Police say a Reston man assaulted a woman after demanding money from her last week at a Herndon gas station.
According to a Fairfax County Police report, the incident took place Thursday afternoon at Sunoco (2100 Centreville Road). A 44-year-old woman was pumping gas when she was approached by the man, to whom she refused to give money. According to the police report:
“When she declined, he grabbed her in a bear hug. She continued to decline his demands and she was able to break free and run to a local store where she summoned police.”
Police arrested 39-year-old Akeem Gale in connection with the incident. Gale was charged with assault and taken to the Adult Detention Center.
Someone nabbed a tip jar from a business in Plaza America over the New Year’s weekend.
That and another larceny — the theft of a package from a residence on Great Passage Boulevard, a Great Falls address — were the sole Reston District items on the latest Fairfax County Police crime report.
FCPD has previously given tips to help avoid package theft. Among the suggestions are to require a signature upon delivery and/or have items delivered to your workplace.
From FCPD:
RESTON DISTRICT STATION
LARCENIES:
1000 block of Great Passage Boulevard, package from residence
11600 block of Plaza America Drive, tip jar from businessSTOLEN VEHICLES:
None reported
FCPD also reported an incident involving a guinea pig being thrown from a balcony in the 2200 block of Castle Rock Square, which we reported Tuesday afternoon.
If you traveled or just tuned out from local news during the holiday season, here’s what you may have missed:
Lake House Review: Work has still not begun on a review of how funds were handled to purchase and renovate what is now the Lake House at Lake Anne. It was decided an independent review was necessary after renovations ended up to be roughly three times what was budgeted, and money had to be borrowed from the Reston Association’s operating budget to cover the deficit. The RA Board previously went through months of negotiations with the firm MediaWorld, who had offered to do the review for just $1 if volunteers agreed to help with some of the busy work, but after more than two months of back and forth, it appears negotiations have been stalled or possibly terminated.
Development on the Horizon: Per the usual here in Reston, there are several major developments in the works around town. In particular, just before the holidays, more news broke about Vornado’s planned development near Wiehle-Reston East Metro, Comstock’s hopes for a development near Reston Station, and an approval for planned lofts by Pulte Homes near Reston Station.
Very Little Crime to Ruin the Holidays: Thankfully, very few crimes made headlines in the Reston area over the holidays. There were minor break-ins at the Carlton House condos at Reston Town Center and the Hidden Creek Country Club, and a tragic accident in D.C. involving a Herndon man. In a bit of good news, the community pulled together to help find a teen boy who went missing in North Reston within 24 hours.
Fourth Spot Opens Up on RA Board: Just before the Christmas and Chanukah holidays, North Point District Director Danielle LaRosa of the Reston Association Board of Directors tendered her resignation. LaRosa also serves as the board’s current treasurer. LaRosa’s seat joins three others that are opening up on the board when three-year terms come to an end in April, for a total of four out of the board’s nine seats up for election when voting begins March 3. The candidate elected to fill LaRosa’s seat will serve the remaining two years of her three-year term. A Candidate Information Session will take place tonight for those who want to learn more about running for the board.
As we kick off 2017, what are you most interested in or concerned about around Reston? Tell us what you most want Reston Now to cover in this new year.
A 19-year-old Reston man is facing a number of charges after police say he tossed a guinea pig to its death.
The incident happened Friday afternoon on the 2200 block of Castle Rock Square.
“Around 12:40 p.m. Animal Protection Police responded to assist officers on a domestic violence incident in the Reston area,” Fairfax County Police said in a report today. “The suspect had thrown the victim’s pet guinea pig off the balcony and left the area. APP took the animal for an evaluation and determined it was deceased.”
Theron Boone was arrested Saturday and taken to the Adult Detention Center. He faces charges of animal cruelty, domestic violence, destruction of property and preventing someone from calling 911.
Photo courtesy FCPD
Fairfax Police Respond to Stabbing at Dunn Loring Metro Stop — Someone stabbed a person and then hopped aboard an eastbound Orange Line train at the Dunn Loring Metro stop in Vienna earlier this morning, according to the Fairfax County Police Department. [Washington Post]
Ice to Meet You — The Reston area saw some ice over the weekend. Did the wintry weather affect your Saturday at all? [Twitter]
Local Home Sales Boosted –– Home sales in Reston and the surrounding areas were up 22 percent over the same month last year, according to a recent report from a realty company. The median home price dropped by about 1 percent, but with inventory down, homes were snatched up quickly. [Reston Patch]
No one was injured after three kids accidentally shot a bullet into a woman’s apartment yesterday, according to Fairfax County police.
The incident happened at the 1500 block of Cameron Crescent Drive around 11 a.m. Sunday.
Police said a 23-year-old woman told them someone had fired a bullet into her apartment from an apartment next door. When police arrived, they discovered three juveniles, who admitted to messing with a gun.
Police are investigating the incident and may file charges.
In other crime news:
Police are looking for two people who allegedly assaulted a cab driver and stole their property early yesterday morning.
The incident happened at the 12000 block of Greywing Square around 1:22 a.m. Sunday.
According to authorities, the cab driver drove a man and a woman to their destination, but when they arrived the suspects took off without paying. When the cab driver began to chase them, the man and the woman turned and began to fight with him before stealing his property and running away.
Police said they’re looking for:
The male suspect was described as Hispanic, about 24 years of age, 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 4 inches tall, and with short hair. He was wearing jeans and a brown shirt. The female suspect was described as Hispanic, about 21 years of age, 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 4 inches tall, and with long hair. She was wearing a black jacket, dark shirt, and jeans.
FCPD’s Reston Station yesterday also received reports of:
LARCENIES:
- 1600 block of Becontree Lane, laptop computer from residence
- 1800 block of Campus Commons Drive, property from residence
- 2100 block of Centreville Road, merchandise from business
- 13100 block of Fox Hunt Lane, package from residence
- 6600 block of Frontier Drive, merchandise from business
STOLEN VEHICLES:
- 11600 block of Ivy Stone Court, 2010 Merzedes Benz
(Updated at 3 p.m.) An indie go-go band from Reston has pulled in more than $19,000 from friends and fans after someone stole all their instruments and equipment during a tour stop last week, according to a GoFundMe fundraising website.
The guys from RDGLDGRN woke up to a call from their hotel’s front desk in Medford, Ore., Friday morning. They were told that the back of their trailer was open.
“We rushed outside in disbelief and sure enough, someone used bolt cutters to cut through our lock, and took EVERYTHING !!!!!” the band wrote on the GoFundMe website.
After filing a police report, the band assessed the damages and estimated that more than $17,000 worth of instruments and equipment was gone. The musicians known as Red, Gold and Green, who perform as RDGLDGRN, then started the GoFundMe page to ask friends and fans for help raising money to continue the tour.
“We are in the final stretch of our current tour and start a short run in a few days with no equipment and nothing was insured,” the group wrote. “We just started our own label, released a new single, and have been touring with the Dirty Heads and we really need everyone and anyone’s help with raising money to pay for this equipment.”
With four more shows to play before Thanksgiving, the band already has raised more money than what it told police its gear was worth. But for Red, no amount of money can replace his main guitar — a gift from his deceased godfather.
Formed in 2011, the group has played with other Virginia natives, including Dave Grohl and Pharrell Williams.
Photo via GoFundMe
A Reston man is a suspect in a home invasion and arson at a Reston townhouse where he rented a room, according to Fairfax County Police search warrant.
Police believe Antwan Green, 35, committed those crimes on Dec. 3 and 4, NBC4 Washington reports.
The search warrant says two people, one believed to be Green, knocked on the door of a townhome on Edgemere Circle in Reston Dec. 3 and forced their way inside.
The suspects bound the hands and feet of the 67-year-old woman inside with electrical cords. They took her car, but later abandoned it. When police found the car, they also found mail addressed to Green inside of it, NBC4 said.
Just hours after the home invasion, a fire broke out at a townhome on St. Trinain’s Court, where Green rented a lower-level room. A woman suffered critical injuries when she jumped from a second-floor window of the burning house.
According to the court documents, Green was caught on video at a nearby convenience store buying a lighter, charcoal and lighter fluid just before the fire.
Neighbors told News4 Green rented the basement of the town home but recently had a falling out with the owner. A juvenile informant also told police Green was at the home invasion and the fire.
Green hasn’t yet been charged with arson or the home invasion, but is already in custody without bond on several other charges ranging from bail violations to strangulation to malicious wounding and drug charges.
Green was arrested in Arlington on Dec. 10, on multiple charges stemming from crashing a stolen vehicle and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. A few days later, he was also charged with felony destruction of property while in jail, where he allegedly “destroyed a fire protection system,” court records show.
Green will be in Arlington General District Court on those charges on Thursday.
Photo: Antwan Green/Arlington County Police via News4
Robberies in Fairfax County Police’s Reston District up 100 percent over this time last year, says Capt. Ron Manzo, commander of the Reston District Station.
Manzo, along with crime prevention specialist Katy DeFoe, were at Reston Association’s regular Board of Directors meeting last week to give an annual report on the state of crime — and crime prevention — in this part of the county.
The Reston District covers 40 square miles and includes Reston, as well as unincorporated Herndon and Great Falls.
Manzo said there have been 32 robberies in the Reston District so far in 2015. Twelve have been in south Reston, he said. At this point in 2014, there had been 16 robberies overall, he said.
However, many of the cases are not random, said Manzo.
“Most of the robberies are drug ripoffs,” Manzo said. “We have made arrests in six of them. The others are inactive due to lack of follow up.”
Manzo pointed out some other crime stats for 2015:
There have been three shootings in the Reston District this year. One was a homicide in unincorporated Herndon. One was a domestic situation in which a man shot his wife. The man was charged.
The third shooting was in Shadowood in May. Three men are facing gun possession and attempted robbery charges, but were not charged with homicide in the shooting that killed Rashad Kejuan Daye, 24, of Herndon.
Police said previously the apartment resident was protecting himself against the suspects, who were known to him.
Car thefts are slightly up — 62 so far this year compared to 60 through October of 2014.
However, DeFoe said the majority of stolen cars have been taken when the keys were in the car and/or the cars were left unlocked.
“We’re not locking our doors, we are not taking keys out,” said DeFoe. “We average about for or five [incidents of thefts from auto where doors were unlocked] per night. If they if not finding keys in the car, they will [search] through a car with unlocked doors.”
Manzo took over as the head of the Reston District Station early this year. He said one of his top priorities has been getting officers out of their cars and back on the streets and bike paths.
“Right off bat, that was one issue I saw with the NPU [Neighborhood Policing Unit] ,” he said. “I immediately put them back on bikes.”
He said the Hunters Woods area, especially the tunnels and paths, were a concern.
“There have been a couple of unfortunate cases on the trails,” said Manzo. “I need them out on bikes. “
Capt. Ron Manzo/Reston Now file photo
The Reston trainer accused of “upskirt” filming a South Lakes Safeway shopper and exposing himself to her will have a day in court Sept. 22.
Michael Wayne Edwards Jr., 33, was arrested last week on charges of indecent exposure, simulated masturbation and filming a nonconsented nude person (taking unlawful images of another without consent), court records show.
The charges are all misdemeanors; Edwards has been released on bond. The Sept. 22 date is an adjudicatory hearing.
Edwards, of Centreville, was employed as a trainer at Fusion360, a personal training gym a few doors down from the Safeway at South Lakes Village Center, at the time of his arrest.
Police said that on Aug. 5, a woman who was at the Safeway buying lunch told them a man was following her in the store.
The victim said as she walked back about 1:15 p.m., the man, identified as Edwards, followed her as she approached Sunrise Valley Drive and Lakespray Way. The man appeared to be videotaping and spoke to her. She recalled him to be the same person from the store, police said.
The woman told police the man then reportedly exposed himself to her then he ran away. Officers worked with store personnel to determine the man had filmed the woman under her clothing in the store without her permission.
Contacted by Reston Now, Edwards denies the charges.
Edwards has previously been in trouble for sexual situations. In 2010, he was charged with several accounts of second-degree assault after he squirted semen from a bottle on women as they exited a Giant and Michael’s craft stores in Gaithersburg, Md.
Edwards pled guilty to one of those charges (the rest were dropped as part of the plea deal). He was fined $500 and given a three-year suspended jail sentence, Montgomery County records show. His probation period ended in June 2014.
Many Fusion 360 clients took to Reston Now’s Facebook page to defend the gym and praise Edwards in spite of the charges.
“Michael can be an absolute gentleman; articulate, polite, and mannerly,” said one commenter. “He’s kept the professional company of some of the most beautiful women in the fitness industry. If there is any credibility to this most recent charge, please factor in that this is not a schizophrenic looney who hides in a raincoat and is incapable of keeping a job.”
Police want to hear from any other potential victims. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Solvers electronically by visiting www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org or text-a-tip by texting “TIP187” plus your message to CRIMES(274637)** or by calling 1-866-411-TIPS(8477), or call Fairfax County Police at 703-691-2131.
A Herndon man was arrested on Monday after he allegedly assaulted the driver of garbage truck at knife point, Fairfax County Police said.
Police said the truck was at Tewksbury Drive and Unicorn Court in the Fox Mill area about 9:45 a.m. on Monday.
The suspect displayed a knife to the employees and caused damage the truck, police said. The suspect fled on foot but was located by officers and taken into custody.
The suspect, Todd E. Jones, 40, was then charged with assault and destruction of property.
In other crime news reported over the weekend:
BURGLARY
A resident of the 2600 block of Iron Forge Road reported someone entered the residence and took property on Friday, March 27.
LARCENIES
11800 block of Baron Cameron Avenue, merchandise from business.
2300 block of Hunters Woods Plaza, beverage from business.
11100 block of South Lakes Drive, beverage from business.
A man was shoveling snow off his car in Reston when he was held up at gunpoint early on Friday, Fairfax County Police said.
The victim was shoveling out his car in the 11600 block of North Shore Road near the intersection of Clubhouse Road about 2:15 a.m. when he was approached by two men, he told police.
The first suspect grabbed the victim and demanded property, but the victim resisted and a struggle occurred. During the struggle, the second suspect displayed a handgun, which allowed the first suspect to take property and cash, police said.
The suspects fled the scene in a two-door Toyota sedan. The victim suffered non-life threatening injuries.
The first suspect was described as black, 18-to-26 years of age, black jeans, about 5-feet-5 to 5-feet-6 inches tall, thin build and wearing a black hooded sweatshirt. The second suspect was described as a light to medium skin black male, 18-to-26 years of age, dark colored jeans, about 5-feet-4 or 5-feet-5 inches tall, medium build and wearing a leather jacket and white mask with eye holes.
A 30-year-old Reston man and two Reston teens were among those arrested after a police investigation into a violent assault on a teenage girl by alleged Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members, Manassas police said.
Last week, investigators with the Manassas City Police Department served a total of 43 warrants, with additional charges pending stemming from the Nov. 14 incident.
Jose Angel “Little Crazy” Iraheta Palacios, 30, of 11910 Winterthur Lane in Reston was charged with human trafficking; gang participation (nine counts); gang recruitment (two counts); conspiracy to cause a juvenile to assist in the distribution of marijuana (three counts); conspiracy to distribute marijuana; contributing to the delinquency of a minor; aiding illicit sexual intercourse; use of a vehicle to promote unlawful sexual intercourse; threaten force to encourage gang participation; and obstruction of justice
Also charged:
Carlos Albert Hernandez-Garcia (nicknamed “Momia” and “Albert”), 20, of no fixed address; human trafficking; gang participation (six counts); gang recruitment (two counts); conspiracy to distribute marijuana; conspiracy to cause a juvenile to assist in the distribution of marijuana; and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
A 17-year-old male from Reston; human trafficking; gang participation (four counts); gang recruitment (two counts); and conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
A 16-year-old male from Reston; gang participation and conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
The investigation was triggered by the November assault of a 15-year-old Manassas girl by MS-13 members during a gang initiation ritual, police said. It was initially reported to Manassas police in early December.
Multiple local agencies investigated the incident, police said. Among them: City of Manassas Park Police, the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force, the Virginia State Police, Fairfax County police and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The suspects are being held without bond in Fairfax County.
Photo of Jose Angel “Little Crazy” Iraheta Palacios/Credit: Manassas Police
Fairfax County Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying a suspect who burglarized a home in Fox Mill Estates last week.
The burglary occurred in the 12700 block of Magna Carta Road on Thursday between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. A suspect entered the home in an unsecured basement window and stole electronics, jewelry, a safe and multiple credit cards.
Detectives learned that these cards were subsequently used at a business in Martinsburg, WV, and police were able to acquire photos of a possible suspect.
A vehicle that may be connected to the case has also been identified as a dark Chevy or Toyota four-door sedan with tinted rear windows.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Brett Choyce at 703-478-5141 or Crime Solvers by phone at 1-866-411-TIPS/8477, e-mail at www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org or text “TIP187” plus your message to CRIMES/274637.
Last week’s bank robbery at Reston Town Center was part of a December crime trend, says the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Bank robberies in the area rise sharply in December, but there is no one reason why, the FBI said.
Last December, there were 17 bank robberies in Northern Virginia, the FBI said. The FBI said 13 of those robberies have been solved.
The FBI said last month it “is proactively working to counteract bank robberies this holiday season.”
From the FBI:
For the past two years, a quarter of all bank robberies in Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia have taken place in the month of December. Additional analysis shows that the number of bank robberies committed in Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia tripled during this one month of the holiday season.
Law enforcement is actively sharing information with banks and the public to create heightened awareness of this issue and warn individuals who may be inclined to rob or attempt to rob banks of law enforcement’s increased focus.
Still, there have been four bank robberies in Northern Virginia this month, including Wednesday’s at the Wells Fargo Branch on Freedom Drive. There also was a Nov. 26 robbery at the Presidential Bank on Reston Parkway at Baron Cameron.
In the Wells Fargo incident, police said a man entered the bank at 1:52 p.m. and told a teller he had a weapon. He took cash and fled.
Witnesses told police the suspect was a black man, about 6-foot-1 and in his late 20s or early 30s.
Fairfax County Police said they were trying to determine whether the most recent Reston robbery was related to two incidents in the McLean District earlier in December. In a Dec. 5 robbery of a Wells Fargo Branch in the 1100 block of Chain Bridge Road, the suspect wore a rubber Halloween mask, police do not have good description.
Photo: Security camera photo of suspect in Dec. 10 robbery of Wells Fargo Bank on Freedom Drive in Reston/Courtesy of FBI.
