A Step Towards Justice for Luis Ramirez

Nothing will bring Luis Ramirez back to his family, but the wheels of justice have finally begun to turn in the correct direction. I was truly shocked to hear of charges levied against the very people who are suppose to uphold the law.   As reported by CNN:

Washington (CNN) — Five people, including three police officers, have been indicted on charges related to the beating death of a Latino man in rural Pennsylvania in July 2008, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Two indictments charge the five with federal hate crimes, obstruction of justice and conspiracy in what authorities are calling a racially motivated attack.

 Read More

East Coast Serial Rapist Comes to PWC for Halloween

 

    <————-    Location of assaults in the area

A serial rapist who has been terrorizing the East Coast since 1997 arrived in time on Halloween to attack and rape 3 teenage girls who were out trick or treating in Dale City.  This rapist has been on the loose and has attacked in 4 states:  Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia. 

 

A video update has been added to the end of this post.  It is a multi-jurisdictional  police press conference containing critical information for the public.

His DNA connects him to the following crimes:

 

  • Feb. 12, 1997 – 6800 block of Marlboro Pike in Forestville, Md.
  • Aug. 20, 1997 – 4600 block of Silver Hill Road in Suitland, Md.
  • July 3, 1998 – 2900 block of 31st Avenue in Temple Hills, Md.
  • June 19, 1999 – Richmond Highway/Memorial Street in Alexandria, Va.
  • Jan. 13, 2000 – 7300 block of Fordson Road in Alexandria, Va.
  • July 8, 2000 – 1900 block of Beechwood Road in Hyattsville, Md.
  • Nov. 20, 2000 – Timber Forest Drive/Edsall Road in Alexandria, Va.
  • May 24, 2001 – Plaza Street in Leesburg, Va.
  • Aug. 16, 2001 – 4500 block of 23rd Parkway in Temple Hills, Md.
  • Dec. 28, 2001 – 3700 block of Rolling Hills Avenue in Alexandria, Va.
  • Nov. 28, 2006 – Valley View Drive in Cranston, RI
  • Jan. 10, 2007 – Smith Avenue in New Haven, Conn.
  • Oct. 31, 2009 – 4300 block of Dale Boulevard in Woodbridge

Read More

38 Arrested in Drug Sting in Northern Virginia

Almost 40 people were arrested the past week from age 18 to 54 for dealing heroin and perscription narcotics.  Many of these people allegedly sold large amounts of heroin and presecription narcotics to high school students and young adults in Prince William County and western Fairfax County.  Law enforcement noted how easy it was for young people to score drugs, often in retail store restroom, gyms, grocery stores, pharmacies and people’s homes. 

Prince William County Law enforcement was alerted when there were a series of overdoses in the Manassas area,  in particular, the overdose deaths of Matthew Mittong and Mindy Weakley.  PWC 1st Sargeant Hess said that they couldn’t figure out how young people were making the transition from prescription drugs to heroin.  According to the Washington Post:

Hess said police have found large numbers of local high school students, some as young as 15, who were regularly buying and using opiate pills before switching to heroin because it is cheaper and more accessible.

Police are concerned that teenagers are trying drugs such as Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin at parties thinking that because a doctor prescribes them they must be safe. Soon, Hess said, those teenagers are increasing their doses and later moving to heroin. “That false sense that it is okay can lead to very bad things very quickly,” Hess said. “Before long, they’re on the corner buying heroin. It’s a sad transition into the abyss.”

 

According to the News and Messenger:

In addition to heroin and prescription drugs, investigators said they also found cocaine, anabolic steroids, marijuana and guns.

Investigators said undercover officers were key in helping to identify who was selling the heroin, and prescription drugs. During the investigation, police said undercover officers made at least 50 purchases of heroin and prescription medication.

In addition to the houses raided in Dumfries and Woodbridge arrests were also made Tuesday in Dale City, Lake Ridge, Manassas, Nokesville and Springfield.    [ED note:  highlight mine]

All parents need to be aware this latest sting.  The drug use seems to be ubiquitous.  The article indicated that the drug use in this article was recreational and not the kind of use one associates with skid row and extreme poverty.  In fact, many of the kids involved were very middle class.  Click for the full story.

No parent can assume that their child would never.  That is dangerous thinking.  Many kids simply do not realize their own immortality or vulnerability until it is too late.  Drugs rob people of their dignity, their status, their health, their families, their education and their careers.  They turn decent people into liars, sneaks and thieves.

A list of all those arrested will be printed in the Wednesday edition of the News and Messenger.

You Just Never Know–What Makes a Person Snap?

nvcc

TonightWUSA 9 NEWS had a fairly long story on the Woodbridge campus NVCC shooting. There were several articles with updates and interviews on their website. It is hard to imagine just how lucky we really were yesterday. According to one of the WUSA 9 articles:

MANASSAS, Va. (WUSA) — A former high school teammate says suspected shooter, Jason Hamilton, was a “quiet” person who ran varsity track in high school.

“We used to have pasta parties at his house before [track] meets,” says 19-year-old Jarrod Zong. He says he graduated last year with Hamilton from Hylton High School.

Hamilton has been charged with shooting inside a classroom in NOVA’s Woodbridge campus, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009.

“Definitely one of the nicest people on the team. Just a quiet guy. I ran with him four years. Athletically, he came out of his shell. I didn’t see it coming,” says Zong.

9NEWS NOW saw Zong drop off flowers on the door of Hamilton’s house at the 14000 block of Baneberry Circle in Manassas.

Zong says he ran track and cross country with Hamilton. He says the track team was a second family to the suspected shooter.

9NEWS NOW obtained the charging documents from Prince William County Court. The documents indicate that Hamilton brought a bag with a hunting rifle into the classroom. He shot and missed the professor, Tatyana Krvchuck, twice. Hamilton later confessed to his actions

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Gunman Arrested on NOVA-Woodbridge Campus

Shots were fired on the NOVA-Woodbridge campus this afternoon.  The shooter is in custody and law enforcement is doing safety sweeps.  Insidenova.com reports:

Police confirmed that shots were fired Tuesday afternoon at the Woodbridge campus of the Northern Virginia Community College.

Police said that a student armed with a high-powered rifle entered the main administration building at about 2:40 p.m.

Police responded to the call and treated it as an “active shooter” situation and the college implemented its emergency lockdown procedures, police said.

Police have one man in custody and said there are no injuries reported at this time.

More information will be released and we will update on the thread.  According to witnesses, gunshots were heard and teachers told students to run.  Thank goodness no one was injured.

UPDATE (5 PM):  From insidenova.com:

 Prince William County police spokeswoman Sgt. Kim Chinn says a student pointed a gun at a teacher in class Tuesday at the Woodbridge campus of Northern Virginia Community College. Chinn says the teacher ‘hit the floor’ when she saw the gun. The student has been arrested.

 

Too Many Child Molesters

Occassionally we here at Anti-bvbl blog have been criticized for not  posting a thread about child molesters.  We could always count on other blogs (that shall go unnamed) to trot out each and every story if the child molester had an Hispanic last name.  We didn’t feel the need to cover the story.  We also don’t run a mini news series.  However, tonight we made an exception.   News and Messenger is currently running 3 separate stories about various cases of sex crimes against children.

The first story  involved a man with a Latino last name.  He was charged with the rape of a 10 year old girl who lived at the same address.  The man in this case is being held without bond. 

The second story  started out in the town of Dumfries and led to the arrest of a man living in Alberta, Canada for various crimes involving pedophilia.  According to www.insidenova

Police were alerted to Mackintosh after a tip from Northern Virginia’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Dumfries police Officer John Chapman said he communicated with Mackintosh and posed as a male pedophile for two months.

 “The man found me online and expressed a desire to meet a young boy at a retail store and then take him by force back to his home,” Chapman said.

 After receiving that message, Chapman said he contacted police in Edmonton to alert them.

 Police searched Mackintosh’s home and computer, where they found “thousands” of images of child pornography, Wickens said.

Officer Chapman is a hero.  Who knows what horrors his actions prevented.  MacKintosh has been charged with distributing child pornography. 

The third story  involved a 49 year old Dumfries man who gets the dubious honor of being dubbed ‘Fugitive of the Week.’  He is wanted for child sexual assault which includes:

The warrants charge him with object sexual penetration, aggravated sexual battery and taking indecent liberties with children.

Anyone with information about Snider’s whereabouts is encouraged to call Prince William County Crime Solvers at 703-680-3700.

So we have a Latino charged with rape , a Canadian charged with pedophilia Internet crimes and a white guy from Dumfries charged with sexual assault which includes object penetration.  Obviously sexual deviancy against children crosses all racial and cultural lines, if our sampling is any example.  What makes these creeps do these heinous behaviors?  Why do these people ever get out of prison? 

Every day there is some statement made about childhood obesity.  I venture to say half of it is caused by children not being allowed to go outside and be kids.  They can’t.  It is too dangerous with these kinds of people running loose and preying upon our children.   They stay inside, eat, watch TV or play video games. 

I vote for life in prison when these acts are committed against children.  One child molester is one too many.

Old Sparky Still Operational

The State of Virginia executed Larry ‘Bill’ Elliot tonight around 9 pm.  Elliot was the oldest person on death row in Virginia.  He was convicted of killing 25-year-old Dana Thrall and 30-year-old Robert Finch in a capital murder charge. Both victims were killed inside Thrall’s Woodbridge townhouse on Jan. 2, 2001.

Elliot chose to die by electrocution, which is still an option in Virginia.  The U. S. Supreme Court refused to consider his appeal and Governor Tim Kaine refused to intervene. 

Elliot killed Finch and Finch’s girlfriend Dana Thrall over a custody dispute between Finch and Elliot’s girl friend named Rebecca Gragg.   Click for the story.

Prince William County has had 2 executions in a week.  Last Tuesday, Beltway sniper  John Allen Muhammad was executed by lethal injection, again convicted in Prince William County.  The execution chambers are at the Greensville Correctional Center in Waverly, Virginia.

So, as they say, Elliot got to ride the lightning bolt.  One less killer.  For those who defend the death penalty, justice has been served.  For those who do not, I suppose it hasn’t been a very good month.

Update on Fort Hood Massacre

There have been several developments regarding the Fort Hood Massacre.

The Army has charged Major Nidal Hasan with 13 counts of premeditated murder. Hasan can get the death penalty if he is convicted.

There is some concern from doctors at his last post that Hasan is psychotic. Of course mental illness does not translate into legal insanity, necessarily.

According to Fox News:

President Obama has ordered a review of all intelligence related to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies.

The review will be overseen by John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. The first results are due to the White House by Nov. 30.

Obama also ordered the preservation of the intelligence. Members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan’s contacts with a radical imam and others of concern to the U.S., and what they did with the information

Good for President Obama. It is time to put sunshine and transparency on who know what when. Sadly, regardless of what is discovered, Hasan is not the only one. The time frame seems reasonable also.

.

Good News /Bad News on the Gang Front

There is both good news and bad news on the gang front.  The bad news is that gangs are creeping down into middle schools and they have become the new epicenters for gang recruitment as well as gang activity.  Middle schoolers are typically aged 11-15. 

The good news is that gang activity and crime have dropped since 2004.  In 2007, gang offenses in public schools were down 37%.   Much of the good news is attributed to the efforts of the Northern Virginia Gang Task Force.

In releasing the Northern Virginia Comprehensive Gang Assessment, a study of the region’s gang activity from 2003 to 2008, officials emphasized that although middle school gang activity is a concern, gangs are less of a problem in Northern Virginia and its schools than they are elsewhere. They credited the task force and a strong regional economy.

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Sniper Wants Life Spared

The convicted   Beltway sniper, John Allen Muhammad, wants to exchange the death penalty for life imprisonment.  He claims he is the victim of Gulf War Syndrome and is therefore mentally ill.  Muhammad’s lawyer, Jonathan Sheldon,  met with members of the Kaine staff to discuss a stay of execution.  Kaine stated last month that a stay of execution was very doubtful.

According to the News and Messenger:

During the meeting Thursday, Sheldon told staff members Muhammad has shown signs of brain damage, brain dysfunction and psychotic and delusional behavior. Those symptoms were made worse upon Muhammad’s return to the U.S., after serving as a sergeant in the first Gulf War.

“I am confident from our meeting and our past experiences that Governor Kaine will consider seriously and carefully our request for commuting John Muhammad’s sentence from execution to life without parole,” said Sheldon.

 

John Muhammad was convicted of killing Deane Meyers of Gaithersburg, MD at Battlefield Sunoco, while the man gassed up his car. In all, 13 people were killed or wounded during the rampage of terror that Mohammad and his young accomplice inflicted on our area back in 2002.  Of those 13, ten died.

Sheldon and his staff also submitted to the governor a compilation of audio interviews with attorneys, as well as mental health expert and eyewitness accounts that Sheldon said supports their claim that Muhammad is mentally ill.

Sheldon also plans to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 3.

Malvo was a juvenile and is currently serving 4 life sentences. Muhammad deserves the same clemency his victims received before he and/or Malvo executed them. Governor Kaine does not want to even entertain the notion of saving this evil person’s life.

Virginia Tech Student Morgan Harrington Missing after Metallica Concert

Morgan Harringon: Facebook
Morgan Harringon: Facebook

 

 

 More Tech tragedy. VA Tech student Morgan Harrington disappeared from a Metallica concert in Charlottesville Saturday night and has not been seen since. News sources earlier today reported that she had called her friends that she had gotten locked outside the John Paul Jones Arena. Her purse, cell phone and id were found in the parking lot. Her car was there also. Her time of disappearance was about 8:45 pm.

 

 

Harrington’s father, Dan Harrington of Roanoke reported her missing when she failed to meet him for a math tutoring session. He appealed to anyone who might know of his daughter’s whereabouts to please contact police.

Tech has had more than its share of tragic events in recent years. All of us hope that Morgan comes home safe and sound. Her father seems to feel she would not have just disappeared without calling home.
Where were the campus police? Are there no security guards at events like this? Why are all doors locked? Did her friends try to find her or let her back in?

Too many bad things are happening to young people.

Full story

Chicago Teen Attacked and Murdered

Chicago teen Derrion Albert was attacked and murdered by a street gang of thugs last Thursday as he walked home from school. In what appeared to be a wilding, other teens beat Derrion with 2 x 4’s until he lay senseless. He later died.

What motivated such senseless brutality? Derrion’s family has revealed that he was a good student, had certificates for outstanding attendance, played several sports and was the love of his family’s life. Police are reviewing a video of the beating and have told the media that it is too early to report any findings.

A make-shift memorial outside the community center where Derrion’s murder took place was burned in what police believe was further gang violence.   All of the momentos left by those wanting to pay their respects have been burned beyond recognition. 

 

There will be a vigil and march this afternoon, organized by the family of Derrion Albert, to honor his memory and to speak out against this kind of senseless violence. Security has been beefed up at Fenger High School today which has reopened today. Apparently school was closed on Friday. Many students are expressing their horror that someone could be murdered while others just stood around and watched. Is that the new sign of being cool?

There is speculation that Derrion refused to join a gang because he was very goal oriented. They made him pay. Is there a special hell for these killers? Why must kids who are doing the right thing penalized? What happens when parents cannot afford to move their kids away from the violence?

I am not posting the video. It is far too graphic and horrifying to be posted on Anti. It is very painful and uncomfortable to watch. I will provide a link for those with a strong stomach.

What possesses human beings to behave like this?

 

   WARNING

***Graphic Link***

[UPDATE: 4 men have been charged with murder in Chicago for the beating death of Derrion Albert. Police have determined that Derrion got caught in the cross fire between 2 rival gangs.]

Mayhem in Farmville

Last week’s murders of a Longwood University professor, Debra Kelley, her estranged husband, the Rev. Mark Alan Niederbrock, their daughter Emma Niederbrock, and teen friend Melanie Wells of West Virginia sent the small city of Farmville reeling. This was the type of crime seen on America’s Most Wanted or City Confidential. However, it should be one that startles parents into a rather uncomfortable reality as internet usage becomes more and more a part of family life.

The long and short of the story is these 4 people were found murdered. A 20 year old California man was arrested at the Richmond airport, huddled in a corner. The man, Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III, 20, had met the girls on the internet. They were all into a macabre music scene known as horrorcore genre. The Niederbrock girl was being home schooled and was in counselling. Apparently she was in a stage of bright pink hair, body piercings etc. Her mother drove both girls to Michigan to a concert where the alleged killer was performing his ‘art.’ McCroskey recorded songs that spoke of death, murder and mutilation under the name Syko Sam.

Read More

Family Flees from Killer

An altercation in Irongate last Friday evening  turned deadly.  Bad Boy Deonte Donnell Robertson was at the home of Sergio Alfonzo, arguing with Sergio’s wife Candace, who is the ex-grilfriend of Alfonzo.  Sergio intervened, defending his wife, and now he is dead.   Robertson  has been charged with striking Alfonzo in the chest with a blunt object.  Alfonzo died at the hospital following the attack.

Now Deonte Donnell Robertson is on the run.  Inside Nova latest update reports that the family of Candice has moved her and her 2 children out of state to protect them from Deonte Donnell Robertson (who is the father of the children).   Was this Robertson’s first brush with the law?  You know better.

According to the Manassas News and Messenger:

Robertson’s court record in Prince William County Court is full of charges, including his most recent arrest on April 6. He was charged then with malicious assault in an incident that occurred March 15, court records state.

That case has been certified to a grand jury that next month will decide to indict Robertson on the charges.

Also on his record, he was charged last December with two counts of assault and two counts of obstructing justice while making forceful threats.
He was also charged last October with assaulting a police officer and in June 2007, again with obstructing justice.

Pardon me for asking the obvious question:  Why is this criminal not in jail?  What happens to people who assault cops?  Do they get a slap on the wrist?   What does it take?   This criminal should not have been running around loose.  He should not have had access to this family.  Why did this happen?   Does anyone know?