Yeison Gomez Chavez, Stabbing and Assault, DC 2024

Yeison Gomez Chavez, 18, of Washington, D.C., is going away for eight years after slashing and beating two men in separate attacks within a 90-minute rampage across Northwest D.C. last summer. The brutal assaults, carried out with fists, feet, and a knife, left victims bloodied and terrified, according to court documents filed in Superior Court. U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips announced the sentence on Feb. 3, 2017, following Gomez Chavez’s guilty plea to aggravated assault while armed and assault with a dangerous weapon.

The first attack unfolded at 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 29, 2016, in the 3100 block of 16th Street NW. Gomez Chavez, alongside Christian Mendoza, 18, and Ever Umanzor, 16, ambushed a man arriving on his bicycle. Mendoza blocked his path while Gomez Chavez and Umanzor rushed in, punching and kicking the victim before slashing him with a knife. As the wounded man fled, Mendoza seized his bicycle. Gomez Chavez admitted to the slashing and was convicted of aggravated assault while armed.

Just 90 minutes later, at 1 a.m. on Aug. 30, Gomez Chavez and Mendoza struck again—this time near a restaurant in the 1700 block of Columbia Road NW. A second victim, stepping outside to check on a friend, was hit in the head with a rock and stabbed in the lower back. Gomez Chavez pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon in this incident, showing a chilling pattern of violence in rapid succession.

But the attacks didn’t stop there. In a proffer of facts submitted during his plea, Gomez Chavez admitted to involvement in two additional assaults that same night—though he wasn’t charged for them. Around 1:30 a.m., a third man was robbed at knifepoint at a gas station in the 2800 block of Sherman Avenue NW. The assailants claimed the area as ’18th Street territory,’ demanded the victim’s bike, and assaulted him when he resisted.

The final assault occurred at 2:40 a.m. in the 1600 block of Columbia Road NW. Gomez Chavez and Mendoza approached a fourth victim and grilled him about gang affiliation—specifically MS-13 or the 18th Street Crew. When he said he was unaffiliated and tried to flee, they caught him, surrounded him, and at least one brandished a knife. The victim was stabbed in the right bicep before escaping. Umanzor, charged as an adult due to the severity of the crimes, has also pled guilty and awaits sentencing, as does Mendoza.

Judge Lynn Leibovitz handed down the eight-year prison term, followed by five years of supervised release. U.S. Attorney Phillips praised the Metropolitan Police Department’s investigation and acknowledged Victim/Witness Advocates Juanita Harris and Christina Principe, along with Paralegal Specialists Debra McPherson and Donville Drummond for their work ensuring justice. The case paints a grim picture of territorial violence and unchecked aggression in the nation’s capital.