'I want to look him in the face and ask him why?' Family of stabbing victim reacts to suspect arrest
WASHINGTON - A D.C. family is mourning after a 53-year-old man was stabbed to death during a carjacking.
Curtis Barnum was killed Tuesday night at a gas station off of Minnesota Avenue near East Capitol Street in Northeast D.C.
D.C. police have charged 42-year-old Antione Little with Curtis’s murder.
“I just want this to be over with,” said Wendii Burstion, Barnum’s younger sister.
“I just never thought he would go like this. He was a great person.”
On Wednesday night, she and other family members and friends gathered in their neighborhood to remember the 53-year-old husband and father described as a protector and well-loved.
“If anything happened to me, my brother was always there,” Burstion said.
His family says Barnum was a part-time contractor and spent much of his time helping people out who needed it.
“He loved boxing, loved laughing, he was an excellent drawer,” said Burstion. “So for him to be snatched from me like that, I don’t know what to say.”
Barnum was attacked just after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Valero gas station along Minnesota Avenue. His family tells FOX 5 he parked his truck to get food inside.
“When he got in the truck, another gentleman or whoever was there, jumped in the truck and they could see him fighting in the truck,” explained Janice A. Vailes, Barnum’s mother. “And then they pushed his body out of the driver side onto the ground.”
“How do you get so mad at somebody that you stab them in the heart?” asked Burstion. “That’s what happened. And you left my brother kind of to die, and you pulled off.”
People nearby flagged down police and tried to perform CPR on Barnum, but he didn’t survive.
Early on Wednesday, D.C. police say the man seen in surveillance video stabbing Barnum returned to the scene of the crime. Little was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
Police are still searching for his stolen truck. It’s a 2010 white Ford F-150 with front-end damage and Maryland license plate 6DA0780.
Meanwhile, Barnum’s family are still searching for answers.
“The way that it was done, I want to see this killer,” added Vailes. “I want to see him and I want to look him in the face and I want to ask him, ‘What the hell was on your mind when you were stabbing my child?’”
Barnum’s family is also calling on action from Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office. They are asking for the same attention to be paid to this case as was given to the Logan Circle stabbing that happened in late September.