A D.C. official who was killed in an e-scooter collision last week was not wearing a helmet, D.C. police disclosed Friday. Earlier the same day, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a citywide crackdown on electric bike and scooter safety.
In the most detailed account of the fatal accident to date, D.C. police told City Cast DC that the department’s major crash investigators had determined that Talib Shakir, 50, was riding a privately owned e-scooter westbound on Pennsylvania Avenue SE when he collided with a woman on a ride-share scooter attempting to turn left onto 8th Street SE.
“The impact of the crash caused both scooter operators to lose control of their scooters, throwing both operators forward onto the street,” police said in a statement Friday. “Neither operator was wearing a helmet at the time of the incident.”
Shakir was unconscious and not breathing at the scene, police said, and was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The woman, who police have not identified, was also taken to the hospital, but has since been released.
Investigators have not yet determined how fast either scooter was traveling at the time of the collision, but police said Friday that Shakir’s scooter could reach speeds of up to 55 miles per hour. The D.C. Department of Transportation dictates that electric scooters should not exceed 10 miles per hour. Commercial scooter rental companies like Lime use built-in speed limits, but some private scooters like Shakir’s are capable of much higher speeds.
As director of the mayor’s Office of Returning Citizen Affairs, Shakir helped formerly incarcerated people reenter society. He himself had spent more than 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to fatally shooting a store clerk in D.C. in 1993. He had been released from a psychiatric treatment center just 10 days before the shooting, where he had been sent for killing a cabdriver when he was 15.
But Shakir turned his life around — his criminal record has remained unblemished since 1993 barring a DUI exactly one year before his death, court records show. He participated in the Georgetown Pivot Program, a professional development program for people who have previously been incarcerated, and dedicated much of his time to mentoring young people.
Earlier this year, Shakir published a book titled From Cell Block to City Hall: How Lived Experience Becomes the Most Powerful Policy Tool in America, in which he introduced a five-pillar framework for successful reentry into society after incarceration.
His death was met with an outpouring of support on social media from his loved ones, mentees and top District officials alike, including Bowser and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah.
“Talib made the most of his second chance and dedicated himself to helping others do the same,” Bowser said in a statement posted to social media last week. “He loved to mentor young people and to prove to them that their city believes in them.”
A week after Shakir’s death, Bowser took to social media once again to announce that D.C. police would be focusing more on street safety for e-bikes and e-scooters. In the post, she reminded riders to wear helmets, travel with the flow of traffic and keep it to one rider at a time.
She said the outreach efforts will be citywide, but with a particular focus on the U Street Corridor, Navy Yard and Chinatown neighborhoods.
The fatal collision occurred during a flashpoint for micromobility vehicles in D.C. The District is the largest market in the country for dockless e-scooters, according to the National Association of City Transportation Officials. E-bike and e-scooter company Lime is spending more than $17 million in the District this year, including on a host of new safety initiatives.
Reports of suspects using rented e-bikes and e-scooters to commit crimes have garnered news coverage and drawn online outrage in recent weeks, with D.C. police issuing numerous lookouts for groups of teens fleeing alleged crime scenes on e-vehicles.
Correction: A previous version of this piece said that D.C. law dictates that electric scooters should not exceed 10 miles per hour. It is the D.C. Department of Transportation that dictates that speed limit.