Regional Briefing

Thursday, August 27, 2009

PUBLIC SAFETY

Police Seize Drugs, Cash in Raids

D.C. police have seized about 85 pounds of marijuana and nearly $40,000 in cash this month during raids targeting a suspected drug dealer in Northwest Washington, authorities said.

The seizures were disclosed in court papers filed Wednesday by federal prosecutors seeking the forfeiture of the cash and the man's house in the 5500 block of 14th Street NW.

D.C. police arrested the man, Winston Williams, 49, after seizing 10 pounds of marijuana and $37,825 in the house Aug. 5, prosecutors wrote in court papers.

A few days later, prosecutors said, D.C. police searched storage units in the 6400 block of 16th Street NW that they say belong to Williams. They found 75 pounds of marijuana in buckets and barrels, prosecutors said.

Williams, a citizen of Grenada, is a permanent U.S. resident and is married with three children, court papers say. He has lived in the District for 23 years.

Prosecutors also say that he has not paid income taxes since 2003, court papers say.

Williams, who has been held without bond since being arrested, was indicted Aug. 11 by a federal grand jury on charges of unlawfully possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute it. He has no criminal record, according to court records.

-- Del Quentin Wilber

Man Killed, 1 Injured in Stabbing

D.C. police said two men were stabbed Wednesday, one fatally, in Northwest Washington.

Police said the victims, whom they described as "transgender males," were stabbed about 2:30 p.m. in the 200 block of Q Street NW. Each was taken from the scene by ambulance, and one was pronounced dead at Howard University Hospital, police said.

The man who died was identified Wednesday night as Joshua Mack, 21, of the 7300 block of Clinton Vista Lane in Clinton. The other victim's name was not released.

A police spokesman said it was not clear whether the men were attacked or were in a fight with each other.

-- Paul Duggan

Man Charged in Fairfax Stabbings

A man suspected of stabbing a 68-year-old woman and a 2-year-old girl in a Fairfax County apartment Tuesday was charged Wednesday with two counts of malicious wounding. The victims were in serious but stable condition.

Fairfax police say that Jose F. Argueta, 42, of no fixed address knew the woman and girl and that he stabbed them multiple times in the abdomen in an apartment in the 3400 block of Glen Carlyn Drive near Baileys Crossroads. Police said they did not know why the violence erupted, Officer Tawny Wright said.

An upstairs neighbor heard a commotion and tried to intervene, struggling briefly with Argueta, police said. Argueta ran to an adjacent building, knocked on a door and forced his way into a 55-year-old man's apartment while wielding a knife, police said. The man disarmed and subdued Argueta while his daughter called police, court records say. The two men who struggled with Argueta suffered superficial injuries, police said.

-- Tom Jackman

Vandalized Art Center Gets Grant

A Northeast Washington community nonprofit agency that was vandalized last week has received a $5,000 grant for repairs from the National Endowment for the Arts, said Mary Brown, executive director of Life Pieces to Masterpieces.

The organization uses art and education to teach leadership skills to low-income African American boys and young men from the neighborhood around the Lincoln Heights housing complex.

Last week, some of the boys found that vandals had broken in and smashed windows, overturned furniture, destroyed artwork, splashed paint and scrawled threats on the walls.

-- Susan Kinzie

TRANSPORTATION

Briefcase Prompts Evacuation

Authorities evacuated the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station Wednesday night after a briefcase covered in a white powder was found near a kiosk, officials said.

Metro Transit Police were called to the Ninth and D streets SW entrance of the station about 8 p.m. and deemed the briefcase suspicious, said Cathy Asato, a Metro spokeswoman. Initially, officials allowed trains to use the station while police closed that entrance.

The station, which serves the Orange, Green and Yellow lines, was closed for about an hour and a half as a precaution, and passengers were taken by bus to nearby train stations. The station reopened about 9:45 p.m.

-- Clarence Williams

Closures for Woodfield Rd. Work

Access to and from Rickenbacker Drive at Woodfield Road (Route 124) in Montgomery County will be closed Saturday as part of the $57.3 million widening project along Woodfield Road between Airpark Road and Rosewood Manor Lane in Gaithersburg.

Crews are scheduled to close Rickenbacker Drive from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. The road at the intersection is two feet lower than the new one and would create a safety hazard for drivers. Crews will work this weekend to raise the pavement at the intersection.

Traffic will be directed to Airpark Road and Chennault Way as alternatives to using Rickenbacker; Woodfield will be open to traffic.

-- Ashley Halsey III

EDUCATION

D.C. School Enrollment Climbs

Enrollment in D.C. public schools stood at 40,179 Wednesday, according to Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's office. That's a bump from the 37,000 that officials reported just before the academic year began Monday.

The increase was attributed to a typical amount of late arrivals and an influx in paperwork verifying students' D.C. residency. The number will continue to be a moving target. The District takes its official count in October and hires a CPA to audit the results, making sure that every student counted has proper documentation.

The official count is usually available in March. Rhee and the D.C Council have established 44,681 -- last year's final audited number -- as its projected population for the 2009-10 school year.

-- Bill Turque