Officer Fired At After Pulling Over Driver
A Prince George's County police officer was shot at -- but not struck -- Thursday evening moments after he pulled over a car that had several teenagers hanging off the hood, police said yesterday.
Police said the officer, whose name was not released, stopped the green Buick Century in the 200 block of West Mill Avenue in Seat Pleasant about 8 p.m. after seeing the youths on the hood. They said that the youths ran away when they saw the officer and that the driver fled as the officer approached.
The officer caught up to the driver and the pair struggled. A gun fell out of the youth's pants, police said, and he picked it up and fired one shot at the officer.
The officer fired back, but it was unknown yesterday whether he hit the youth, who fled into nearby woods.
Police asked that anyone with information about the case call the department's Crime Solvers unit at 800-673-2777.
VIRGINIA
Teen Pleads Guilty in Fatal Crash
The teenage driver in the March 27 crash that killed two Stone Bridge High School students pleaded guilty Friday to two charges of involuntary manslaughter as well as reckless driving. The teenager, who was 15 at the time of the accident, had been charged as a juvenile in the deaths of Nicholas J. Pendola, 16, and Anthony Cibelli-Mason, 17, both of Ashburn. Pendola and Cibelli-Mason were in the open bed of a pickup truck when it ran into a ditch off a closed road in the Broadlands community.
Commonwealth's Attorney James E. Plowman and the youth's family members worked together to craft a sentence, which among other conditions will require his monthly attendance at driver's license ceremonies. "It is our goal that he'll be able to reach his peers and their parents with a strong message in the hopes that that we might prevent this type of tragedy from happening to another family," Plowman said.
Baby Found Dead; Mother, Man Charged
A 6-month-old baby was found dead in a bathtub at a house in Prince William County yesterday, and the child's mother and her boyfriend were arrested and charged with felony murder and child abuse, county police said.
Police said they went to the house on Prince William Circle in Dumfries about 12:30 p.m. in response to a report about an unconscious person and found the child, who apparently had drowned.
Police said it appeared that the child had been left unattended after being placed in the tub.
Police said that Alison Nicole Spivey, 25, and Stephen Randall Wendell, 34, were being held without bond last night.
U-Va. Marching Band Primed for Debut
The University of Virginia's new marching band is rehearsing for its debut next month.
Director Bill Pease said that the band has practiced only for a week but that members are working well together. The band debuts Sept. 11 at Scott Stadium, for the North Carolina football game.
The audience will see a change this season: The band will do an 11-minute pregame show and a halftime show.
The band got its start when philanthropists Hunter and Carl W. Smith gave the university $1.5 million to create the group. It replaces the Pep Band, which fell into the school's bad graces with a controversial halftime show at the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"If Major League Baseball awards this team to Virginia against all logic, I think there's going to be considerable anger in the District of Columbia . . . and there's no telling what could happen."
-- D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), on the competition
between the District and Virginia to be the new home
of the Montreal Expos. -- Page B1
Compiled from reports by staff writers Clarence Williams, Del Quentin Wilber, Martin Weil, Jamie Stockwell and Lila Arzua and the Associated Press.
