Russell Fred Dunkley III, who records show has been committed to psychiatric facilities 15 times, was found incompetent to stand trial in the 2023 assault in Bloomingdale.
In the years before police charged Russell Fred Dunkley III with beating day-care teachers and committing lewd acts in front of two dozen day-care center toddlers in D.C.'s Bloomingdale neighborhood, he was committed to psychiatric facilities 15 times, records show.
Most of his stays were for days or at most a few weeks, according to court filings. None resulted in convictions or long-term care. This week, authorities again opted to dismiss charges against him and release Dunkley back into the community in a decision that elicited fear and resignation at the Petit Scholars day care.
Superior Court Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier on Thursday agreed with an assessment from the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health that determined Dunkley no longer needs to be held in an institutional setting but is incapable of participating in his own criminal case. He has been found incompetent to stand trial.
"We want him to be successful in the community," Bosier said at the hearing, dismissing Dunkley's charges and ordering him to outpatient care. She turned to a clinical psychologist at St. Elizabeths Hospital, the city-owned psychiatric facility, and said: "He's in your hands."
To La Shada Ham-Campbell, the head of the Northwest branch of Petit Scholars, the outcome appeared to be an inevitable failure of a system that she asserted could not protect her staff and children, nor provide Dunkley the help authorities and doctors say he needs.
"I don't think releasing him back onto the streets at this time is going to benefit anyone, including him," Ham-Campbell said.
Dunkley's attorney, Angela Ramsay, did not respond to an interview request.
Dunkley, 39, will live in a group home, where he will be monitored by doctors and where his medications will be regulated, under the terms of his release. He appeared on video from St. Elizabeths for Thursday's hearing as Bosier reviewed his care team's findings.
"Mr. Dunkley does not appear to have adequate factual understanding of the proceeding against him," doctors with the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health concluded in a report submitted to the court. It said Dunkley "could not recall and define" the charges, and at one point told doctors: "I have no rights."
The assaults in October 2023 stood out in a year that saw a generational spike in violence, for the age of the victims and the challenges it highlighted in officials' efforts to balance caring for those with mental illness and safeguarding District residents from seemingly random attacks in a city already on edge.
Dunkley grew up in Bloomingdale, and he frequented the neighborhood when he had started living on the streets years ago. He had become perceived by some residents as a community menace and for years ricocheted between the streets, mental health facilities, police and jail. Charges related to the day-care center attack had included misdemeanor assault, committing lewd acts and sexual abuse of a minor.
Officials shielded some decision-making in his case from public view, saying they must protect Dunkley's privacy, and some court proceedings dealing with his commitment and care were not open to the public. On Thursday, authorities, citing confidentiality laws, declined to say why they believe Dunkley can successfully be freed.
The decision by doctors at St. Elizabeths Hospital that Dunkley cannot understand the criminal proceedings or participate in his own defense forces criminal charges to be dismissed.
The U.S. attorney's office for D.C. said in court filings that with no pending civil commitment order in place, "no basis exists ... to oppose dismissal of these two criminal cases," referring to the attack on the teachers and a subsequent arrest charging Dunkley with violating a court order barring him from returning to the Bloomingdale area. Prosecutors also said the barring order is no longer enforceable.
"We all know where he is going to go," Ham-Campbell said. "He's going to go where he feels comfortable -- right back to the community with us."
A spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health said she could not comment on a specific case, citing privacy laws. Officials say he can be recommitted to inpatient care if doctors determine it is needed.
The attack on Petit Scholars teachers occurred as the toddlers were being led on their daily walk through Bloomingdale and were stopped near Second and S streets NW to rest on a wall and sing songs. Police said Dunkley approached the group and became enraged after a teacher would not give him money. Court records say he bloodied a teacher's nose, hit another teacher in the head, exposed himself and committed a lewd act.
Two city council members are working on legislation to enable authorities to hold people suffering mental health crises for longer periods, allowing more thorough evaluations, and to revise the civil commitment process. One of those lawmakers, council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), whose district includes Bloomingdale, has kept residents apprised of developments. A spokeswoman for Parker said he was not available to comment; the other council member did not respond to an interview request.
Parker published a public safety update on the platform X warning residents that Dunkley "may soon be back in the community." The judge ruled Thursday that Dunkley was to be moved to the group home Friday morning. They did not disclose the location of the home.
Dunkley's family was also frustrated with how the case proceeded. His sister, who said she had long struggled to help her sibling navigate a system she asserted has repeatedly refused to give him long-term help, spoke publicly about Dunkley's upbringing and his diagnosed schizophrenia in hopes of getting him long-term care. His latest commitment, nearly a year broken by one brief release, was the longest, according to court records. The sister did not respond to interview requests for this article.
The court filing from the city's health department laying out his history says that Dunkley "was consistently diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum illnesses and hospitalized due to severe psychotic symptoms and disorganized behavior." When he was asked simple questions, the report says, Dunkley's "responses were logical, relevant, and coherent." But when asked more open-ended, ambiguous questions, the report says, "he appeared confused and withdrawal, often responded incoherently and nonsensically, and exhibited significant cognitive impairment."
The report says Dunkley is on several medications, though it says that "he reported that he plans to cease taking prescribed psychotropic medications once he is eventually released from any form of confinement."
Ham-Campbell said parents of children she cares for remain traumatized. "We feel safest when he is not in the community," she said, referring to Dunkley.
She said one parent moved their child to another Petit Scholars, to get away from the area. Ham-Campbell said the child witnessed the assaults and the indecent exposure. The mother reported to Ham-Campbell that afterward, the child appeared "more anxious, less sociable, less outgoing, not as happy."
Ham-Campbell said the teachers who were assaulted remain at the same Petit Scholars location, though one may soon move to another site. That teacher did not respond to an interview request.