Update at 4:10 p.m. — A suspect has been arrested in the case.
Some 200 people gathered in front of the Capital Jewelers store at 3219 Columbia Pike last night (Wednesday) for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of slain shopkeeper Tommy Wong.
A window washer is clinging to life after plummeting about 7 stories onto the sidewalk while working on a Rosslyn office building.
The incident was detailed in this week’s Arlington County crime report, although it’s not being investigated as a crime. Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said investigators believe the victim forgot to clip in his safety harness. He stepped over an edge, fell, and landed on the sidewalk near the entrance to the offices of WJLA (ABC 7).
Detectives are investigating 10 reports of car break-ins at the mall parking garage yesterday, including five reports of larcenies from auto (items stolen from inside the car) and five reports of attempted larcenies.
Police believe the incidents took place between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Two of the victim vehicles belonged to law enforcement agencies, according to Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck. Sternbeck wasn’t able to confirm which agencies were involved, except to say that the vehicles did not belong to Arlington County. ARLnow.com hears that at least one of the vehicles was an undercover Fairfax County police car.
Authorities have responded to at least four calls over the past few days regarding men spotted around Arlington who fit the description of the suspect and were wearing yellow vests. One such report prompted police to detain and question a man yesterday, as seen in the courtesy photo on the left. It happened around the same time and vicinity as an SUV running into Bangkok 54 on Columbia Pike, but the two incidents were not related. Police determined the man was not the robbery suspect from Friday, and released him at the scene.
Meanwhile, there’s been some speculation by local TV stations that the Columbia Pike robbery may be linked to a similar armed robbery in the District last month. As seen in video run on NBC 4, the gunman in the surveillance video from the June 9 jewelry store robbery in Northwest D.C. is also seen wearing a reflective yellow vest. Police say the two departments are sharing information about the robberies.
(Updated at 6:20 p.m.) An out-of-control SUV struck the front of Bangkok 54 restaurant (2919 Columbia Pike) this afternoon.
The crash happened around 3:45 p.m. Damage to the building appeared to be relatively minor and confined to the front facade of the eatery. The vehicle also nicked a street tree before coming to rest between Bangkok 54 and Maruko Japanese Restaurant. A box of beer could be seen in the back of the SUV.
“I write this piece as a warning to men in the D.C. metro area because I don’t want them making the same mistakes I did,” he writes.
The man wishes to remain anonymous and will not say where he was arrested, but confirmed it was during one of the recent prostitution busts taking place throughout Arlington.
(Updated at 5:25 p.m.) Arlington County police are investigating a deadly armed robbery at a Columbia Pike jewelry store.
The body of a 52-year-old man was found inside Capital Jewelers in the 3200 block of Columbia Pike just before midnight yesterday (Friday). According to police, he was declared dead at the scene from an injury he sustained.
John Reynolds was 24 at the time of his arrest in March 2011. He was accused of hitting a 22-year-old woman with his car while driving drunk on Fairfax Drive, near the Ballston Metro station, on December 30, 2010. Reynolds sped away from the scene of the near-fatal accident, but detectives were able to use debris from his car to track him down and arrest him.
Reynolds — who studied psychology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University — was charged with hit and run and DUI maiming. Following a three-day trial that started on Monday, an Arlington County jury found Reynolds guilty on both charges yesterday (Thursday) afternoon. Today the jury sentenced Reynolds to 4 years and 3 months in prison, plus a $2,500 fine.
His crime: Keeping his Korean cuisine food truck in one Clarendon Courthouse parking spot for longer than the county’s 60-minute limit for mobile food vendors.
“We feel like we’re being treated as a second-class business,” Goree said Friday. “We’re a micro-business, aspiring to be a bigger small business and it seems like that’s something that would be fostered by the community.”
The event sold out about a week ahead of last year’s race day, said race organizer and retired Arlington County Police Capt. Matt Smith. Registration is capped at 5,000 runners.
The race starts at 6 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel in Crystal City (300 Army Navy Drive). Runners can register online for $25 through Aug. 3, $30 from Aug. 4 to Sept. 7 and $35 on race day. Team registration ends on Sept. 1. Proceeds will be donated to charities including the Wounded Warriors Project and Homes For Our Troops.
Police on Thursday identified the man and woman killed in Tuesday’s murder-suicide at the Park Shirlington Apartments on the 4500 block of 31st Street South, near the Fairlington neighborhood.
Xiomara Aracely Benitez, 30, of Arlington was pronounced dead at the scene along with Juan Carlos Mox Mox, 30, of Arlington, according to a press release from the Arlington County Police Department. Police identified Benitez as the victim and Mox Mox as the subject. They were married with two children.
In this week’s Arlington County crime report, items were stolen from a house in the Ballston area after a juvenile house sitter invited friends over.
BURGLARY, 07/22/12, 4100 block of N. 11th Place. On July 22 at 8:54 pm, a male juvenile reported several items missing from the place he was house-sitting. The juvenile had invited friends over and realized once they left that a laptop, camera and money had been taken. Police are investigating.
