This was a big week for Alexandria.
Our top story this week was the Alexandria School Board’s decision to reopen schools for students with disabilities, while the future reopening of school for elementary, middle and high schoolers remains in doubt.
The Alexandria Courthouse was deep cleaned last weekend after an employee of the General District Court tested positive to COVID-19, according to the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office.
“On Friday October 16, 2020 the Alexandria General District Court was notified that an employee tested positive for COVID-19,” Undersheriff Tim Gleeson of the Judicial and Special Operations Bureau told ALXnow in an email.
It’s the end of a busy week in Alexandria.
Once again, crime and public safety stories were the most read on ALXnow.
The 19-year-old man arrested for the September 30 West End murder of John Harding Pope was released on bond just eight days before Pope was killed.
Tavon Marquis Lanier was arrested Sept. 22 for allegedly breaking into his girlfriend’s apartment, stalking and threatening her and was released on bond by the magistrate’s office.
A 39-year-old Arlington man has been sentenced to 65 years in prison for raping two lifeguards at gunpoint in Alexandria and Fairfax County.
Jesse Bjerke, a former nurse at Inova Alexandria Hospital, pleaded guilty last year to raping a lifeguard at a condominium complex swimming pool in the 200 block of Pickett Street on Labor Day weekend in 2016, as well as raping another woman in Fairfax County on August 1, 2014.
Gov. Ralph Northam and First Lady Test Positive For COVID-19 — “Gov. Ralph Northam and his wife, Pamela, have both tested positive for COVID-19, according to a Sept. 25 news release from the governor’s office.” [Alex Times]
Beyer Says Trump is Taking Dramatic Steps Toward Abolishing Obamacare — “No Supreme Court nominee has ever been confirmed so close to the election. Why are Senate Republicans in such a hurry to break their 2016 promises? They want the Court to side with Trump, strike down the Affordable Care Act, and wreck your healthcare. The case hits in November.” [Twitter]
There will be a candlelight vigil for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Old Town on Thursday night.
Ginsburg passed away at the age of 87 on September 18. She and served on the court for 27 years.
Virginia Tech Announces Advisory Board for Innovation Campus — “The board consists of company leaders along with several tech pioneers. Members include Sanju Bansal, founder and CEO of Hunch Analytics; Dave Calhoun, president and CEO of Boeing; Ted Colbert, executive vice president of Boeing; Joe DeSimone, professor at Stanford University and executive chairman and co-founder of Carbon; Lynne Doughtie, former chairman and CEO of KPMG; Regina Dugan, CEO of Wellcome Leap; Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm; Russ Ramsey, board chair of Greater Washington Partnership; Kathy Warden, CEO, of Northrop Grumman Corporation; Glenn Youngkin, co-chief executive officer of The Carlyle Group.” [Patch]
Beyer: Trump and Republicans Should Feel Same Urgency With COVID-19 as Ginsburg Replacement — “Imagine if Donald Trump and Senate Republicans felt this urgency about responding to a pandemic that has now killed over 200,000 Americans. 4 months ago the House passed a bill to help American families and boost the economy. Mitch McConnell said he didn’t feel any ‘urgency.'” [Twitter]
It was a busy week in Alexandria.
Alexandria Police apprehended the suspect in the city’s only murder this year, and he is currently in the hospital suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Ibrahim Bouaichi, the Maryland man suspected of murdering Karla Elizabeth Dominguez Gonzalez in the West End last week, was released from jail on bond earlier this year while awaiting trial on charges that he attacked and raped her last fall, according to court records.
Gonzalez was shot and killed on July 29 at around 6 a.m. outside her home on S. Greenmount Drive in the West End. Soon after her death, Alexandria Police identified Bouaichi as a suspect and said that he was armed and dangerous.
Sami Bourma doesn’t know what he’s going to do. At 2 p.m. today, the unemployed father of two children and resident at Southern Towers had an eviction hearing at the Alexandria Courthouse.
Two hours prior to that, Bourma and a number of his friends and neighbors stood outside the courthouse in Old Town and, for the second time this month, protested in asking Governor Ralph Northam to cancel evictions.
