Arlington County and Metro police are looking for a man who may have brandished a weapon in the Courthouse Metro location. The man is believed to have already left the station.
This information comes from police radio traffic and the incident has not been confirmed.
Update at 4:50 p.m. — Townhall tells us via Twitter that the suspicious package was not in their office.
Earlier: Police have shut down streets around 1901 North Moore Street in Rosslyn due to a suspicious package in the building. The package is reportedly being x-rayed at this time.
Residents at a Lyon Village Civic Association meeting last night were told that Trader Joe’s will only move to the area if Arlington County amends the Clarendon Center site plan to allow reserved parking spots in the building’s parking garage. The retailer is reportedly worried that there may not be enough parking for customers if all the garage’s spots are unrestricted, as the current site plan calls for.
Fisette says he can “fully appreciate the reason for their request.” He says county staff will study existing Trader Joe’s stores to determine parking requirements, and will also study the number of available parking spaces in the area near the Clarendon Center project.
The store is nearly a done deal, we’re told, except for one big hurdle. Trader Joe’s has said it will only move to the space if Arlington County amends the Clarendon Center site plan to allow reserved parking spots in the building’s parking garage.
As the site plan stands right now, the garage will be open to anybody who wants to park there, whether they’re going to a Clarendon Center store or to a restaurant across the street. It’s a provision that the county desired, but Trader Joe’s fears that there won’t be enough parking left for its customers.
Firefighters and paramedics responded to the Virginia Square Metro station this afternoon, after a Metro employee rider had an epileptic seizure and fell onto the trackbed.
Other customers immediately came to the man’s aid and helped him get back up to the platform according to WMATA spokesperson Ron Holzer. An Orange Line train was arriving at the station the time of the incident, but came to a stop before it reached the fallen man. Power to the third rail was turned off shortly after he fell, Holzer said.
The fire department is on the scene at the headquarters of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Virginia Square for a report of strong gas fumes in the parking garage.
Initial reports suggest two people who were in the garage are now being treated after feeling lightheaded.
Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Falls Church was locked down around 9:30 this morning after a jogger told police she saw a man with an assault weapon in the area.
The man was wearing camouflage, a utility belt and a helmet, the woman said. Falls Church police officers searched the school and the neighborhood but did not find anyone matching the description. The scene has since been cleared, according to city spokesperson Hyun June.
(Updated at 10:50 p.m.) Two men in a stolen SUV led Arlington police on a rare car chase into the pedestrian-clogged streets of Old Town Alexandria.
The chase began after a lookout for a dark red SUV was broadcast from an apparent armed robbery that occurred at the Best Western on South Glebe Road around 8:00 p.m. The suspect “implied” a weapon during the robbery, according to Arlington Police spokesperson Crystal Nosal.
The worker fell seven stories, through a glass atrium and into the hotel’s front lobby. No word yet on how the worker fell, but ironwork appears to have been underway on four balconies above the atrium.
A pickup truck from Newington, Va.-based Hallmark Iron Works was parked outside the hotel.
Update at 2:35 a.m. — Command has been transferred from the Arlington to Alexandria Police Department for the night (the two departments have a mutual assistance agreement). Police say the man has stopped communicating with them.
Update at 8:55 a.m. — The standoff has entered its 14th hour.
The purchase caps a “comprehensive site selection process” that lasted about a month and a half longer than originally anticipated. When Northrop CEO Wes Bush and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell announced in April that the company had narrowed its headquarters search down to Northern Virginia, Bush said the process would take about a month.
Amid the media speculation about the headquarters location, two sites were consistently mentioned near the end: the Falls Church site and a building in Ballston. Buildings in Crystal City and Rosslyn were also said to be in the early running. In the end, however, Falls Church won out.
As of 1:45, the HOV lanes and two lanes northbound and southbound I-395 are blocked between Seminary Road and King Street.
First responders from Arlington and Alexandria are on scene, along with Virginia State Police.
