breaking news

BREAKING NEWS — Barricade Situation in Douglas Park Ends Peacefully

By ARLnow.com

Update at 2:35 a.m. — Command has been transferred from the Arlington to Alexandria Police Department for the night (the two departments have a mutual assistance agreement). Police say the man has stopped communicating with them.

Update at 8:55 a.m. — The standoff has entered its 14th hour.

Update at 11:50 a.m. — The standoff has ended peacefully. Police fired tear gas cannisters into the house around 10:00. The suspect turned himself in at 11:20. He will be charged with assault and brandishing a firearm, police said. Other charges may follow.

Update at 6:30 p.m. — Police have identified the suspect as 58-year-old Thomas Amshey (read more).

Arlington police have surrounded the Douglas Park house of a man believed to be intoxicated and heavily armed. The man barricaded himself inside his house at South Nelson and 14th Streets after threatening a neighbor with a rifle during a dispute, police said.

Dozens of Arlington police officers including the department SWAT team are on the scene, along with a mobile command center and an armored vehicle.

Police are in contact with the man and trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the standoff. Several streets in the area have been blocked off due to the police response.

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BREAKING NEWS — Northrop Grumman Bypasses Arlington

By ARLnow.com

Northrop Grumman has bypassed Arlington and selected the Falls Church section of Fairfax County for the location of its new DC-area headquarters. The company will purchase a building in the Fairview Park office park, near the Beltway and Route 50, the company said in a press release.

The purchase caps a “comprehensive site selection process” that lasted about a month and a half longer than originally anticipated. When Northrop CEO Wes Bush and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell announced in April that the company had narrowed its headquarters search down to Northern Virginia, Bush said the process would take about a month.

Amid the media speculation about the headquarters location, two sites were consistently mentioned near the end: the Falls Church site and a building in Ballston. Buildings in Crystal City and Rosslyn were also said to be in the early running. In the end, however, Falls Church won out.

The fate of Northrop’s ritzy Rosslyn government affairs office is now in question. The company said cryptically that employees from the office will help “initiate operations” in the new building next summer. We’re awaiting further clarification from a Northrop representative.

The company’s full press release, after the jump.

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BREAKING TRAFFIC — I-395 Lanes Blocked After Car Flips Over

By ARLnow.com

A car flipped over in the HOV lane of I-395 around 1:30 this afternoon, trapping the driver and snarling traffic. No word on whether the driver is injured.

As of 1:45, the HOV lanes and two lanes northbound and southbound I-395 are blocked between Seminary Road and King Street.

First responders from Arlington and Alexandria are on scene, along with Virginia State Police.

As of 2:15, major delays on southbound I-395 were forming just past the Pentagon. The driver appears to have been freed from the vehicle.

Widespread Power Outage in North Arlington

By ARLnow.com

On a hot and sticky Thursday evening, more than 4,100 Dominion customers are without power in North Arlington. A blown transformer is believed to be the source of the outage.

The transformer blew just after 5:00 this afternoon and sparked a small grass fire, which was promptly extinguished.

Police are reporting that numerous traffic lights are dark in the area of Yorktown High School.

Dominion estimates that power will be restored around 9:00 tonight.

BREAKING NEWS — Feds Arrest Three “Secret Agents” in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

Three Arlington residents (see updated information here) have been arrested and charged with spying for Russia, part of a larger sweep of ten alleged “secret agents” across the eastern seaboard.

The Justice Department says eight of the ten defendants carried out “long-term, ‘deep-cover’ assignments in the United States on behalf of the Russian Federation.”

Michael Zottoli, Patricia Mills and Mikhail Semenko were arrested at their homes in Arlington yesterday, according to the Department of Justice. They were scheduled to appear in federal court in Alexandria today.

All three of the Arlington defendants are charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Zottoli and Mills are also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

In addition to the Arlington defendants, five people were arrested in the greater New York area and two people were arrested in Boston.

“This case is the result of a multi-year investigation conducted by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and the Counterespionage Section and the Office of Intelligence within the Justice Department’s National Security Division,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

Northbound I-395 Shut Down At Glebe Road Due to Accident

By ARLnow.com

Update at 5:30 p.m. — All lanes have reopened.

Update at 4:40 p.m. — One lane is now getting by. Traffic is backed up to Duke Street.

All northbound lanes of I-395 have been shut down due to an accident. Police are on the scene and paramedics are responding for a reported injury.

Traffic is being forced to exit on Glebe Road. Backups are forming quickly.

Painter In Critical Condition After Ladder Touches Power Lines

By ARLnow.com

A young man is in critical condition tonight after a ladder he was moving came into contact with power lines. It happened around 3:15 this afternoon on North Highland Street, near Route 50, in the Ashton Heights neighborhood.

The man, who’s in his mid-20s, was working as a contract employee for College Pro Painters, firefighters said.

According to Arlington County Fire Department spokesperson Jose Ortiz, the man was trying to position the ladder on a house he was working on, when it fell backwards onto 19,900 volt power lines. The man was severely burned and was knocked back nearly nine feet by the electrical shock.

The man was without a pulse when paramedics arrived but was resuscitated and brought to a nearby hospital, Ortiz said. He’s now being transferred to the MedStar burn unit in Northwest Washington. His injuries are described as life-threatening.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be investigating the accident. Authorities are keeping power on until OSHA investigators arrive on the scene.

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BREAKING NEWS — Video of Small Plane Flipping Over at DCA

By ARLnow.com

A small World War II-era biplane flipped over while landing at Reagan National Airport this morning, closing the main runway. The crash was captured on video by Dan Webb and posted to YouTube by Jon Ostrower of the website FlightBlogger.

The plane was one of eight Stearman 75 biplanes that were scheduled to land at Reagan National just after 10:00 this morning as part of a promotional event for the new IMAX documentary ‘Legends of Flight.’

On board the aircraft were the pilot and Washington Post reporter Ashley Halsey III, the paper reported. Neither were injured.

Update at 12:50 p.m. — The Post has video from inside the plane as it crashed.

Commercial aircraft are taking off from an alternate runway while an investigation is being conducted.

UPDATED — Man Dies After Accidental Plunge

By ARLnow.com

A man was killed this afternoon when he fell nearly four stories off the ledge of an elevated apartment terrace onto a concrete driveway below. Police are still investigating the incident but preliminary reports suggest the fall was accidental, according to Arlington Police spokesperson Det. Crystal Nosal.

It happened just before 4:00 this afternoon at The Prime at Arlington Courthouse apartments (1415 North Taft Street). There were several witnesses who gave statements to police.

A nurse who was near by reportedly tried giving CPR to the man, who was bleeding and unconscious. His body was later taken to a local hospital.

The man was walking several dogs at the time of the incident. It’s not known what role, if any, that may have played in the accident. The dogs are now in the custody of animal welfare officials.

Several people who have commented on this story say the man fell from the apartment complex’s dog park.

One person wrote: “The ledge back there in the fenced-in off-leash area is not very tall, it really could be an accident. Horrible.”

Update at 12:45 p.m. on 5/27 — Police have identified the victim as 29-year-old Arlington resident John Christopher Hamilton.

The Arlington County Police Department’s Homicide/Robbery Unit is investigating a death that occurred on Wednesday, May 26, 2010.

At approximately 3:50 p.m., police and medics responded to the 1400 block of N. Taft Street for a man who had fallen from a roof terrace. The victim was transported to a local hospital where he succumbed to injuries from the fall. He has been identified as John Christopher Hamilton, 29, of Arlington.

The preliminary investigation indicates the victim was attempting to step over a low railing on a rooftop terrace when he fell to the street below.

Anyone who has information about this incident is asked contact Detective Rosa Ortiz at (703) 228-7402. Det. Ortiz can also be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].

BREAKING NEWS — Pedestrian Accident on Lee Highway

By ARLnow.com

Lee Highway was shut down in the area of North Glebe Road this morning due to a pedestrian accident.

Police say a 31-year-old man and his son, a toddler, were attempting to cross Lee Highway around 9:00 when they were struck by a large vehicle, possibly a truck or a van. They were not crossing in a crosswalk, police said.

The man suffered a broken arm when he was hit by a side mirror. The child suffered a head injury when the man fell. The child is in critical condition, police said. (Updated at 3:15 p.m.)

The driver of the striking vehicle remained on scene and is not expected to face any charges, although the accident remains under investigation.

The eastbound lanes of Lee Highway were closed for an extended period of time while investigators reconstructed the accident. The photos below show diagrams that investigators spray painted on the road.

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