The rescue took place in Damascus, Virginia, which was hit hard by flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Helene. It followed announcements of at least caused by Friday’s storms and five voluntary evacuation orders prompted by dangerous flooding in Southwest Virginia.

The Prince William County Swift Water Rescue Team has also performed several water rescues over the past few days, including 19 people rescued on Saturday, alongside rescue teams from Stafford County, according to a news release from the county’s Department of Fire and Rescue.

Arlington County Fire and EMS posted the video on its social media platforms Saturday afternoon. All told, the county’s swift water rescue team has made over 30 rescues since being deployed to Southwest Virginia, the department said.

ACFD’s Type 3 Swiftwater Rescue Team has been involved in multiple rescues while deployed to SW VA, including rescuing 10 civilians and 2 police officers as raging waters surrounded their town. To date, these personnel have made over 30 rescues. Thread to follow

鈥� Arlington Fire & EMS (@ArlingtonVaFD)

The rescue that was partly caught on video happened as the team responded to reports of a person trapped inside their house and multiple other people who were in danger of seeing their houses swept away.

“The only way in or out of the at location was on a bridge with fast moving, debris laden water up to the bottom surface of the bridge but not over it,” the fire department said .

The team used a swift water boat and broke a window to reach the trapped occupant.

Meanwhile, two local sheriff’s deputies were going door to door to urge residents to evacuate due to the rising water and the danger that their homes could be swept away.

The bridge was the only way out of the neighborhood and, at one point, a large shipping container slammed into the bridge and became wedged underneath, the department said.

By the time the crews were ready to cross the bridge with all the evacuated residents and the two deputies, the water was still rising and was, at that point, about 1 to 2 feet over the bridge.

“They watched as a home floated down stream and smashed into the bridge, leaving debris everywhere,” the department said.

According to the fire department’s account, just as the crews were attempting to cross the bridge, a large log became wedged into the bridge “in a position that could pierce the windshield of the vehicle and no doubt injure or kill its occupants.”

Crews were planning to cut up the log with chain saws when it suddenly shifted, and they made the snap decision to cross to rapidly cross the bridge.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin visited Damascus on Saturday to assess storm damage and said his administration is taking the initial steps to request federal disaster relief.

鈥淲e are heartbroken for all Virginians and Americans who have suffered in the wake of Hurricane Helene,” Youngkin said in a statement. “We鈥檙e incredibly proud of our brave first responders from around the Commonwealth who have saved countless lives, and we are deeply grateful to those working tirelessly to restore electricity, communication, and food supplies.”

Nationwide, the storm has been blamed for at least 56 deaths across five states, including 23 people in South Carolina and 11 in Florida. Devastating flooding was reported in North Carolina and Tennessee.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The jury’s verdict came Friday after a weeklong trial in Prince George’s County Circuit Court.

Abdurahman Diaby was acquitted of the most serious charge 鈥� first-degree murder 鈥� in the death of 16-year-old Jayda Medrano-Moore. However, the jury found him guilty of first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and using a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.

Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said Diaby faces up to 55 years in prison on the lesser charges, when he is sentenced later this year.

“He will be off of our streets for decades, we believe, and we look forward to presenting our arguments at the sentencing phase,” Braveboy told reporters during a news conference outside the courthouse after the verdict Friday.

Diaby, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, was tried as an adult.

Authorities said Medrano-Moore was walking near the high school shortly after the school day had dismissed on Sept. 11, 2023, when a fight sparked by a “petty beef” between students of DuVal High School and another school broke out.

During the fight, police said Diaby pulled out a gun and shot Medrano-Moore when she attempted to intervene to protect her brother.

Three additional teens were arrested earlier this year and charged in Medrano-Moore’s killing.

“In no way was Jayda, in any way, the cause of what happened,” Braveboy said. “She was there. She was trying to protect her brother. 鈥� So Jayda was nothing short of a hero that day, and we will continue to seek justice for her.”

Braveboy told reporters she believed her office had a strong case against Diaby and said the Medrano-Moore family was disappointed by the verdict.

“This was a conspiracy. These young people brought weapons to a school, followed other children home, and pulled those weapons out, and an individual is dead,” Braveboy said, adding later, “This was not a close call.”

Braveboy said she had an opportunity to speak with jurors after their split decision.

“I do believe that this was a compromise verdict, not necessarily based on the facts, but based on, more so, their impressions of how young people are these days,” she said.

She added later, “When juries deliberate, they raise issues that sometimes we don’t think that they would raise, and we can’t predict the things that will stick out to them.”

The three other teens charged in Medrano-Moore’s killing are set to go on trial later this year and early next year.

海角精品黑料’s John Domen and Nick Iannelli contributed to this report.聽

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At a trial in late 2022, Officer Terence Sutton, 40, was found guilty of second-degree murder, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice in the death of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown.

At a sentencing hearing Thursday that served as the culmination of fierce legal argument and a parade of character witnesses and victim impact statements, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman sentenced Sutton to 5 and 1/2 years in prison for the murder conviction and four years each for the conspiracy and obstruction convictions, which will be served at the same time as he serves the sentence for murder.

A second officer, Lt. Andrew Zabavsky, 56, who was convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice, was sentenced to a total of four years in prison.

Both officers will remain released from custody pending their appeal, the judge decided.

D.C. police has investigated the incident; discipline for both Sutton and Zabavsky “is currently pending an Adverse Action Hearing” officials confirmed to 海角精品黑料.

“Policing is a very dangerous business. Split-second decisions must be made,” Friedman said before handing down his sentence. However, he disputed the idea that the conviction and sentence in this case means that some police officers will be fearful of doing their jobs in the future.

“If you want to send a message to law enforcement, send a message: You can’t do what Officer Sutton did. And you certainly can’t cover it up,” the judge said.

Hylton-Brown’s death sparked protests in D.C. in the fall of 2020, also amid the fallout from a nationwide reckoning with police violence after the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota.

Ahead of Thursday’s sentencing in U.S. District Court, federal prosecutors were seeking an 18-year prison term for Sutton, arguing he engaged in a dangerous, unauthorized police pursuit that ended with the “gruesome and fatal collision,” and then conspired with Zabavsky to cover up the fact that he had initiated a police chase, while Hylton-Brown “lay unconscious in the street in a pool of his own blood.”

Attorneys for Sutton, who was twice named “officer of the year” and received more than 60 commendations in his 13-year career with the department, said the officer knew Hylton-Brown as a member of a violent street gang and had reason to try to stop him on the night of Oct. 23, 2020.

The defense attorneys disputed that the officer was speeding and said that Sutton’s vehicle was more than 40 feet behind Hylton-Brown at the time of the crash.

Pushback from police on conviction

Some officers have spoken out in support of Sutton, arguing his conviction and other similar cases could negatively impact officers’ ability to do their jobs for fear of legal retribution.

Among those officers is Peter Newsham, who was chief of D.C. police at the time of the deadly police chase. Newsham left that position 2021 and now runs the Prince William County Police Department.

鈥淚 think this is the most unjust thing I have ever seen happen to a police officer in my almost 35-year career in policing,鈥� Newsham said in an emailed statement.

Ahead of the sentencing, Sutton’s defense attorneys submitted 42 letters from current and former members of law enforcement calling for leniency for Sutton.

Among the letters asking for leniency was one from former D.C. officer Michael Fanone, who was attacked by a mob at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In a statement released after the sentence was handed down, the D.C. Police Union called the officers’ sentences a “grave miscarriage of justice” and blamed a “politically motivated prosecution.”

The statement went on to say: “Officer Sutton was convicted on charges of murder despite clear evidence that he did not use any force and was merely performing his duty to apprehend a fleeing suspect, at the direction of an MPD management official.”

Outside the courtroom, defense attorney Michael Hannon questioned the decision of prosecutors within the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. to bring the case in the first place.

In addition to appealing the officers’ convictions, he said they would be seeking a meeting with the U.S. Attorney for D.C., as well as U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to “find out whether they wish to stand behind this case, not so much on behalf of Terence Sutton, but on behalf of the law enforcement officers all over the country,” Hannon said.

How a police chase turned deadly

In October 2020, Hylton-Brown was riding a rental scooter on the sidewalk without a helmet, in violation of traffic rules, in the 400 block of Kennedy Street in the Brightwood neighborhood.

Sutton and Zabavsky, in separate police cars, tried to get him to stop. When Hylton-Brown kept driving, both officers switched on their lights and pursed him for more than three minutes 鈥渢hrough neighborhood streets with pedestrians and other vehicles present,鈥� at times reaching 45 mph, and driving the wrong way on one-way streets and through seven stop signs,聽according to the indictment.

The chase covered 10 blocks. Hylton-Brown was struck by another driver when he drove out of an alley in the 700 block of Kennedy Street. He later died in a hospital.

D.C. police are not allowed to pursue a vehicle if the only reason is to make a traffic stop.

After the crash, prosecutors said Sutton allowed the driver of the crash that struck Hylton-Brown’s scooter to leave within 20 minutes, then turned off their body cameras and tried to come up with a story to cover up what happened.

Neither the Internal Affairs Division nor the department’s Major Crash Unit were contacted, Sutton compromised the integrity of the crash scene by driving over and crushing debris, and an initial police report seemed to misrepresent several key elements, prosecutors said.聽

鈥淭he jury in this case found the defendants guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for their roles in the murder of Karon Hylton-Brown and a related cover up, affirming that what happened here was a serious crime,鈥� said U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves in a statement. 鈥淧ublic safety requires public trust. Crimes like this erode that trust and are a disservice to the community and the thousands of officers who work incredibly hard, within the bounds of the Constitution, to keep us safe.鈥�

Amaala Jones-Bey, mother of a 4-year-old daughter with Hylton-Brown, described him as a loving father and supportive boyfriend.

鈥淎ll of this was cut short because of the reckless police officers who unlawfully chased my lover to his death,鈥� she wrote in a letter to the court.

Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, she thanked the judge for demonstrating what she called an unbiased opinion throughout the trial and sentencing. But she said she was indifferent about the length of the sentence.

“I don’t think any amount of time is going to change anything,” she said.

Hylton-Brown’s mother, Karen Hylton, was arrested after the officers’ trial, accused of yelling, cursing and physically struggling with U.S. Marshals following the verdict.

She was later charged with assault, but she was acquitted in a four-day trial late last year.

海角精品黑料’s Scott Gelman and John Domen and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr., pleaded not guilty Thursday to a bribery charge during an arraignment in U.S. District Court.

White was indicted last week by a federal grand jury, accused of agreeing to accept $156,000 in cash payments from a business owner in exchange for help in renewing their companies鈥� violence-interruption contracts with the D.C. government.

Prosecutors say he was caught on video taking money from the business owner and agreeing to accept more payments.

White, who has represented Ward 8 on the D.C. Council since 2017, was the chairman of the Committee on Recreation, Libraries and Youth Affairs that oversaw some of the District鈥檚 violence-interruption efforts.

The two contracts between the unnamed business owner and the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services were valued at $5.2 million.

Overall, the business owner paid White a total of $35,000 in four meetings between June and August.

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said he plans to remove White as chairman of the council鈥檚 Committee on Recreation, Libraries and Youth Affairs. White would be disqualified from holding public office if he’s convicted.

In a statement released by his campaign Thursday, White indicated he would not step down and would continue his reelection campaign.

“While these charges are serious, I want to assure the people of Ward 8 that my commitment to our community remains unwavering,” White said in the statement. “We have unfinished business to attend to, and it is essential that we continue to work together to advance the initiatives that matter most to our residents.”

Currently on the November ballot for the Council seat is White and Republican primary winner Nate Derenge, alongside write-in candidates Markus Batchelor, Michael Brown, Khadija Long and Olivia Henderson. 海角精品黑料 news partner 7News reported that White attended .

Editor’s Note:An earlier version of this story incorrectly said a jury had found that White had taken cash payments from a business owner in exchange for help in renewing violence-interruption contracts. In fact, a jury has not yet heard the case. A grand jury has indicted White on bribery charges in connection with the allegation he accepted those payments.聽

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Tenants of two housing complexes 鈥� one on W Street in Southeast D.C. and the other on Minnesota Avenue in Northeast D.C. 鈥� lived in conditions that “pose an imminent danger to the health, safety and welfare of tenants,” according to

The two lawsuits, both filed by Schwalb’s office on Aug. 30, allege property owner Ali “Sam” Razjooyan bought up apartment complexes in D.C., severely neglected maintenance, performed unsafe and illegal construction projects and collected “lucrative, guaranteed rents from the District” under the Rapid Re-Housing voucher program, which provides short-term subsidies to D.C. residents experiencing homelessness.

鈥淩azjooyan鈥檚 business model involves forcing tenants to live in deplorable, unsafe, horrific conditions that are shocking to the conscience,鈥� Schwalb said in a statement. 鈥淣o District resident should have to endure such treatment. ”

relates to a 32-unit rent-controlled apartment complex on W Street, which Razjooyan purchased in 2020, according to the lawsuit.

In the suit, the attorney general’s office alleges that conditions have become so bad there that they 鈥渟hock even seasoned housing investigators.”

In December 2020, an entire building was cited by the D.C. Department of Buildings as “unfit for human occupancy” because of a rat infestation.

Beginning in November 2022, investigators with the attorney general’s office visited the property three different times, where they found infestations of mice, roaches and spiders.

“During one inspection, an OAG Investigator observed roaches in nearly every room, saw roaches crawling near her shoes, and experienced a spider dropping on her head,” the lawsuit stated.

During a return visit a few months later, the investigator turned up “substantial dead bugs, a dead rodent, and mouse droppings,” as well as trash accumulating outside the property, according to the lawsuit.

In addition to Razjooyan, the lawsuit names 1644 W Street DE, LLC and Geneva Holding Trust.

聽related to conditions at the Minnesota Commons housing complex on Minnesota Avenue in Northeast D.C.

In that 83-unit complex, made up of 11 residential buildings, most residents have moved out, but about 15 units remain occupied 鈥� mostly by seniors who have lived there for many years, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit said trash is piling up and many exterior doors do not have locks.

“Several doors are completely hanging from the hinges. Every building has broken
windows, and some window frames are empty 鈥� no glass, board, or any other covering,” the lawsuit stated.

Razjooyan is part of corporate group that purchased the property in April 2024. In addition to Razjooyan, the lawsuit names Oscar Portillo Padilla, 4069-4089 Minnesota Ave NE LLC, U.S. Realty LLC, and Elite Residential Services LLC as defendants.

Schwalb said Razjooyan falsely certified that his properties were up to code, and collected up to $19,000 per month from D.C.’s Department of Human Services under the Rapid Re-Housing Program.

Schwalb’s office is asking a judge to order Razjooyan’s companies to make repairs, as well as ordering restitution for residents who were forced to live in the dangerous conditions, penalties for violating the housing code and for a judge to appoint a receiver to make necessary repairs.

A court hearing on the case has been set for Dec. 13.

Source

At 6 a.m., the National Weather Service recorded temperatures hitting 45 at Dulles Airport, 48 at Fort Belvoir and 49 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In Maryland, the weather service said temperatures were recorded as 45 at Fort Meade, 46 in Gaithersburg and 46 in Leonardtown.聽D.C. was 54.

A frost advisory for counties along and west of Interstate 81 ended at 8:36 a.m.

Sunny skies and light winds are expected today.

鈥� NWS Baltimore-Washington (@NWS_BaltWash)

Sunny skies and light winds are expected Monday, the National Weather Service said. 7News First Alert Meteorologist Eileen Whelan expected afternoon highs in the middle to upper 70s, with temperatures warming by a few degrees each day this week.

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Whelan said another clear and cool night is ahead, with low temperatures a few degrees higher than Monday morning.

“We desperately need the rain but no significant rainfall in the forecast over the next seven days,” Whelan said. “Today, after this cool, clear and crisp morning, we will have afternoon highs reach the mid to upper 70s with low humidity.”

Tuesday is expected to bring afternoon high-temperatures in the lower 80s and continued low humidity.

Whelan said quiet weather continues on Wednesday, with sunshine, low humidity and slightly warmer than average highs in the middle 80s.

Another cool morning is expected on Thursday, with temperatures in the 50s (lower 60s in downtown D.C.) giving way to seasonably warm afternoon highs between 80 and 85.

7News First Alert Forecast

TODAY: Sunny. Highs between 75 and 80.
Highs: 75-80
Winds: West 5-10 mph

TONIGHT: Mainly clear. Lows between 48 and 58.
Winds: Light

TUESDAY: Sunny. Highs between 80 and 85.
Winds: West 5 mph

WEDNESDAY: Sunny. Highs between 82 and 87.
Winds: South 5 mph

THURSDAY: Sunny to partly cloudy. Highs between 80 and 85.
Winds: Southeast 5-10 mph

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Emmanual Hart, 28, was arrested Sept. 2 and has been charged with two counts of first-degree theft and 19 counts of second-degree theft. He’s also facing attempted robbery charges after police say he confronted a man outside a restaurant last month and tried to steal his scooter.

According to D.C. police, the series of thefts took place between June 28 and July 27, and targeted a CVS near the corner of 14th Street and P Street and another one a few blocks away at the corner of 17th Street and P Street.

Court documents said Hart repeatedly rushed into the two stores and stuffed hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise, such as Lysol, trash bags and paper towels, into bags in only a few seconds and then left the stores without paying.

All told, he made off with merchandise valued at $7,906.06, according to police.

Separate from the shoplifting, Hart is also being charged in relation to an attempted robbery that took place about 12:15 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 17 outside the Shake Shack on 14th Street, according to court documents.

Hart and another man are accused of trying to steal a man’s scooter as he was sitting on it in front of the restaurant. Hart swung what appeared to be a bottle in a black plastic bag at the man with the scooter and began to “physically tussle” over the scooter, but the other man was able to fight the two assailants off, according to the documents.

Hart made his first appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Sept. 3 and was ordered held without bond. He will next go before a judge on Sept. 16.

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Usman Shahid, who was 18 at the time of the crash, was convicted of two counts of involuntary manslaughter in April in the deaths of 14-year-old Ada Gabriela Martinez Nolasco and 15-year-old Leeyan Hanjia Yan, both students at Oakton High School. A third girl was wounded in the crash.

A four-year sentence was recommended by the jury after Shahid’s conviction, but the sentence still had to be finalized by a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge.

Mother speaks: ‘Tears streaming down my face’

The final sentence handed down Friday came after family members shared their grief in victim impact statements.

Yan’s mother, in a voice raspy with emotion, called her daughter her “greatest masterpiece,” who, on the day of the crash, had gotten permission to eat at a nearby IHOP to celebrate the end of the school year.

In a tragic irony, she said she and her husband bought their house near Oakton High School so their daughter could walk to school.

“Every night when I lie in bed, I have tears streaming down my face,” the mother said. “When I wake up, the pain in my heart is unbearable.”

She said she hasn’t seen remorse from Shahid, an Oakton High School graduate. During her statement, she tried to show the judge printouts from his TikTok account, but the judge placed them under seal.

Convicted driver takes ‘full responsibility’

Shortly before the judge delivered the sentence, Shahid stood up and told the judge he took “full responsibility” for his actions, saying he put the community in danger.

Defense attorney Peter Greenspan told the judge that Shahid had no criminal record and worked multiple jobs.

“He did something an 18-year-old with an ego would do, which was to show off a new used car he got a few days before,” Greenspan said. “He has been punished and continues to be punished. He’s going to carry this with him for the rest of his life.”

The crash happened at Blake Lane and Five Oaks Road, not far from Oakton High School, shortly before noon on June 7, 2022.

Prosecutors said Shahid was driving more than double the speed limit 鈥� accelerating from 60 mph to 81 mph in a 35 mph zone 鈥� when he collided with an SUV that was trying to make a left turn onto Five Oaks Road. Shahid鈥檚 vehicle then careened onto the sidewalk, striking and killing the girls and injuring a third student as all three were walking home from school, according to prosecutors.

Victims’ family facing ‘hell on earth,’ lawyer says

Under the law, the judge was not allowed to give Shahid a longer sentence than the four years recommended by the jury 鈥� but he could have given him a shorter sentence. The judge did not do so, and also added an additional three years of supervised release after Shahid serves his prison sentence.

Demetry Pikrallidas, who represents one of the girls who was killed and the one who survived, said the families respected the jury’s recommended sentence of four years, but wished it had been longer.

“Is there ever enough time? 鈥� We feel it could have been stronger, but we understand that he (Shahid) also had done some decent things in his life that had to be measured,” Pikrallidas told reporters outside the courthouse Friday afternoon. “So there’s no doubt it was a difficult decision for the jury.”

The girl who survived is doing “as well as can be expected, and she’s trying to pick up the pieces and move on with her life,” the lawyer said.

Pikrallidas said the family intends to pursue a lawsuit, but declined to provide specifics.

The aftermath for the victims and their family members has been “catastrophic,” he added.

“There’s no escaping it. There’s nowhere you can go, there’s nowhere you can hide, there’s no one you can talk to, there’s no medicine you can take,” he said. “It’s hell on earth 鈥� that’s what they’re living with.”

The fatal crash led to聽a slew of safety improvements聽along Blake Lane.

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Mamta Kafle Bhatt, 28, a mother and pediatric nurse, vanished on July 31. Her husband, Naresh Bhatt, 37, was arrested Aug. 22 after authorities searched the couple’s home on Heather Court in the Blooms Crossing neighborhood. He has been charged with a felony count of prohibition against concealing a dead body.

The search Thursday was centered in the general area of Blooms Crossing, including the area surrounding Manassas Christian School, Camp Carondelet and a portion of Blooms Park, according to a news release from Manassas Park police.

In a follow-up announcement later Thursday afternoon, Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo said “nothing of evidentiary value” was found after the searches.

Police didn’t specifically say what they’re looking for. The original news release said investigators are looking for “evidence related to the investigation.”

The news release stated, “Detectives developed these areas as locations of interest through methodical review of recently obtained records.”

The search was being carried out with assistance from the Prince William County Police Department Search and Rescue Team.

“We are asking the community to please be patient with us and allow the search teams to
conduct the search,” police said in the news release.

Husband to see quick return to court

Meanwhile, Naresh Bhatt was in court in Prince William County on Thursday for a procedural hearing.

Bhatt waived his right to a grand jury, and his public defender asked the judge to schedule his trial promptly.

Prosecutors opposed setting the trial before the end of the “speedy trial” period. In Virginia, after a court finds probable cause, the trial must begin within five months.

“Setting it sooner handicaps the prosecution’s case,” said Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Sweet. “We need that time to prepare our case, which includes gathering information from outside the courts, and outside the country.”

Sweet told Circuit Court Judge Carroll Weimer Jr. that “we’re trying to stretch this out” to enable prosecutors to build their case.

While it wasn’t discussed in court on Thursday, prosecutors believe Bhatt killed his wife, but at this point, investigators have only recovered what they believe is blood from the master bedroom and bathroom of their home. If prosecutors choose to charge him with killing his wife, in addition to hiding her body, it would require a “no-body murder” prosecution, built largely upon circumstantial evidence.

The next court appearance for Bhatt is scheduled for Sept. 16, in which Judge Weimer will set Bhatt’s trial date.

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Dennis Hinnant Jr., 30, of Silver Spring, was convicted in May of second-degree murder in the killing of Taresha Pendarvis, 28.

The 40-year sentence handed down by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge John Maloney on Tuesday is the maximum penalty in Maryland for second-degree murder.

Hinnant walked into the Rockville City police station on the afternoon of Feb. 1, 2023, holding Pendarvis’ baby and said he wanted to turn himself in connection with a homicide in Silver Spring, according to charging documents in the case.

When police went to Pendarvis’ apartment on Lanier Drive in Silver Spring, they found her dead in the bathtub, according to police. She had been stabbed multiple times and strangled with a belt.

Hinnant told police he and his wife were arguing about their marriage and a potential divorce when the argument “boiled over.”

Pendarvis’ baby was not harmed.

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The two victims were identified as Crimea Malita Baker, 33, of New Market, and Sean Antoine Lange, 34, of Arlington, Virginia, according to the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office.

The children, who were found inside the home by authorities, are all under the age of 13 and were unharmed, the sheriff’s office said. Baker was the mother of all four children inside the home and Lange was the father of one of the children.

Investigators do not believe the shootings were random or that there is any threat to the community.

“This was clearly a rage killing by an angry, enraged person,” Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said at a news conference Tuesday.

Authorities have not released any information about the suspect.

Deputies were called to the home in the 7000 block of Mandalong Court in New Market for a reported shooting around 7 a.m. Sunday, the sheriff said. Once inside, they found the bodies of Baker and Lange lying in bed in an upstairs bedroom with multiple gunshot wounds.

Jenkins said there were 42 rounds fired at the two victims at close range.

Authorities believe the shooting happened around 1:30 a.m., based on the conversation with the children who were inside the home at the time of the shooting.

The sheriff said, based on the conversations with the children, it appears they “hid in the house until morning, until they felt safe to try to figure out what had happened.”

One of the children went upstairs and discovered the bodies in the bedroom, the sheriff said.

The sheriff added, “This was really a heinous, targeted double murder 鈥� a crime of rage and anger,” Jenkins said. “This is the type of crime that shocks the conscience of everyone in Frederick County.”

Source

The man who was killed has been identified as Devin G. Stewart, 23, of Fredericksburg, according to Virginia State Police.

The crash occurred at 7:51 a.m. on I-66 westbound near the Capital Beltway interchange.

Stewart was driving a construction vehicle heading west on I-66 in the regular lanes when he crossed through traffic bollards and onto the I-66 Express Lanes, police said.

His vehicle struck a guardrail, then a jersey wall and then flipped on its side and caught fire.

The flames damaged nearby equipment for the E-ZPass system, according to police. Crews closed off the westbound Express Lanes for several hours to inspect the damage. As of about 3:30 p.m., a small segment of the Express Lanes were still closed but the traffic impact was minimal, the 海角精品黑料 Traffic Center reported.

State police are still investigating the crash.

Below is a map of the area where the crash happened.

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This video is no longer available.

The husband of a missing Manassas Park, Virginia, mother who was last seen more than three weeks ago, has been charged in connection to her disappearance.

Naresh Bhatt, 37, was arrested Thursday morning, hours after being named as a person of interest in the disappearance of his wife, 28-year-old Mamta Kafle Bhatt. He is charged with “Prohibition Against Concealment of Dead Body,” authorities say. The felony charge involves the transport, concealment or alteration of a dead body, .

News cameras from 海角精品黑料’s partners at 7News as a Naresh Bhatt was led away in handcuffs around 11 a.m. Thursday. He is being held without bond and will be arraigned Friday morning in Prince William County’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.

Kafle Bhatt, an immigrant from Nepal who worked as a nurse, was last seen on July 31.

The couple have a 1-year-old daughter, who has been placed in the care of the Department of Social Services, according to a news release from the Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office and the Manassas Park police chief.

Police are still investigating Kafle Bhatt’s disappearance and still hope to locate her. They said there could be additional charges made in the case.

The arrest comes after police obtained a search warrant for the family’s home on Heather Court in the Blooms Crossing neighborhood on Wednesday evening. Authorities have not yet said what evidence they uncovered.

Kafle Bhatt was reported missing on Aug. 5, and the disappearance of the young mother led to an outpouring of community support.

Bandits Sharma-Dahal, an immigration attorney, said she is now working with Kafle Bhatt’s family in Nepal to arrange for her mother to travel from Nepal to care for the couple’s baby.

She said the community has come together to support Kafle Bhatt’s family 鈥� in contrast to the isolation faced by the young mother.

“Mamta was alone. She didn’t have a family member over here,” Sharma-Dahal told 海角精品黑料’s Nick Iannelli.

Sharma-Dahal said she deals with many immigrants who are victims of abuse and they can often struggle with how to get help.

“They feel alone over here, although there are so many systems over here, it’s really hard 鈥� for them to understand,” she said.

Holly Wirth, a former hospital co-worker of Kafle Bhatt, said news of Thursday’s arrest comes as a shock.

“Today, even before the charges came out, was a day of reckoning for me and our supporters to realize that we have to pivot away from necessarily bringing her home safe, to just bringing her home and shifting our efforts to supporting her daughter,” Wirth said. “And I anticipate that’s where the bulk of the work is going to go 鈥� fighting for justice for mom too instead of fighting to rescue her.”

Naresh Bhatt’s arrest just several hours after police named him a person of interest in his wife’s disappearance and that he was not cooperating with officials.

“To this point in the investigation, our investigators have executed over 10 search warrants and conducted hundreds of interviews related to this case,” City of Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo told reporters at a news conference Wednesday night. “My staff continues to work tirelessly and follow up every lead, which we have received hundreds of leads on this case.”

海角精品黑料’s Dick Uliano reported from the Manassas Park neighborhood Wednesday evening.

“Those who I have spoken with have expressed frustration that this has been going on for three weeks,” Uliano said. “They also express disappointment. They feel that the case has demanded, and certainly deserved, a higher degree of visibility than what has been provided.”

Police are asking anyone with information to contact the department at 703-361-1136. Tips can also be submitted anonymously to the Manassas City/Manassas Park Crime Solvers by calling 703-330-0330 or at

海角精品黑料’s Nick Iannelli, Luke Lukert and Dick Uliano contributed to this report.

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D.C. Council member Trayon White, Sr. has been charged with bribery, after federal authorities say he was caught on video receiving thousands of dollars in kickbacks from a business owner seeking help renewing his companies’ violence-interruption contracts with the D.C. government.

In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of D.C. said White agreed to accept a total of $156,000 in cash payments from the business owner in exchange for pressuring D.C. government employees at two different agencies to extend those contracts.

Details of the charges against White, 40, were made public on Monday, the day after his arrest in D.C.

The council member appeared in U.S. District Court on Monday. He was released from custody and forced to surrender his passport. His next court date is Sept. 19.

As a council member, White, who has represented Ward 8 on the D.C. Council since being elected in 2016, was the chairman of a committee that oversaw some of the District’s violence-interruption efforts.

White’s office said they “recognize the seriousness of this matter,” but want to “assure Ward 8 residents” that they will continue to work and serve the public and its constituents as the investigation evolves.

D.C.’s violence interruption efforts involve organizations staffed by community members acting as “credible messengers” who seek to de-escalate neighborhood conflicts.

All told, the two contracts with the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services were valued at $5.2 million. The payments to White represented about 3% of the total contract value, according to prosecutors.

Secret video recordings

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in D.C., says the scheme involving the violence-interruption contracts started in June 2024 when White agreed to meet with the business owner.

In a meeting in the company owner’s car outside White’s apartment building in Southeast D.C., the company owner wanted to know if the contracts would be extended and offered to pay $15,000 for the information, according to the documents.

White replied, “What you need me to do, man? I don’t wanna feel like you gotta gimme something to get something. We better than that,” according to court documents. However, White put the envelope containing the money into his jacket pocket.

From there, the two continued to meet over the summer, as White updated the business owner on his efforts 鈥� and continued to accept envelopes full of cash, according to the documents. Overall, the business owner paid White a total of $35,000 in four meetings between June and August. The meetings were captured on video, the documents say.

The business owner also told authorities he had given White gifts earlier, including trips to the Dominican Republic and Las Vegas as well as a $20,000 bribe for help in 2020 with resolving a contract dispute.

The business owner, who is described in court documents as a confidential informant, agreed to cooperate with the FBI as part of a plea agreement on fraud and bribery charges.

DC Council chairman says he will remove White from committee

Chairman of the D.C. Council Phil Mendelson called the charges “deeply disturbing” and that he planned to remove White as chairman of the council’s Committee on Recreation, Libraries and Youth Affairs until the charges are resolved once the council returns to work on Sept. 17.

Mendelson said he would also be forming an ad hoc committee, under the council’s rules, to “assess the situation and review the evidence against the council member,” saying the judicial process “can be slower than the public’s right to accountable government.”

While the council member is innocent until proven guilty, Mendelson said the allegations “are a gut punch to the public trust in the Council.”

This video is no longer available.

Mayor Muriel Bowser was asked to comment on White’s arrest during back-to-school festivities and said she hadn’t yet been able to look at court documents that lay out the accusations against him.

“I think any time you have an elected official that does something wrong or is accused of doing something wrong, people are going to have a lot of heartburn and serious questions and disappointment and anger and all of those things,” Bowser said. “When I know more, we will definitely say if there’s any impact on government operations.”

White is popular in Ward 8, winning reelection with lopsided margins. In 2020, he was reelected with more than 78% of the vote.

Up for reelection this fall, White won a Democratic primary in June with 51% of the vote.

He courted controversy in 2018 when he posted a video on Facebook embracing an antisemitic conspiracy theory that a wealthy Jewish family controlled the weather.

鈥淚t just started snowing out of nowhere this morning,” White said in a March 2018 video amid a light snowfall in D.C. “Y鈥檃ll better pay attention to this climate control,鈥� White said in the video. 鈥淚t鈥檚 climate manipulation and D.C. keep talking about, 鈥榃e are a resilient city,鈥� and that鈥檚 a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.鈥�

He later apologized for those remarks.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.聽

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The D.C. man who said he shot a 13-year-old boy in self-defense after encountering the teen in his neighborhood last year has been convicted of manslaughter.

The jury acquitted Jason Lewis of a more serious second-degree murder charge.

The verdict came after the jury in D.C. Superior Court spent several hours over two days deliberating the case.

During his weeklong trial, Lewis, a longtime D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation employee, took the stand, arguing he fatally shot Karon Blake in self-defense. Taking the stand in his own defense, Lewis said he feared for his life after encountering Blake and two other teens outside his home on Quincy Street in Northeast D.C. in the early morning hours of Jan. 7, 2023.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of D.C. said Lewis was the aggressor, who fired the first shot after seeing the teens breaking into cars that night and that he introduced deadly force into what amounted to a property crime.

In addition to manslaughter, the jury convicted Lewis of assault with a dangerous weapon and use of a firearm during a crime of violence.

He is set to be sentenced on Oct. 25 and could face a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison.

After the verdict, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. requested that the judge send Lewis 鈥� who had been released on GPS monitoring since shortly after his March 2023 indictment 鈥� to jail as he awaits sentencing. His defense attorney said he should remain on GPS monitoring, citing his lack of a violent criminal history.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Anthony Epstein sided with the defense, saying Lewis could remain on GPS monitoring ahead of sentencing but that he cannot leave the immediate D.C. area.

Jury heard 2 very different stories

In closing arguments Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Shauna Payyappilly told jurors Lewis saw Blake and two other young people breaking into cars in the Northeast D.C. neighborhood in the early morning hours of Jan. 7, 2023, grabbed his gun and went outside to teach them a lesson.

Blake “didn’t deserve to die in someone’s garden, begging for his life,” she told jurors. She added, “You cannot shoot people for property crimes. Full stop.”

When he took the stand, Lewis testified he heard a sound in the middle of the night that sounded like the gate of his patio courtyard being opened. Fearing someone was trying to come inside his home, he said he took his loaded Smith & Wesson handgun to his front patio to investigate. He testified he saw the driver of a car idling in a nearby alley first point a gun at him and then fire a shot Lewis told jurors he fired at the car and then fired two shots at Blake, who was across the street but began running toward him.

Payyappilly, the prosecutor, said Blake was trying to escape the gunfire and ran in the wrong direction.

In doorbell surveillance video footage submitted as evidence in the case, the teen can be heard shouting, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry. No! I’m a kid! I’m only 12,” as the shots ring out.

The jury was shown autopsy photos that prosecutors said indicate the boy was running away from 鈥� not toward Lewis 鈥� when he was shot.

Prosecutors also pointed out the incident was caught on doorbell surveillance camera footage that did not capture any other gunshots besides those fired by Lewis and that Lewis never mentioned seeing a gun or being shot at in his initial statements to police.

Defense attorney Ed Ungvarsky said Lewis, who spent 20 years with the parks department and mentored young people, lived an exemplary life, was peaceful and compassionate and was “not some hothead.”

The defense attorney told jurors, “He’s not a fighter; he’s a conflict resolver.”

He said Lewis’ handgun was registered and he had a concealed carry permit to keep his family safe.

“His goal was to protect his family,” the defense attorney said, describing why Lewis went to his front porch that morning armed with a gun, adding that it wasn’t the job of jurors to “second-guess his decision to keep his family safe.”

海角精品黑料’s Nick Iannelli and Mike Murillo contributed to this report.聽

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