What a week full of news in Alexandria.
With city offices closed due to Veterans Day on Wednesday, there were still a number of big stories.
crime
As you park at home and head inside after getting back from a flea market or cat cafe, maybe check one more time to make sure you’ve locked your car.
At a City Council meeting earlier this week, Mayor Justin Wilson said a spate of recent car thefts have mostly targeted unlocked cars.
It was a historic week in Alexandria.
Alexandrians overwhelmingly helped reelect U.S. Senator Mark Warner and Congressman Don Beyer, and 80% of voters chose Democrat former Vice President Joe Biden for president over incumbent Republican President Donald Trump.
A 34-year-old Washington D.C. man labeled the Beltway Bank Bandit by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, pleaded guilty to three counts of brandishing a firearm during a series of bank and shoe store robberies in and around Alexandria in 2018 and 2019.
Freddie Lee McRae will be sentenced on February 23, 2021, and faces up to life in prison and a mandatory minimum of 21 years in prison. On November 13, 2018, McRrae robbed a Wells Fargo Bank in Alexandria, handed the teller a note and demanded money, indicated that he had a gun and said he would “kill all bankers” if his directions were not followed. He then pointed a handgun at two tellers and ran out of the bank with $8,750, according to prosecutors.
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A 17-year-old is on the run after being charged with stealing a car in the West End in the early morning of Saturday, September 19.
The suspect, who was from out of town visiting friends, was followed for a half mile by the owner of the car, who held him until police arrived, according to a search warrant affidavit.
What an intense week in Alexandria.
Our top story was on the massive power outages that affected tens of thousands of residents on Friday, October 23. Without providing specifics, Dominion Energy told City Council this week that outages in Alexandria and Arlington were “unique,” and caused by a piece of equipment that failed at its Glebe Road substation. City Councilors responded that there have been at least eight outages since May.
The owner of an SUV that crashed into a truck in the West End in August reported that his vehicle was stolen before a hit-and-run.
On the evening of August 13, a passerby reported to police that an unattended silver-colored GMC Acadia crashed into a parked Ford F-150 in the 5700 block of Reading Avenue in the West End.
No one was injured after shots were fired near the Braddock Road metro station on Monday night (October 26), according to the Alexandria Police Department.
The incident occurred at around 9 p.m. in the 700 block of North West Street. The area is near public housing, the Braddock Road Metro station and a number of local businesses.
The Alexandria Police Department is investigating two armed robberies that occurred over the weekend.
At around 8:30 p.m. on Friday, October 23, a male juvenile was robbed of personal belongings in the 3400 block of Mount Vernon Avenue in Del Ray. The victim was not injured and police did not provide information on the suspect or if a weapon was involved.
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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.
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The 60-year-old Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center is in disrepair and underutilized, and over the next six months staff from Arlington and Alexandria will send back recommendations on its future use.
That could mean co-locating mental health and rehabilitative services to the center, or potentially shutting it down altogether.