Arlington County Police are continuing their crackdown on thefts and robberies in Pentagon City parking garages.
Police have stepped up patrols in the area after a series of armed carjackings and other crimes in shopping center garages. On Saturday evening, those extra patrols may have helped stop a trio of alleged, would-be thieves.
A pair of incidents at Arlington’s two shopping malls led to four arrests and charges against six people.
The first incident happened Wednesday afternoon at the Pentagon City mall. Around 3 p.m., according to Arlington County Police, two juvenile suspects shoplifted from a store and were soon thereafter located by officers at the Pentagon City Metro station. One of the suspects lashed out violently, spitting on and hitting officers, according to police.
A 25-year-old man is in custody after police say he attacked a woman in the Aurora Highlands neighborhood near Pentagon City.
The alleged attack happened around 7:15 p.m. Tuesday at the intersection of 18th Street S. and S. Ives Street.
It’s been another busy few days for police in Pentagon City.
The neighborhood has been the scene of at least three armed carjackings in local parking garages over the past month, in addition to armed robberies and the usual steady flow of thefts from stores at the Pentagon City mall and other local shopping centers.
EFC Metro Closing This Weekend — The Vienna, Dunn Loring and East Falls Church Metro stations will be closed this weekend, “due to preparation for the Summer Platform Improvement Project.” Per Metro: “Customers on Ballston-bound Orange Line trains who are continuing on to West Falls Church should exit the train at Virginia Square for a same platform transfer.” [WMATA]
Pentagon City Armed Robbery Spike — “So far in 2020, there have been five total armed robberies in Pentagon City. Last year, there were seven for the entire year.” In response to the recent string of parking garage carjackings, Pentagon City mall says “we have increased our security presence to ensure a safe and secure environment.” [WJLA]
Arlington County Police are looking for a woman who agreed to give a man a ride but then reportedly robbed him.
Police say an officer was flagged down by the man just after 9:30 p.m. Sunday, on the 2900 block of S. Glebe Road, in the area of the Arlington Ridge Shopping Center.
A pharmacy owner with stores in Arlington and Alexandria has been sentenced to four years behind bars for falsifying insurance claims and illegally dispensing opioids.
Latif Mohamed Chowdhury, 29, was sentenced to prison on Friday after law enforcement accused him of running a get rich quick scheme by billing insurance companies for prescriptions he never filled, and in some cases, were never prescribed by a doctor to the patient. Officials say Chowdhury, who did not have a pharmacy license, dispensed medications and billed insurance companies at his two pharmacies between August 2015 and February 2016 using identities he had stolen from licensed pharmacists.
Officials and activists are asking the county courts to make a newly-proposed mental health jail diversion program more inclusive.
Arlington and Fairfax public defenders joined several advocates during a Thursday evening meeting about the proposal, and urged county officials to broaden the mental illnesses diagnoses accepted in the program and not require plea bargains as a participation requirement.
Arlington prosecutors are pressing charges against a Virginia State Police sergeant accused of accidentally firing a gun and not reporting the incident.
Steven Mittendorff is set to go on trial for the charges in the Arlington Circuit Court on October 10, Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos told ARLnow today (Monday.)
A waitress at the Ballston IHOP restaurant was robbed of cash on a weekday morning this week.
The alleged crime happened around 10:45 a.m. on Tuesday. Police say a man approached the waitress and “stole a billfold containing an undisclosed amount of cash from her hand,” before running off.
Two Arlington men were arrested for separate indecent exposure incidents along Columbia Pike over the past week.
The first happened early Friday morning at the intersection of the Pike and S. Glebe Road, when a man allegedly approached a woman in her vehicle and exposed himself, according to this week’s Arlington County Police Department crime report.
Some officials and residents are asking for more time to review a jail diversion program for people with mental illnesses, saying the county developed it without enough public input.
About a hundred people gathered in the County Board’s meeting room Wednesday afternoon for a meeting called after activists requested a chance to weigh in on the new criminal justice program. Attendees expressed general support for the “Behavioral Health Docket” but worried about its requirement that participants plead guilty to participate, adding that the county needed to listen to more members of the public before finalizing the program.
