Kevin Sutherland. (Facebook)
A 24-year-old political strategist was fatally stabbed on a Washington, D.C. Metro train on Saturday in a brazen midday robbery attempt, police said.
Kevin Sutherland, a recent graduate of American University and a former Congressional intern, was randomly attacked on the train at about 12:50 p.m. The stabbing occurred while the train was in the NOMA-Gallaudet Metro Station, police said, which is in the 200 block of Florida Avenue, Northeast.
Police said EMTs “found no signs of life,” when they located Sutherland.
Jasper Spires, 18, has been charged with first-degree murder after he was arrested Monday, police told the Washington Post.
The stabbing is believed to have occurred during an attempted robbery, police told the Post. Sutherland was headed to a Fourth of July gathering with friends.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. The Suspect Was Arrested 2 Days Before the Stabbing
Jasper Spires is suspected in Sutherland’s death. (Metropolitan Police Department)
Homicide detectives obtained an arrest warrant charging 18-year-old Jasper Spires with first-degree murder while armed in Sutherland’s death, police said Sunday afternoon.
He was taken into custody Monday morning.
Spires was arrested on a charge of robbery using force and violence in Northwest Washington on July 2, the Washington Post reports.
According to D.C. police records, Spires, 18, was arrested Thursday on an unrelated charge of robbery using force and violence in Northwest Washington.
Court records show that he was released Friday, July 3, after the charges were reduced to two misdemeanors, simple assault and assault on a police officer. He pleaded not guilty in that case, details of which were not immediately available on Sunday.
Jasper Spires: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
Jasper Spires, 18, has been charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of 24-year-old political strategist Kevin Sutherland on a Washington, D.C., Metro train.
Click here to read more2. Sutherland Worked as a Digital Strategist in D.C.
Kevin Sutherland.(Facebook)
Sutherland was working as a digital strategist for New Blue Interactive in D.C., according to his LinkedIn profile.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the loss of our dear employee and friend Kevin Sutherland,” New Blue Interactive said in a statement on its Facebook page. “We are heartbroken to hear of his passing. Our thoughts and prayers are with his entire family during this difficult time.
Sutherland said on his website, “I am a millennial proudly living and working in our nation’s capital. I’m passionate about politics and technology and have extensive skills in social media, graphic design, web design, video and photography. I’m driven to use these talents to effect political change and improve our world.”
3. He Is Originally From Connecticut & Graduated From American University in 2013
Facebook.
Sutherland grew up in Trumbull, Connecticut, and graduated in 2013 from American University, according to his website.
He was active in student government while at American. Sasha Gilthorpe, the current president of the university’s student government said in a statement:
Kevin Sutherland was truly the best of us. He was incredibly kind. He was utterly and completely devoted to his friends. He used his intelligence and his talents to be a champion for what he believed in. We are all better for knowing Kevin.
4. He Was an Intern for Congressman Jim Himes
Facebook.
Sutherland worked as an intern for Connecticut Congressman Jim Himes twice while in college. Himes posted a tribute to Sutherland on Twitter and changed his profile picture to one of him with his former intern:
Himes told the Washington Post that Sutherland grew up in a family where politics was a major topic of discussion. His father, Douglas Sutherland, was a candidate for state representative last year and has helped organize events for Himes’ campaigns in the past.
“He was really shy but really politically attuned kid,” Himes told the Post. “He was about as gentle a soul as they come.”
Sutherland wrote a letter to his local newspaper, the Trumbull Times, about how he became interested in politics in support of his father’s run for state representative:
My dad and I both got involved in local politics at the grassroots level about 10 years ago, collecting petition signatures door-to-door. For me, that early experience in our neighborhood demonstrated the powerful effect public service can have on people’s lives. It led me to attend American University in Washington D.C. and to focus my career on improving our government. It led my dad, once retired, to continue to become more involved in local issues here in Trumbull.
At all levels, our government has become tragically divisive, polarized and gridlocked. Whenever possible, it is important for us to elect officials who are committed to addressing our problems — not their own political careers or special interests.
5. He Enjoyed Taking Photos in Washington, D.C. & Elsewhere
Sutherland posted a video to YouTube featuring many of the photos he has taken around Washington, D.C. He says on his website that he enjoyed “taking my camera out to photograph the beautiful” D.C. area.
“Whether it was taking photographs of the Lincoln Memorial or U.S. Capitol or at a get-together on a trip with friends, he was so invested in documenting that beauty of life,” his friend, Sarah McBride, told the Washington Post.
Devon Staples: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
Devon Staples, 22, was killed in Calais, Maine, after putting a fireworks mortar on his head and setting it off during a Fourth of July party, police said.
Click here to read more
is a reporter and editor for Heavy.com. Tom was a breaking news reporter at the Connecticut Post and an editor at the Register Citizen and New Haven Register. He can be reached by email at Tom.Cleary@Heavy.com. Follow him on Twitter @tomwcleary.
July 6, 2015 12:30 pm
And such are the wonders of life in a country where diversity and multiculturalism are forced upon the masses to assist the moneyed elites and corporations via their lackey politicians and bureaucrats in an ongoing class war that sends the majority of the national wealth ever-upwards.
for a run-on sentence, it is well said.
Despite the media’s phony narrative, there is a one-sided race war being waged in America, where blacks pray on whites, not the other way around. Federal crime statistics show that whites are NINE TIMES more likely to be victims of black crime than blacks are likely to be victims of white crime, despite blacks being only 13 percent of the population. Blacks commit 50 percent of all murders; in place like New York City and Philidelphia, blacks are responsible for SEVENTY FIVE PERCENT of all murders. Regardless of their screeches of “racism,” white progressives acknowledge this in the way they choose where to live and with whom they associate. How white progressives prevent their heads from exploding due to cognitive dissonance is beyond me.
Before the dullards in dunce caps begin screaming at you for being a racist, let me point out that these problems are all easily solved. My question is, what makes the average US citizen vote? These problems are all caused by the people you put in office, the people you give full control to. Almost every leadership role requires some form of ballot to vote and elect the person for that position. If you don’t like either choice, then how is the ‘lesser of two evils’ a good idea? I’d vote for none, then see how it all pans out. If there are no leaders, then the people can rule themselves as they see fit. Change isn’t instantaneous in these situations, it takes time. Unfortunately, everyone expects someone else to do it for them…then sit back and comment how terrible the world is, have a drink and say “screw it, I might as well not care, either”
If everyone would get their PC-loving heads out of their collective poop-chutes, then maybe things would be better. Racism is only a White thing? Hardly. But, they are the only race condemned for realizing their skin is not the same as others. (Non-White inferiority complex, that’s what it looks like). Those who whine about how hard non-whites have it, yeah, keep it to yourself. That’s racism. Telling everyone that they are different, and should be accepted regardless of their ideologies or beliefs is racism. You cannot be a racist if you do not see race to begin with. People are not transparent-clear, and they do not come from the same place on earth.
Doesn’t matter that a lion and tiger are both cats. Let me see how many mate in nature? Oh, none? Hmmm….well, I guess tigers are racist. So, if a koala bear wants to mate with a grizzly, we should let it happen. Oh, there we go again. That wouldn’t happen, because it is not really animal instinct to intermingle DNA (okay Darwinists let’s not get into it today). Say what you want about the origin of species, but when you don’t see a Silverback impregnating a Macaque (racism alert!) then we can be sure that Humans are all racist, and so bored and complacent in their lives, they stir up trouble for any and all other living creatures! (Remember the Liger, that thing has Down Syndrome. An obvious sign that it was wrong to do it.)
On a separate note, I am hoping that this revelation will not cause the bleeding hearts to go out there and start protesting the animal kingdom for not making hybrid animals more often…
I just have to comment on this – comparing lions and tigers mating to humans of different ethnicities mating is not a valid comparison.
Lions and tigers are different species… black humans, white humans, asian humans, hispanic humans are all the same species and race (yes, I said race, it has been determined that on a genetic level our concept of different human “races” is not real, our DNA is so similar that we cannot be scientifically considered different races.)
Blacks committed 61% of murders in NYC from 2003-2009
And the other murders were committed by Hispanics.
Is this David Alpert from ggw?
Best happen to da Otha man, not da Brotha man. Yall cracka azz fudos get wat yall deserve. aint even nobody tryna worry bout yall fake wonder bread mofos. Y u think racism is good? U bad so U get bad. now u own slaves so get wat commming to ya. Peace
Democrat on Democrat crime
Well, thank God the robber didn’t have a gun or someone could have gotten hurt….
Uh, I mean thank God strict DC gun control laws kept this victim unarmed, or this could have turned into another case of a white racist shooting an innocent black man without justification.
Wait. No ‘Black Murders White In Vicious Knife Attack’ headline?!
WTF?! Heavy, I can’t believe it.
Just kidding, I can…
What did everybody think would happen when Obama, De Blasio, Holder, Sharpton, and most Democrats decided to slime and slander the police a brutal racists, charge them with crimes in places like Ferguson where the officer did NOTHING wrong, and in Baltimore where the police were told by the D.A. to go crack down an the very corner where Mr Gray was. Obama, His minions, and the Democrats have incited the mobs and the crazies, and now we have a massive crime and murder wave across the entire nation. This is like the 70s when it was taking your life in your hands to go onto the subway in NYC, or the Metro in D.C. This past weekend in murder city USA, Chicago, 9 were killed and 50 shot. One of the dead was a 7 year old. That is what Obama and the Democrats have done folks, and its getting worse as they let criminals out of jail and back onto the streets. Obama and the City of San Francisco just let an illegal immigrant out on the streets. An illegal with 7 felon convictions who had been deported 5 times. He was in jail but San Francisco just let him out onto the streets where he immediate murdered a young woman out for a walk with her father. Obama and the Democrats have caused this folks. They have blood on their hands, and its going to get worse. Much much worse.
Worrying about white bodies? Aint nobody got time for that.
That is one cold, dead-eyed black guy. You really can tell by their eyes in many cases. I apply this to various races. Old theories about “criminal faces” were always true. Never turn your back on such people. The victim looked ridiculously cheerful, which may have made him seem like an easy target. Sad.
We’re not supposed to notice any of that. It’s not PC.
See Colin Flaherty’s video about this.
The bitter irony is that this unfortunate young man would have probably argued with anyone who showed any racial bias and would have rejected the statistics that clearly show that young black males between the ages of 16 and 35 commit over 70% of all violent crimes in the nation.
sad
As he was stabbed to death almost forty times by a black career criminal, one has to wonder whether in his last seconds on earth that it ever occurred to Kevin Sutherland that segregation or a gun may have saved his life, or that he would end up being featured on this website as a victim of black-on-white crime.
Killed by Marxism, isn’t this the same guy who attacks whitey whenever he can ? LOL Cultural Enrichment is not as fun as it sound huh ?