Husband, wife security team found a shooting suspect hiding on DC military base
WASHINGTON DC Aug 24 2021 A husband and wife team brought a two and a half hour lockdown at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling to an end Friday after they found a DC shooting suspect hiding in a dumpster on the base.
Master Sgt Wendy Lewis and Technical Sgt Steve Lewis were on duty Friday when they learned a shooting suspect may have fled onto the base. The lockdown began around 12:25 p.m. after an armed man climbed a fence and got onto the base while fleeing DC Police.
“I heard a car crash and that’s what got me to investigate further,” Master Sgt. Wendy Lewis, who’s been in the Air Force 17 years, said. “Once I realized that something was happening, I found my husband, because he works in the same office, and I asked him to bring me the paperwork so I can begin interviewing some of the witnesses.”
Both Wendy and Steve are part of the Air Force’s 11th Security Forces Squadron, which helps protect the base.
According to a document filed in DC Superior Court, early Friday a “shot spotter” that detects gunshots reported nine rounds near 3880 Halley Terrace in Southeast Washington. Someone called 911 saying a dark vehicle with tinted windows drove away from the scene.
The court records say officers began looking for the car and saw a blue 2014 Ford Flex driving erratically on nearby South Capitol Street. They say the Ford was involved in two accidents near Malcolm X Avenue before 27-year-old Sean Gaskins got out of the damaged vehicle’s passenger door and began running away.
They say Gaskins jumped a jersey wall and ran across South Capitol Street, then climbed a fence at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.
That led to a manhunt involving about 80 officers from multiple agencies.
Wendy Lewis began to interview witnesses in the area of the Bolling Club, while her husband did a security sweep to make sure no one was in harm’s way.
After interviewing one eyewitness, Wendy said she got a pretty good idea of where the suspect might be hiding.
“I then approached my husband and asked if he would trust me, because I really think I know where the suspect may be,” Wendy Lewis said.
“Of course, after being married I’ve learned to trust her instincts,” Steve Lewis added.
As they completed a search of the base’s theater, Wendy looked out the window and saw movement in a dumpster and alerted her husband.
“I said, ‘hey babe, I see they guy!'” she told 7News.
Steve says the suspect surrendered without any resistance.
“Of course we still had to confirm that that was in fact the individual that we were searching for, but seeing someone crawl out of a dumpster is suspicious nonetheless,” Steve said.
Before the suspect was captured, D.C. Police found a loaded Glock 27 with an “obliterated” serial number in the grass not far from the dumpster.
Wendy and Steve met while serving with the Air Force at a previous assignment have been married for almost six years. They have a three-year-old son. Although they’ve worked together in the past, they say it’s now very rare.
“We both have very busy jobs. So I would say at this point in our careers, it’s kind of rare,” said Steve, who’s been in the Air Force for 19 years. “We have worked a lot together in the past. So our experience and training that we’ve had together definitely played a major factor in this and us being able to work together with minimal effort.”
“I was able to call on my partner, not only in my life but also at work,” Master Sgt. Lewis said, “so it worked out really well.”
They say that both their training and personal relationship helped them find the suspect.
“I thought it was phenomenal. I didn’t really have to communicate with words to get to the places I needed to be and right to the suspect — I was able to look at [Steve] and he knew what my movements were going to be and vice versa,” she said.
As of Monday Sean Gaskins was being held on no bond. He faces nine charges, most of them gun-related, but also faces a charge for entering the base property and for fleeing police and leaving the scene of an accident. Court records say he did not have a license to have a gun in D.C.