their tip to the department’s TEXT TIP Line at 50411.
“Anyone who may have seen or heard something suspicious in the 500 block of T Street, NW, or the surrounding area around 5:00 a.m. Sunday [Oct. 27] is asked to call the police or text police,” the statement accompanying the release of the police video says.
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