John Henrehan
john.henrehan@foxtv.com
CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md. – At first, retired carpenter Robert Earl Robinson thought a tree had fallen onto his house on West Mill Avenue in Capitol Heights. It happened just after 4:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.
But the boom Mr. Robinson heard was not a tree. It was a car that smashed through the brick front wall of his house. Most of the car wound up in two occupied bedrooms in the lower level of the house.
“I run outside, and I heard my nephew saying, Uncle Earl, Uncle Earl, get me out of here,” said Robinson. His nephew couldn’t get out of the room downstairs. The car had him trapped.
The nephew, Robert Anderson, had gone to bed just two minutes earlier. “The whole room exploded,” explained Anderson. “The room turned to brick ash and drywall dust. It was everywhere. And, the next thing I know, I was in a cloud.”
Roberts’ cousin, Ronald Robinson, was in the adjoining bedroom. He, too, was injured by the flying debris. “Stuff just started dropping down on top of me,” said Ronald Robinson, gesturing to the bandage wrapped around his head at Washington Hospital Center. He also suffered cuts on his left arm and a knee injury.
Neighborhood witnesses said two males from the car got out of the vehicle and left. A young woman got out of the vehicle but returned to poke her head into the broken house. “Then somebody’s head came in behind the car and said ‘Hey Mister, Hey Mister, can you get my purse!’ And I’m just sitting there in amazement, naked, going ‘Can I get your purse?” said Anderson.
Firefighters extricated the two cousins within a few minutes.
Witnesses said police rounded up all three people from the car for questioning. No arrests have been made, but Prince Georges County Police say the accident is under active investigation.
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