Alexandria Police are actively investigating a harrowing incident that occurred earlier this month in a room at the Days Inn/Super 8 hotel at 110 S. Bragg Street in the West End.
On May 8, police responded to a report of a sexual offense against a woman in room 381. Once at the scene, police found a large blood trail outside the hotel room that continued along the third floor.
A 62-year old suspected bank robber at the Alexandria Jail died at Inova Alexandria Hospital after a suicide attempt on May 18, the Sheriff’s Office said in a release.
Christopher Lapp was found unresponsive in his cell at 1:37 a.m., and he later died at 6:32 p.m. that same day. The manner of his death was not released.
School Board vice chair condemns City Council elimination of School Resource Office program — “Without surveying the larger community, they made a decision that frankly their backgrounds don’t qualify them to understand the ramifications of their actions. It’s still puzzling, even after a 2.5-hour exchange by council, what problem council was trying to solve, as the SRO program has not only been highlighted to be a successful partnership, but also there was no evidence to suggest otherwise.” [Alex Times]
Investigative journalist Nick Horrock dies — “Perhaps the best example of his courage came in 1968 when he was trying to expose problems in the prison system. His head shaved, he went undercover as an inmate at the Maryland State Penitentiary. With only the warden and the governor aware of why he was truly there, there was no special protection from either the inmates or the guards. He survived unscathed, he wrote, he won accolades and prizes but he was awash in fear when he was doing it.” [Gazette]
The Alexandria Black History Museum has spent the last year gathering documentation from the unrest throughout the city following the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
The virtual exhibition “Preserving Their Names” opens May 25 and includes pictures and objects from the demonstrations, including banners, face masks and poems.
A 25-year-old Alexandria man is being held without bond in the city jail after allegedly eluding police outside William Ramsay Elementary School in the West End.
The suspect allegedly got into a phone argument with the mother of his child, and then waited for her outside the school building. The mother called police, and two responding police officers found the suspect waiting outside as the school day was ending and parents were picking up kids.
What a week in Alexandria.
Our top story this week is on Gregory Elliott, a special education teacher at T.C. Williams High School. Elliot also goes by the name of “Sugar Bear” for the D.C.-based go-go band Experience Unlimited, and their song “Da’ Butt” from the Spike Lee movie “School Daze” was featured at the Oscars, along with actress Glenn Close dancing to it.
Alexandria Police say that a string of recent smash-and-grab burglaries in the West End are tied to 130 similar incidents throughout the region.
Last month, police investigated five separate incidents that occurred at businesses on S. Pickett Street in the West End on April 23. A juvenile was arrested in connection to the incidents as well as another commercial burglary in Arlington County.
(Updated at 9:10 a.m. on May 13) Virginia State Police have arrested a woman after she allegedly fired a gun outside near the Alexandria Courthouse on King Street. One shot was allegedly fired, and no one was injured in the incident.
The area of King Street between Washington Street and St. Asaph Street was shut down for hours in the late afternoon. A VSP special agent was walking out of his vehicle near the courthouse when he heard the shot.
An Alexandria certified nursing assistant faces multiple charges of identity theft against six residents under her care at Vitality Senior Living in Arlington.
On April 16, the suspect was arrested after allegedly admitting to the Vitality Senior Living executive director that she cashed a fraudulent $1,200 check from a resident in her care.
Details have been released on the 27-year-old man who was arrested for allegedly making bomb threats against Metro, unspecified government buildings and the Alexandria Police Department.
Henock Seyoum Pastoor was arrested by Metro Transit Police last month and charged with threats to bomb or damage buildings or means of transportation. Pastoor allegedly told police that he was “upset with the government of the United States of America and planned to blow up” the Spring Hill Metro station in Fairfax County. He also allegedly told police that he was planning a “terrorist attack on unspecified government buildings and the local Alexandria Police Department Headquarters,” according to a search warrant affidavit.
The Alexandria Police Department honored its fallen officers in an annual wreath laying ceremony on Monday, May 10.
“These individuals who we just recognized did make the ultimate sacrifice,” Alexandria Police Chief Michael Brown said at the city’s Fallen Officers Memorial outside APD headquarters. “In tough times they were there.”
