Mohammad Anwar, a delivery driver, lost his life in Washington, DC last April during a carjacking. Two girls aged 13 and 15 tried to take his car and wound up flipping it on top of him. Two nights ago, another senseless carjacking took place in DC and another man was killed after being run over by his own car.

Rakesh Patel pulled his gray Mercedes to a curb near Florida Avenue and U Street in Northwest Washington on Tuesday night, got out and walked over to his waiting girlfriend.

He had a package for her, and he set it on the sidewalk. She hugged him, and he kissed her on her forehead.

But as Patel had his back to the car that was still running, police said, at least one person jumped inside and sped off. The 33-year-old doctor at MedStar Washington Hospital Center chased after the Mercedes, police said, and was run over and killed.

“A nightmare,” said Patel’s girlfriend, Rachel Lincoln, who saw the tragedy as it occurred on the southern edge of Adams Morgan and tearfully recounted her boyfriend’s final moments.

The victim in this case had a promising future ahead of him, one in which he would have helped a lot of other people. His hospital put out a statement on Twitter saying he would be greatly missed.

We are heartbroken to learn of the sudden passing of Dr. Rakesh (Rick) Patel. He served his residency here, had completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases, and was currently training as a Critical Care fellow. Dr. Patel will be greatly missed. https://t.co/Fh9OjCH2gL pic.twitter.com/kDiCURubF6

— MedStar Washington (@MedStarWHC) March 9, 2022

Yesterday, police found Patel’s abandoned car and released what looks like doorbell video of two suspects getting out of the car and walking away as if nothing happened.

It’s hard to tell based on the angle but at least one of those suspects looks like he could be a young teen. We’ll know for certain once they are arrested but at the moment this looks like almost a replay of the killing of Mohammad Anwar last year.

There’s absolutely nothing about this that can be explained as anything other than callous stupidity. A man is dead because a pair of idiots wanted to go on a brief joyride in his car. Earlier this month the NY Times published an article arguing that carjacking has become a fad among teens.

“I honestly believe it’s a game,” Mr. Majeed said. Stolen cars used to be stripped down, with the parts sold for cash, he said. Now people are carjacked, and the cars are often found afterward, crashed or just left on the street. “It’s a game.”…

“The internet just took over,” one 16-year-old boy at E.L. Haynes said. “Everybody tried to go viral, doing stupid stuff.”

The boy, who like other classmates did not want to be named, said that in the early days of the pandemic, he had heard that guys on the street were stealing cars to bring in some money. Then young people started doing it, he said, at first jumping into cars that were left idling and unattended and just driving around. Videos of these rides around the city started showing up on social media.

Before long, “carjacking became a sport,” said one community organizer. “A big bandwagon,” said another.

The fad isn’t going to end so long as the teens responsible are treated with a slap on the wrist because of their age. We’ll have to wait and see if the suspects in this case get anything beyond treatment as juveniles.

Update: DC Mayor Bowser responds to Patel’s death.

A 33 year old doctor was carjacked in Washington, DC.

He was struck and killed by his OWN car.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser says the criminal “probably didn’t intent to kill anybody.” pic.twitter.com/zbVM0g9Grr

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 10, 2022