Deputy Mayor Robbed at Gunpoint

Victor Reinoso leads the city's Education Department. (Lauren Victoria Burke / Ftwp - Lauren Victoria Burke / Ftwp)

The man in charge of fixing the District's ailing schools might be more focused this week on another troubled aspect of the city -- public safety -- after he was robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight while walking home from the Metro.

Victor Reinoso, the deputy mayor for education, was walking in the 6800 block of Fifth Street NW at 7:25 p.m. Monday when he was held up by two men, police said. One man, wearing a pink shirt, pointed a black and silver handgun at Reinoso and demanded that he drop his briefcase, police said.

The second assailant picked up the briefcase and ordered, "Give me your cellphone," which Reinoso did, according to a police report. The men then told Reinoso to hand over his wallet, and he complied.

Reinoso, 38, was not hurt.

"He was pretty lucky," police Cmdr. Hilton Burton said, noting robberies can end in violence.

Police said the suspects ran toward Piney Branch Road. A witness who saw the mugging gave chase but lost them after about two blocks, according to the police report.

Officers canvassed the area, in the city's Takoma neighborhood, and found Reinoso's briefcase Monday night about eight blocks from where he was robbed. They did not find his cellphone or wallet, which contained his D.C. government ID card, credit cards and about $100.

Reinoso declined to comment on the robbery. He told police the robbers appeared to be teenagers.

Reinoso was chosen by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) as one of the key figures in the administration's takeover of the 55,000-student school system. He heads a staff of about a dozen in the city's Education Department and helped recruit and hire Fenty's nominee for school chancellor, Michelle A. Rhee. Reinoso's confirmation hearing before the D.C. Council is scheduled for today.

He is the third high-level D.C. official to be the victim of a crime in recent weeks.

The purse of D.C. Council member Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7) was snatched from her Range Rover while it was parked June 10 at a gas station at Pennsylvania and Branch avenues in Southeast Washington. That case remains open.

In May, a laptop belonging to D.C. Council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large) was stolen from the John A. Wilson Building during a meeting. A Hyattsville man was arrested in the crime.