Just hours after President Donald Trump’s decision to place Washington DC’s police department under federal control and deploy National Guard troops in the streets, one of ABC News’ biggest stars came forward with a horror story — and it quickly went viral.
In a shocking move, she’s calling on others to wake up to the reality of what’s happening on the streets of DC on a daily basis.
“ABC News Live” anchor Kyra Phillips, who reports out of the network’s Washington D.C. station, revealed a violent encounter she had with a “half-dressed” homeless man who mugged her downtown.
Phillips noted that many in the nation’s capital are experiencing crime “firsthand” despite what official statistics show.
“I can tell you firsthand here in downtown DC where we work, right here around our bureau, just in the past six months, you know, there were two people shot, one person died, literally two blocks down here from the bureau,” Phillips said.
“It was within the last two years that I actually was jumped walking just two blocks down from here,” she revealed.
“And then, just this morning, one of my co-workers said her car was stolen, a block away from the bureau,” Phillips added.
“We can talk about the numbers going down, but crime is happening every single day because we’re all experiencing it firsthand, working and living down here,” Phillips continued.
Phillips later described her encounter with the mugger as “scary as hell,” during a subsequent interview with DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro during the segment.
“So, I was jumped just two blocks here from the ABC bureau. It was not a minor, though,” she told Pirro, noting that “it’s happened to a lot of people in our building, sadly.”
“He was homeless and half-dressed — clearly wasn’t in his clear mind,” Phillips said of her attacker.
Phillips, who is also a former CNN journalist, said she felt her best option was to fight back.
“It was scary as hell, I’m not going to lie, but I fought back. I didn’t see any weapons in his hands. I felt like it was my only choice,” Phillips recalled.
The latest data from DC’s Metropolitan Police Department claims violent crime has dropped 26% in the district so far this year, compared to 2024. Overall crime is down 7% so far, according to MPD.
However, despite the numbers, Trump said that DC has been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.”
The president vowed that his administration is “not going to let it happen anymore,” and will remove homeless encampments from all public places, including parks and underpasses.
Trump also claimed Monday that the numbers were “phony” and promised that Attorney General Pam Bondi will be “looking into that.”
Trump also noted that a DC police commander was suspended last month for allegedly falsifying crime data to make trends appear positive, according to The New York Post.
Pirro, in a recent interview, described DC as an “incredibly violent area” with a crime problem that is so “horrific” that residents have stopped reporting some of it altogether.
“What we’ve got here are people that are not even making complaints about the quality-of-life crimes, whether it’s shoplifting or damaging property or an attempted carjacking,” Pirro said.
“They don’t even call the police,” Pirro continued, arguing that “we’re not even seeing most of the crime that’s occurring.”
The former New York district attorney and Fox News host also argued that the reason Trump’s press conference announcing the DC crime crackdown was “so packed” is because many journalists, like Phillips, have been the victims of crime in the nation’s capital.
“Those reporters in that room — and it was packed to the gills — experience crime themselves,” Pirro said.
And Phillips is one of those reporters who says she’s experienced this all firsthand.
ABC ANCHOR: "Here in Downtown D.C., where we work, right here around our bureau, just in the past 6 months, there were 2 people shot…Literally, 2 blocks away."
"I actually was jumped walking just 2 blocks down from here."
"This morning, my coworker's car was stolen." pic.twitter.com/W32oufHHC7
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 11, 2025