A District Briefing item in the June 6 Metro section incorrectly said that a man arrested on a drug charge was a teacher's aide at Community Academy, a charter school in Northeast Washington. Joshua J. Clarke stopped working at the school a year ago, according to a school spokeswoman. Law enforcement officials and court documents said Clarke still worked there, and school officials did not return messages seeking comment prior to the item's publication. Because of incorrect information from the police, a District Briefing item in the June 6 Metro section listed the wrong age for a homicide victim who was found in Northwest Washington. Louis J. Gonsalves was 27, not 21.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
NEEDLE EXCHANGE
House Panel Lifts Ban on Funding
A House subcommittee voted yesterday to lift a funding ban on needle-exchange programs in the District, a move toward allowing the city to use local tax dollars for such programs for the first time in almost a decade.
The Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government removed the prohibition from an appropriations bill governing the city's budget, where it has been attached every year since 1998.
The District has one of the worst rates of HIV-AIDS infection in the country, and intravenous drug users account for a third of new AIDS cases.
COCAINE POSSESSIONCharter Teacher's Aide Charged
A 26-year-old teacher's aide at a charter school in Northeast Washington has been charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
Joshua J. Clarke, who works at Community Academy in Northeast Washington, was arrested Monday near his home in Northwest Washington.
According to charging documents in the case, a confidential informant directed police to Spring and Perry places, where officers found Clarke. Later, at the 3rd Police District station, Clarke handed over more than a dozen plastic baggies found to contain crack cocaine, according to the charging documents.
Clarke, who lives with his grandmother in the 1300 block of Perry Place, appeared in D.C. Superior Court yesterday and was released pending a hearing June 25. Last year, he was fined $1,000 in connection with a 2004 drug charge, and in 2003, in Montgomery Country, he was given a suspended sentence and a term of probation in connection with assault and firearm charges.
-- Henri E. Cauvin
FATAL SHOOTINGNW Man Found Wounded in Head
A man was fatally shot yesterday in Northwest Washington, police said.
Police found Louis J. Gonsalves, 21, at First and M streets about 5 a.m. with a gunshot wound in his head.
Gonsalves, of the 1100 block of First Street NW, was pronounced dead a short time later.
-- Allison Klein
MOUNT PLEASANTPolice Shoot at Car Believed Stolen
A U.S. Park Police officer tried to stop a car in Mount Pleasant about 3:20 p.m. yesterday, but the car didn't stop, and the officer shot at it, police said.
The car left, and it did not appear that the bullet had hit anyone, said Sgt. Robert Lachance, a Park Police spokesman.
He said the officer believed the car was stolen, but Lachance did not say what had prompted the officer to shoot at the car at Park Road and Hiatt Place NW.
A short time later, police arrested two men who they believe had been in the car. Nearby, at 18th Street and Park Road, officers found the car, a 1997 green Honda Accord.
As of last night, the men were being interviewed by investigators and had not been charged with a crime, Lachance said.
-- Allison Klein
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