An Arlington County police car in Clarendon (file photo)
A man has been arrested after allegedly robbing a gun store in Clarendon.
Police say the 22-year-old man, of an unknown address, stole a gun and ammunition from the store on the 2600 block of Wilson Blvd, which corresponds with the address of Nova Armory.
From an Arlington County Police Department crime report:
ROBBERY, 2023-03020128, 2600 block of Wilson Boulevard. At approximately 1:34 p.m. on March 2, police were dispatched to the report of an armed robbery. Upon arrival, it was determined the suspect entered the business wearing a ski mask and was asked by store employees to remove it but did not comply with their requests. The suspect then allegedly selected a firearm and ammunition and began to exit the store. Employees tried to stop him, during which the suspect attempted to strike one of the employees before fleeing the scene with the stolen items. The suspect boarded a Metro Transit bus and responding officers stopped the bus, located the suspect on board and took him into custody. During a search of his belongings, officers recovered the stolen firearm and ammunition. [The suspect], 22, of an unknown address was arrested and charged with Robbery and Prohibition of Wearing of Masks in Certain Places. He has held without bond.
The robbery suspect has the same name as a man who charged the suspect in the shooting death of his twin brother in a Pittsburgh courtroom last year.
In December, a man in his early 20s tried unsuccessfully to steal a gun from Nova Armory. The gun was recovered after the store manager chased him down, but the suspect managed to get away.
The Helix, part of Amazon’s HQ2 Phase Two development at the PenPlace site (photo courtesy Amazon)
The Helix, part of Amazon’s HQ2 Phase Two development, as seen from the Mount Vernon Trail (courtesy Amazon)
The Helix and all three office buildings, viewed from the south (via Arlington County)
(Updated at 3 p.m.) Amazon is putting the second phase of its second headquarters in Arlington on pause, Bloomberg and various other business news outlets are reporting.
“The construction moratorium will delay the online retailer’s full arrival at its biggest real estate project, and could create headaches for local developers, as well as construction and service workers banking on Amazon’s rapid expansion,” Bloomberg first reported.
It is a move that is not totally unexpected but yet will have significant local economic ramifications. Phase 2 of HQ2, approved by the Arlington County Board in April 2022, would have come with hundreds if not thousands of construction jobs, nearly 3 million square feet of office space, and the futuristic, nature-inspired Helix building.
That’s not to mention possible impacts on some of the development in the area spurred by Amazon’s arrival.
Amazon is still on track to complete the first HQ2 phase in Pentagon City this summer and told the Washington Business Journal that it still plans to eventually hire some 25,000 workers for its Arlington presence.
Thus far, this move is being described as a “pause” and not a cancellation. Amazon still plans to apply for permits associated with the project’s second phase, on what’s known as the PenPlace site, according to the Business Journal.
Amazon recently announced that it would be bringing most employees back to the office at least three days per week, after three years of working from home during the pandemic. Some employees, including those who work on national security-related business lines, have been working out of rented office space in Crystal City during that time.
Earlier this year, Amazon announced plans to lay off more than 18,000 employees across the company. It also paused work on office construction projects in Nashville and in the Seattle area.
Arlington County issued the following statement about Amazon’s decision today.
Arlington County values the ongoing partnership with Amazon throughout the creation of its second headquarters – HQ2 has always been a multi-year project, and it continues to be a long-term commitment to Arlington and Virginia. We’re confident Amazon remains committed to the second phase of the project — PenPlace — and its benefits to the community, including affordable housing and the exciting partnership with Arlington Public Schools for the Community High School. We remain committed to working with Amazon in the years ahead, and look forward to the opening of phase one — Met Park — later this year.
At a virtual press conference this afternoon, County Board Chair Christian Dorsey said the HQ2 delay is “not exactly surprising” and “makes sense” given economic conditions and post-pandemic work patterns.
“It really doesn’t concern me, in fact i’m quite understanding,” Dorsey said. “Every [organization], from every sector, is thinking of its long term plans in a new light.”
“We’re going to ultimately see all of the benefits that we envisioned at the beginning, it’s just going to take longer,” Dorsey said, confidently predicting that the second HQ2 phase will still get built. “There’s no indication that I have that as Amazon expands, a central piece of that won’t be HQ2 and Arlington.”
ART buses move through the Quincy site in the Virginia Square neighborhood (via BVSCA)
ART buses move through the Quincy site in the Virginia Square neighborhood (via BVSCA)
Aerial view of the temporary Arlington Transit (ART) bus facility at 1425 N. Quincy Street (via Google Maps)
The southern edge of the Quincy site parking lot and the fencing and landscaping separating it from some homes, shown in 2019 (via Google Maps)
(Updated at 11 a.m.) Arlington County is suing three residents and the Ballston-Virginia Square Civic Association over their attempt to stop buses from being parked near their homes.
The county charges that they used the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) process improperly to prevent the approval of a special use permit to allow 29 Arlington Transit (ART) buses to park on a county lot across the street from Washington-Liberty High School while a new ART bus facility is built in Green Valley.
The county says the BZA doesn’t have the authority to hear their case and, without an allegation of harm or potential harm not shared by their neighbors, the residents are not “aggrieved parties” and are thus improperly using the appeal process to block the county’s plans.
“The Applicants sought their appeals simply as a way to undermine the County Board’s authority and to prevent the County Board from approving a special exception use permit for the Subject Property, thereby weaponizing the stay required by Va. Code… and in effect usurping the legislative power of the County Board,” per the lawsuit.
But the residents, who live in two of the five homes on a ridge overlooking the parking lot, argue the county is suing them preemptively while running afoul of its own zoning ordinances. Further, they say the bus activity will seriously undercut their property values and quality of life and suggest the county should buy their homes.
The lawsuit says that one resident’s BZA appeal asked the body to “compel the County Board to purchase some of the Applicant’s properties.”
Both the county and the residents declined to comment to ARLnow on the ongoing lawsuit, set for a hearing in Arlington County Circuit Court later this month.
Arlington County bought the largely industrial site, also known as the Buck site after its previous owner, in 2015 for $30 million to serve a variety of needs.
Arlington Public Schools parked “white fleet” vans there and, as part of an agreement in 2022, the county moved the vans from a part of the site zoned for “light industrial” uses to another zoned for “mixed use,” and park the ART buses in the “light industrial” zone.
This violates an ordinance, a site plan and a deed of covenant governing the property dating to 1985, the civic association alleged in a letter to the County Board in May 2022. The letter says county staff made procedural and substantive missteps that should have invalidated the county’s special use permit application and subsequent action to abandon the right-of-way of a former street on the site.
The civic association alleges that this change came after the county already violated zoning ordinances related to parking and landscaping by conducting motorcycle maneuvering training and storing dumpsters in parking areas while, in landscaped areas, letting trees die and English ivy take over.
As for the new use, they say the noise is unbearable, emissions from the Compressed Natural Gas-powered buses are “toxic,” and vibrations shake nearby homes — leading to their properties becoming “unmarketable” and “uninhabitable.” The BVSCA posted the following video of an ART parking exercise on the site last year.
Residents say the county’s real estate office proposed reducing their property assessments by up to $190,000 and heard from four realtors who say they’d be reluctant to list these properties.
No School Board Candidate Kickoffs — “Voters hoping to get a jump-start on evaluating the three Democrats vying for Arlington School Board will have to wait a month. None of the three – Angelo Cocchiaro, Erin Freas-Smith and Miranda Turner – delivered kickoff remarks at the March 1 Arlington County Democratic Committee meeting. Cocchiaro had planned to, but contracted COVID, party chair Steve Baker told the assembled rank-and-file. Kickoffs can be expected at the April meeting, sending the race into a five-week sprint before voting in the Democratic caucus takes place.” [Gazette Leader]
County Mulls Future of Libraries — “With its newly renovated Courthouse library branch scheduled to open later this month and firm plans in place for a new full-service library to open in Crystal City in 2025, Arlington County now wants to take a look at the overall direction and vision of the county library system that could guide the library’s growth over the next few decades.” [Patch]
Honor for Deputy Fire Chief — “Tiffanye Wesley, Deputy Fire Chief of the Arlington County Fire Department, has been accepted into the Fire Service Executive Development Institute of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Deputy Chief Wesley competed with new fire chiefs and chief officers from across the country and Canada to become a member of the 2023 cohort program… It was created and implemented by the IAFC to provide new and aspiring fire chiefs the tools they need to have successful and productive tenures.” [Arlington County]
ISP Keeps But Downsizes Local Office — “Allied Telecom Group, an internet service provider, has renewed a 15,000-square-foot lease at 1400 Crystal Drive, a 308,000-square-foot office building in Arlington, Va., Commercial Observer has learned. The company, which has been at the property for nearly 10 years, downsized its space by 10,000 square feet.” [Commercial Observer]
Stomach Bug Poses Threat — “Public health officials are monitoring an increase in extensively drug-resistant Shigella infections that can cause severe bouts with inflammatory diarrhea. The bacteria is easily spread, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is asking health care providers in Virginia and other states to report cases to local or state health departments. The stomach bug, which causes the diarrheal condition known as shigellosis, poses a ‘serious public health threat,’ the CDC said in a public health alert.” [Patch]
It’s Friday — Rain and gusty wind throughout the day. High of 55 and low of 38. Sunrise at 6:39 am and sunset at 6:04 pm. [Weather.gov]
Overturned vehicle on ramp from N. Glebe Road to Military Road (staff photo)
Overturned vehicle on ramp from N. Glebe Road to Military Road (staff photo)
Overturned vehicle on ramp from N. Glebe Road to Military Road (staff photo)
Overturned vehicle on ramp from N. Glebe Road to Military Road (staff photo)
Overturned vehicle on ramp from N. Glebe Road to Military Road (staff photo)
A driver ran off the road and into the woods along the ramp from N. Glebe Road to Military Road during this evening’s commute.
The crash was reported shortly after 5:15 p.m., just up the hill from Chain Bridge. The driver and lone occupant of the vehicle, which ended up on its side, was reportedly able to crawl out.
The ramp is expected to remain closed pending the vehicle being removed from the woodline.
A yard in the Forest Glen neighborhood in October 2016 (file photo)
One person’s weed is another’s protected native species.
Arlington naturalists argue that local ordinances do not distinguish the two, leaving neighbors who have certain native species that can be mistaken for weeds in their gardens prone to visits from the county’s code enforcement division.
“We’re sending incredibly mixed messages,” Caroline Haynes, a member of the Arlington County Forestry and Natural Resources Commission, told the Arlington County Board last Tuesday.
She and two other citizen commissions representatives asked the County Board to adopt wording to protect people from complaints that their gardens are unruly. FRNC Chair Phil Klingelhofer says the current language, which focuses on the height of weeds, dates back to the 1950s.
“Those who wish to plant native plants and thereby bring the benefits we all know come from that planting structure are disadvantaged by this holdover from a different era,” Klingelhofer said.
This hit close to home for County Board member Takis Karantonis, who received a visit from code enforcement over a Virginia thistle he let grow to six feet tall.
“[The thistle] made a difference in the environment, but for some people, this was really offensive to their aesthetics,” he said.
This discussion arose during Board deliberations about approving technical changes to the ordinance intended to strengthen the county’s ability to enforce violations such as weeds on commercial properties. Rather than address the issue on Tuesday, the County Board decided to move defining weeds to an ongoing update to the Forestry and Natural Resources Master Plan.
But Haynes said Arlington has punted on defining what a weed is for long enough.
“I would just like to acknowledge that while we’ve been wringing our hands about this for the past 10-15 years, other jurisdictions have also adopted policies that promote native landscaping and conservation landscaping and have also managed to update their ordinance,” Haynes said. “Arlington hasn’t been able to do that. How difficult can this possibly be?”
Representatives from code enforcement said the division is out of its depth.
“We are a bunch of architects and engineers and public safety professionals. We don’t know anything about weeds, vegetation or what have you. What resources do I have to determine if it’s a [native] species?” said Inspection Services Director Shahriar Amiri during the meeting. “We are not horticulturalists.”
Ultimately, the County Board decided to approve the technical changes adding in wording about weeds. The newly adopted changes are aimed at holding commercial property owners accountable for cutting grass and weeds and maintaining lawns. County staff requested the changes to provide relief to the code enforcement division, which has recently struggled to get some landowners to maintain their properties.
County Board Vice-Chair Libby Garvey made assurances she will bring up the issue this summer if it is not addressed through the Forestry and Natural Resources Plan update. Arlington County projects a final draft, responding to public comments gathered late last summer, will be released and reviewed by citizens commissions and the County Board this spring.
“How many master plans do we need to adopt before this issue is addressed?” Klingelhofer asked.
Karantonis echoed their sense of urgency, predicting more people will choose natural landscaping for its benefits, including flood mitigation.
“The number of complaints… is a function of how many of these landscapes exist,” he said. “The moment they become prevalent — I have seen it with my own eyes — there is controversy in the community. Some people think their property values are affected by that, the general appearance of the street, the general appearance of their neighborhood — the character of the neighborhood, from a different point of view.
View of embankments along the Virginia side of the Potomac, as seen from the Chain Bridge (staff photo)
View of embankments along the Virginia side of the Potomac, as seen from the D.C. palisades (staff photo)
The northbound lanes of the GW Parkway will be closed this Sunday between Spout Run in Arlington and Chain Bridge Road in McLean.
The closure, from about 6 a.m.-4 p.m., is for the removal of “an abandoned vehicle that is below the road near the Potomac River.”
From the National Park Service:
On Sunday, March 5, 2023, the National Park Service (NPS) will close both northbound lanes of the George Washington Memorial Parkway to remove an abandoned vehicle that is below the road near the Potomac River. The NPS expects to close the lanes between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. from Spout Run Parkway to Chain Bridge Road, VA 123. The southbound lanes will remain open. The NPS will also temporarily close parts of the Potomac Heritage Trail near the vehicle for up to half an hour at a time while the work is happening.
The abandoned vehicle is located below the parkway next to the Potomac River near Donaldson Run. The car left the road during a snowstorm in January of 2022. The driver sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
The crash and rescue happened during snowy conditions on Jan. 3, 2022.
“The driver — the only occupant of the vehicle — was trapped inside the car and suspended upside down, with a broken arm and leg, according to initial reports,” ARLnow reported at the time. “After being extricated from the vehicle, the man is now being brought to a waiting ambulance at Columbia Island Marina via D.C. fire boat.”
This is not the first time in recent memory such a closure of the Parkway has been planned. Indeed, drivers have been running down the Parkway’s steep embankments with some regularity, posing logistical challenges for the Park Service.
In March 2021, a portion of the GW Parkway was closed over the weekend as crews remove two vehicles that ran down embankments and crashed near the river.
Other such crashes since the start of 2021 include:
Jan. 12, 2021: Two people rescued after a crash in which two vehicles careened off the Parkway near I-395 and ended up in the Potomac.
Oct. 20, 2021: A driver was rescued but suffered serious injuries after their car careened off the northbound lanes and into a thick patch of woods, just north of Spout Run
Nov. 17, 2022: One person died and another survived after driving into the Potomac near Columbia Island Marina on a particularly cold fall night
The northern portion of the Parkway, where many of the crashes have taken place, is in line for a significant rehabilitation project. As we previously reported:
For the first time since it was built in the early 1960s, the northern section of the GW Parkway will be getting a major overhaul.
The National Park Service announced yesterday that it had awarded a $161 million contract to rehabilitate the Parkway from Spout Run in Arlington to the Capital Beltway in McLean. After a design process in 2022, construction is expected to take place between 2023 and 2025.
Drivers are being cautioned that there will be traffic impacts during construction.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) touted the project in a statement, saying such work is overdue. This stretch of the Parkway has had to close at least three times over the past seven years due to sinkholes.
The Park Service, in today’s press release, noted that the Parkway has turned into a major commuter and travel artery, after first being envisioned as a scenic parkway.
The George Washington Memorial Parkway is a scenic roadway and memorial to the first president of the United States. When the NPS completed the northern part of the parkway in 1962, the NPS used the most up-to-date road engineering methods by integrating a wide, gently curving roadway with a grassy median, low stone guide walls and soaring steel-and-concrete arched bridges. Today the George Washington Memorial Parkway facilitates travel for more than 33 million vehicles per year, with the northern section seeing the heaviest traffic of about 85,000 daily users.
As a critical link in the national capital region’s transportation network, closing the parkway is never a decision the NPS makes lightly.
Virginia State Capitol on Feb. 1, 2023 (staff photo)
(Updated at 4 p.m.) There seems to be bipartisan agreement among state lawmakers about at least one issue: something must be done about the popping and roaring of noisy mufflers.
On Saturday (Feb. 25), the Virginia General Assembly adjourned its 2023 winter legislative session, which some say has been too short to get vital work done. These bills will now head to Gov. Glenn Youngkin to review before March 27.
With Republicans controlling the House of Delegates and Democrats the Senate, Arlington’s all-Democratic representation introduced a laundry list of bills that failed. These ranged from one permitting same-sex marriage to increasingguncontrol and leveling the playing field for online news outlets like ARLnow.
Those seeking relief from cars with loud exhausts fell short of a total victory, but both the Virginia House of Delegates and the State Senate passed a version of Sen. Adam Ebbin’s bill, SB 1085, that would study the issue.
His original bill would have prohibited the sale and use of aftermarket mufflers. Now, the legislature is directing the Department of Transportation to “convene a workgroup of specified stakeholders to examine the issue of vehicle noise in the Commonwealth and to report its findings and recommendations” to the chairs of each chamber’s transportation committee by Nov. 1.
His bill follows up on last year’s reversal of a 2021 law that prevented police from pulling over drivers just for having an excessively loud exhaust system. The original law was intended to reduce pretextual traffic stops and racial disparities but might have contributed to an uptick in noise complaints.
Of all the bills filed by local legislators that ARLnow highlighted at the start of the 2023 legislative session, this was the only one to pass.
However, a slew of bills from other lawmakers did make it through, including a few notable ones listed below.
Crime
HB 1583 (Del. “Rip” Sullivan) makes it illegal to use drones to spy on someone, regardless of where that device is located.
HB 1590 (Sullivan) modernizes a harassing phone call statute that used to apply only to telephones and pagers. Now, it would be a misdemeanor to annoy or delay emergency personnel trying to do their job by causing any device to ring or signal an alert repeatedly.
SB 887 (Sen. Barbara Favola) requires out-of-cell programs and congregant activities for four hours a day for people in solitary confinement at the state prison, unless there is a lockdown. People in solitary confinement must receive physical and mental health evaluations and there has to be a publicly available process for restoring people to the general prison population.
Consumer protection
HB 1857 (Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker) is intended to prevent resellers from misleading ticket buyers by prohibiting them from making their website look similar to a ticket operator’s website. It also prohibits the display of trademarked or copyrighted information from an operator or a primary ticket provider without their consent.
SB 871 (Favola) would make it illegal for car manufacturers, factories and distributors to threaten to take away incentives from buyers or the right to participate in incentive programs.
The post office on S. Glebe Road (via Google Maps)
Since last fall, residents in the 22204 zip code, which includes a large swath of south Arlington around Columbia Pike, say they’ve been getting their mail two to three times a week or not at all.
“Our mail delivery in 22204 had been irregular, sporadic or often non existent for past 5 or so years,” writes resident Nancy Miller. “Frustration abounds! Meanwhile in other Zip Codes in Arlington, mail delivery has not been a problem.”
While this wave of complaints started last fall, Douglas Park neighborhood in particular has had a history of spotty service. Problems back in 2015 are the same problems the neighborhood has today: staffing and topography. Many of the residents who spoke with ARLnow for this story live in that area.
There have been reports of “perennially” bad service in the Ballston and Virginia Square neighborhoods as well, supposedly because it is considered a training route.
“U.S. Mail delivery is in crisis in Douglas Park, after many years of inconsistent service,” resident Rebecca Kraft says.
The issue can, in part, be chalked up to staffing, says Aaron Fritschner, Deputy Chief of Staff for Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who has been engaging with residents about the mail issue for a number of years.
“The main issues leadership at Arlington branches have raised to us recently are hiring and retention,” he said. “They specifically point to losing workforce to private competitors because of differences in pay and benefits. Rep. Beyer cosponsored legislation to boost recruitment and retention for this reason.”
Recruitment and retention might be expected to be a more widespread problem, resulting in mail delivery issues in other neighborhoods, but the complaints ARLnow has seen online were mainly concentrated in certain neighborhoods within the 22204 zip code and at the post office at 1210 S. Glebe Road.
The intractable problem has to do with topography, according to Douglas Park resident Thomas Schaad. The last house on a hilly, residential route with few businesses and apartment buildings, he said when they did receive mail, it was late in the evening.
“The postmaster basically told us the routes are antiquated in terms of how they’re laid out, but they can’t be changed,” Schaad said. “As a result there are some routes that are good, and others that are considered ‘bad,’ the ones nobody wants.”
Another neighbor, who just wanted to be referred to as Molly, said “we’re pretty much chopped liver.”
Mail carriers bid for their routes based on seniority, and the more difficult routes, with more houses or hills or walking, are typically assigned last. Improving the routes requires a study with recommendations, which may happen but likely not until the end of this year, depending on funding. A study was planned for 2020 but got axed due to Covid.
“Until the last two weeks, when it improved to daily delivery, we were getting someone who had completed their route and had come back and been told to finish this route,” Schaad said. “During the Christmas holiday season, they couldn’t hire anyone… the employment pool was being absorbed for the holiday rush by private entities, and the post office suffered in terms of hiring.”
A balloon “S,” attached to a “G” (not pictured), floats away after a confrontation with an angry pedestrian along Wilson Blvd. in Ballston. Sweetgreen recently reopened after a remodel (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
New County Board Candidate — Updated at 7:45 a.m. — “The March 1 Arlington County Democratic Committee meeting brought a sixth candidate for County Board into the mix. Susan Cunningham launched her bid for the Democratic nomination, saying she would provide common-sense leadership. She also attacked the county government’s Missing Middle housing proposal as ill-conceived and not fleshed out.” [Gazette Leader]
Marymount Donation for Renovation — “Marymount University said it plans to renovate a historic building that’s sat empty in recent years into a new campus center… A $2.8 million gift from the Reinsch Pierce Family Foundation is fully funding the new, 6,240-square-foot Reinsch Pierce Family Campus Hub, a university spokesman said. It will house a Barnes & Noble student bookstore, a “spirit shop” with university merchandise, Lola’s Café and space for faculty, students and visitors.” [Washington Business Journal]
GMU Construction on Pace — “Construction continues on a centerpiece building for George Mason University’s Arlington campus in Virginia Square. Hundreds of Clark Construction workers and subcontractors are toiling away and progress is being made on ‘Fuse,’ the name of the 345,000-square-foot building that will provide a home for both university programs and private-sector partners. The building, located along North Fairfax Drive, is set for topping-out around September, with industry tenants moving in beginning in the summer of 2024 and the university starting to occupy its space the following spring.” [Gazette Leader]
Arlington Resident’s Cancer Battle — “Sarah Zoeller has spent the past 18 months treasuring every day while at the same time eagerly looking forward to starting the next chapter of her life–one that ideally doesn’t include hospital rooms or medical procedures. In September 2021, Zoeller, 49, who lives in Virginia with her husband and two teenage children, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.” [Parade]
New Paper Sponsoring Award — “The GazetteLeader has been tapped as the new sponsor of the highest honor in Arlington civic activism. The ‘GazetteLeader Cup’ will be the new name of the annual award presented by the Arlington County Civic Federation… The honor was known as the Evening Star Cup from 1938-81, the Journal Cup from 1982-2004 and the Sun Gazette Cup from 2004-22.” [Gazette Leader]
Neighborhood College Applications Open — “This spring, Arlington County will offer its first hybrid in-person and virtual Neighborhood College experience featuring new opportunities to tour County facilities and interact with staff. Applications for the spring session are due by Friday, March 24, 2023. The Neighborhood College program is geared toward Arlingtonians who want to become more involved in their neighborhood and countywide interests.” [Arlington County]
It’s Thursday — Light rain in the morning, then remaining cloudy but mild. High of 64 and low of 51. Sunrise at 6:41 am and sunset at 6:03 pm. [Weather.gov]
Damaged door at Thomas Jefferson Middle School entrance (photo courtesy anonymous)
Police on scene at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in June 2022 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Police on scene at Thomas Jefferson Middle School (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
(Updated at 9:45 a.m. on 3/2/23) The man who tried to force his way into a locked-down middle school last June won’t be charged — but this clemency comes with conditions.
Alexander Sentayhu, who was charged with property destruction after he unsuccessfully tried to breach Thomas Jefferson Middle School, was given a deferred disposition rather than a sentence. That means he has a series of conditions to meet in order to have the charge dismissed.
Believing there was an active school shooter inside, he called 911 and indicated he was armed and trying to get inside to pick up his relatives, Arlington County Police Department said at the time. Sentayhu kicked the glass door, breaking it, and tried unsuccessfully to open it. He left before police arrived.
The building had been secured and locked to the outside due to a robbery at a 7-Eleven store nearby, but anxieties about school violence were heightened around this time following the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Sentayhu turned himself in, was charged with Destruction of Property and released on bond while the General District Court reviewed his case. He was 25 at the time of his arrest.
The outcome of Sentayhu’s case is known as a “deferred disposition,” and it is an authority is granted to the court in Virginia code, according to Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti.
“He was required to fulfill conditions such as restitution and treatment, designed to ensure accountability and rehabilitation,” Dehghani-Tafti tells ARLnow.
The court reviewed his progress toward meeting these conditions during his appearance on Feb. 16 of this year.
“He successfully met those conditions and the resolution was supported by the parties involved,” she said.
Dehghani-Tafti did not elaborate as to what those conditions were.
Like probation, deferred dispositions usually come with conditions, according to an explainer by the Virginia State Crime Commission.
“In general, deferred disposition permits a court to withhold imposition of a sentence and place conditions on the defendant that, when met, allow for the charges to be dismissed,” it says. “Upon the satisfactory completion of all conditions, and if no other criminal offenses are committed during the period of deferment, the original charge may be dismissed.”
Sentayhu was previously in the news in early 2020, after he incurred steep medical costs while suffering a significant heart issue, and later after speaking at a White House press conference with Vice President Kamala Harris about the issue of medical debt.
Last week someone using an email account under Sentayhu’s name emailed ARLnow demanding that we “DELTE OR PERMANENT DELETE this FALSELY reported article ASASP,” in apparent reference to the report about his arrest. The email included a court record showing that the charge against him had been dropped.
They did not respond to emailed questions asking for his side of the story.
