14th St Bridge incident

[gibby]

A heads up about an individual who may have some mental health issues. About 815am today crossing the 14th St Bridge, I approached a heavyset African-American man carrying two duffel type bags. He was taking up almost the entire walkway and didn’t look like the typical commuter so I approached slowly giving multiple warnings. He never moved and seemed to be talking to himself. I finally decided to squeeze by and pass and was given a wack to the face as I did.

Nothing major. More of a wtf moment than anything else but I can see if it were a less-seasoned cyclist it could have been dangerous.
Unfortunately the usual park police were not at the base of the bridge.

I haven’t seen him before, so hopefully it’s a one off and he won’t be making regular crossings.

Topic

[TwoWheelsDC]

Maybe he’d just been forced to take the path detour and climb the stairs and thought you were with NPS?

[rcannon100]

I did note an unusual NPS police presence passing through at about 9.10 a

[Tania]

What exactly was it about this guy doing that was illegal and would make you want to notify the police? He’s walking across a bridge on a pedestrian path – is that illegal? There are plenty of times where I can’t pass people because of one thing or another so I wait. According to what you wrote, he was just minding his own business and going from point a to point b.

[gibby]

Not that he did anything illegal, but he may have been a danger to other cyclists, pedestrians, joggers if he did have some mental illness. Not moving when he knows someone is behind him and then wacking me in the face when I pass is rather aggressive and could have been more violent depending on his mood.

I wasn’t about to stop and have a chat to determine that and would have simply alerted police that there is someone on the bridge who may be aggressively violent.
Maybe he was just one pissed off dude—either way, it was not a good situation.

[DCAKen]

@Tania 181778 wrote:

What exactly was it about this guy doing that was illegal and would make you want to notify the police? He’s walking across a bridge on a pedestrian path – is that illegal? There are plenty of times where I can’t pass people because of one thing or another so I wait. According to what you wrote, he was just minding his own business and going from point a to point b.

However, the 14th Street Bridge crossing is wide enough where two people can pass safely. And minding his own business does not cover wacking someone in the face.

[Tania]

@DCAKen 181780 wrote:

However, the 14th Street Bridge crossing is wide enough where two people can pass safely. And minding his own business does not cover wacking someone in the face.

You’re right, I missed that part in the OP.

[Author]

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