Researchers who surveyed more than 8,600 Americans about their support for and willingness to commit political violence shared their findings recently with the News4 I-Team.

A third of those surveyed told researchers violence would usually or always be justified to uphold at least one of 17 situations researchers asked about.

The most popular, 18.7% strongly or very strongly agreed that “if elected leaders won’t protect American democracy, the people must do it themselves, even if it requires taking violent actions.”

Nearly 8.5% of people in the survey agreed strongly or very strongly with the idea of using violence “to stop an election from being stolen,” and 12.1% said political violence is justified “to preserve an American way of life I believe in.”

In another question, 19% strongly or very strongly agreed that “having a strong leader for America is more important than having a democracy.“

“[They] think it’s very important for the United States to have a leader who reflects their views and who are willing to use violence to get there,” Dr. Garen Wintemute recently told the I-Team.

“The thing that really concerns me is the possibility that all of us in the middle are not going to wake up in time to keep that from happening.”

Wintemute is an emergency room physician who started the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis and authored the survey. He told the I-Team his work in the ER led him to follow gun violence trends and a growing anti-government movement. “And then Jan. 6 happened,” Wintemute explained.

“Everybody wanted to move on to other things and kind of put political violence behind us, but the gun purchasing didn’t slacken,” he said. “I started digging into the literature on political violence and talking to the experts and realized people may be arming up. We may be getting ready for civil war or something like that. We started a program of survey research to find out if the answers to those questions were ‘yes.’”

When his team asked those thousands of Americans if they thought civil war was coming, 50.1% somewhat, strongly or very strongly agreed “in the next few years, there will be civil war in the United States.”

‘The truth doesn’t matter … The storytelling matters.’

Jason Van Tatenhove, the former media director for the anti-government group the Oath Keepers, shares the concern. He left the group before the Jan. 6insurrection but told Congress during hearings on it, “I think we need to quit mincing words and just talk about truths. What it was going to be was an armed revolution.”   

Van Tatenhove is the author of a new book, “The Perils of Extremism” and writes for The Colorado Blade, an online news outlet. In his book, Van Tatenhove acknowledges the error in underestimating the movement he was once a part of. He writes Oath Keepers founder “Stewart [Rhodes] had always sprinkled the coming civil war into the messaging, but I had always made the mistake of dismissing such rhetoric. That was a mistake I will no longer make.”

“We’re in a country that’s spiraling right now, and we’ve got to figure out some ways to reengage,” Van Tatenhove told the I-Team in his Colorado hometown.

As someone who spent years crafting the Oath Keepers message, the I-Team took particular note when he said, “The truth doesn’t matter in any of this. The storytelling matters. That’s what matters. That’s what people consume. That’s what they get worked up about.”

“[Is it] also why they leave their house with a loaded weapon?” the I-Team asked.

“Yes,” Van Tatenhove replied.

He explained much of the anti-government movement fed on people’s anxiety over change in the country and then filled the gap with a notion that the work was for a greater good.

Supporters of anti-government movement show higher support for political violence, survey finds

Rachel Carroll Rivas, a 20-year researcher of the anti-government movement for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said on Jan. 6, “None of it surprised me.”

“The anti-government movement for decades used the concept that there would need to be a moment that people would have to take up arms against their own government for patriotic reasons in their minds,” she said. “So, yes, these conversations are very real, and they happen often.”

“I saw that everything that happened on Jan. 6 felt like exactly what they had been saying they were going to do when the time came. For all of those years,” she said.

And still happening — even since Jan. 6 — with the thousands of arrests and trials.

Carroll Rivas said while those cases might have cut out leadership from some groups like the Oath Keepers, a group that drew membership from elected leaders and some civic-minded volunteers, the arrests and federal cases empowered other groups like the Proud Boys or Boogaloo Boys, whose very existence, she says, is predicated on being ready to resist the government.

In Wintemute’s research, supporters of those groups, at least 70%, showed higher levels of support for political violence. According to his results, 41.5% of strong supporters of the Boogaloo movement were very or completely willing to kill a person to advance a political objective.

“Policymakers need to understand that there are groups out there interested in overthrowing the United States. And what our survey suggests is, apart from the groups, the ones who have names that we studied, there are plenty of people just out in the population who share that interest,” Wintemute said.       

Researchers however did not stop at named groups, but studied differences between non-gun owners, those who owned guns and subsets of gun owners. Overall, the survey showed support for political violence between gun owners and the general population was not much different, but support grew among those who said they were recent firearm purchasers and grew even more among those who admit they always carry a firearm outside their home.

According to the survey, 5% of non-gun owners and 6.6% of gun owners said they are “somewhat willing” or “very willing” to kill someone to advance a political objective.

That number jumped to 13.3% for respondents who say they almost always carry a weapon outside the home.

That’s hundreds of people in the survey results, but Wintemute says it equates to millions of Americans in the overall population.

“What the data tell us is there are, on any given day, thousands of armed people walking around in the United States who think that political violence is justified,” Wintemute said.

When his team drilled down even further, it found 62.5% of people who always carry weapons and 29.9% of people who recently purchased a firearm said it was very or extremely likely they would be armed when political violence is justified.

“Denial is not our friend here. We need to believe these data and act on them,” Wintemute said.

“I got sucked in and I got radicalized to a certain extent,” Van Tatenhove told the I-Team as he looked back on his time with the Oath Keepers. “I was lucky in that I was shaken awake and didn’t recognize myself anymore. And I was like, ‘What am I doing?’”

As for solutions, Van Tatenhove offered this warning: “I think our leadership needs to take a much harder stand and say this is not acceptable. This is not who we are as Americans. We’ve got to reject the notion of political violence.”

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Steve Jones.

Economists hired by the city say it will create thousands of jobs and billions in revenue across the state.

The 30,000 predicted jobs across Virginia include positions directly and indirectly created by the arena district.

The plan calls for a new arena for the Capitals and Wizards. Those teams are expected to pay about $403 million — around a quarter of the cost — but it will be mostly financed by $1.5 billion in city- and state-issued bonds.

Under the plan, announced earlier this month, those bonds will be paid off with extra revenue raised by business in the arena district.

While the newly-released analysis predicts around $7.9 billion in annual revenue across the state, there is no explanation of how it will be created.

The summary says the arena will be used for 221 nights. The NHL and NBA each play 82-game seasons (roughly 40 home games each). Without considering pre-season and possible playoff games, that would leave over 100 nights open for non-team events—not including the 115 events to be scheduled in the performing arts venue. The analysis does not say how many people have to attend, how much they will have to spend nor how many restaurants, apartments or businesses have to be occupied to fulfill projections.

Those answers may be in the full report, but only a summary was released Friday evening. You can read that summary by clicking here.

The city and state originally said they would roll out the plan Thursday, and didn’t answer when the I-Team asked if they were trying to ‘dump’ the news at 7:15 p.m. at the beginning of a holiday weekend.

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“I didn’t even see the gun at first. I just heard him say, ‘Give me your keys, Ma,’” said Monyea, who picked up the teens in D.C. for a ride to Fairmount Heights in late November. “And I turned around, like, ‘Are you kidding me? You’re not really doing this.’”

In that moment, Monyea nearly became one of a record number of carjacking victims in the D.C. area this year. 

The latest data show that while carjackings are on pace to fall by nearly 10% in Fairfax County, Virginia, which has only seen a couple dozen carjackings in 2023, the crime is increasing in other parts of the D.C. region.  

Year-to-date data shows carjacking has jumped roughly 40% in Montgomery County, Maryland, with more than 100 recorded as of mid-December. Prince George’s County, meanwhile, has seen a nearly 20% increase from last year and has recorded more than 490 carjackings so far. 

But that’s nothing compared to D.C., where carjacking has more than doubled, rising to roughly 940 carjacking reports as of this week. 

“It’s getting ridiculous,” Monyea said.  

D.C.’s surge comes at a time the News4 I-Team found carjacking is falling in some other major American cities, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore, which have all seen double-digit declines in carjacking rates from 2022.  

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves — whose office has fielded criticism for not pursuing more of these cases — has blamed D.C. law that loosened penalties on young violent offenders as contributing to the problem. His offices said it’s now charging more cases, and Graves is urging D.C. officials to reinstate tougher mandatory minimums for the crime.

“I have been sounding the alarm that the criminal justice system that D.C. has built does not meet the moment that we are in,” Graves said earlier this year. “The mayor has correctly flagged that the law has swung too far over the last seven years. Armed carjacking is a great example of her and my point.” 

Graves’ office recently indicted 10 young people associated with carjacking rings in the District and Maryland, alleging the groups sold the cars from a garage on Florida Avenue NE.

But University of Texas at Dallas criminologist Bruce Jacobs, who has studied carjacking for years, said while a portion of carjacking is perpetuated by organized gangs, it’s also often a crime of opportunity.  

“A lot of the reason that these kids are carjacking these vehicles are really mundane … Like, ‘I was stranded. I needed a ride. I didn’t want to wait for the bus. No one was picking me up,’” he said.  

Jacobs said while it’s tough to get a full picture of the problem due to differences in the way agencies track this form of vehicle theft, what’s clear is that roughly 75% of carjackings are committed by teens and young adults.

He agreed a perceived lack of consequences can explain some of the surge cities like D.C. are seeing.  

“It’s called vicarious punishment avoidance effects, which means, ‘Oh, my friends just did this. They didn’t get caught. Or if they did get caught … not much happened to them,'” he said. 

A quick glance at D.C.’s carjacking data suggests some of that could be at play. 

Data from the Metropolitan Police Department shows that, of the more than 900 carjackings recorded this year, there have only been about 170 arrests. It’s unclear how many carjackings those arrests are associated with. Sixty-three percent of those arrested are juveniles.

The D.C. Office of the Attorney General, which handles crimes involving kids, reports prosecuting about 57% of the roughly 170 carjacking and armed carjacking cases it received through October, saying there wasn’t sufficient evidence to pursue the rest.  

Monyea, who is driving Uber on the side to help her terminally ill daughter, managed to keep her car by doing what experts say you shouldn’t do: She fought back. While one of the teens held a gun to her face, she said, an oncoming car tooted the horn and caught his attention.  

“He turned around, and look, that was his mistake. When he did that, I shoved him as hard as I could … and then I pulled off,” she recounted.  

Two of the teens were still in her backseat but bailed out when she told them she was driving them to a police station, she said.  

At her family’s urging, she’s since installed cameras in her car and is now driving around with Kevlar plates.  

“In the event somebody else points another gun at me, at least I have a way to protect myself from the shot,” she said.

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Katie Leslie, shot and edited by Jeff Piper. News4 I-Team reporter Tracee Wilkins contributed to this report.  

A new report from the National Retail Federation said the industry had $112 billion in losses last year, mainly driven by shoplifting and retail theft.

KJ Singh, owner of JJ Liquors in Northeast D.C., told the News4 I-Team dealing with shoplifting is a daily challenge.

“Between $30 to $50 worth of merchandise every day,” he said.

That daily loss each day adds up to thousands of dollars every year.

Despite more than a dozen security cameras peering down on just about every inch of the floor in his store, thieves are still able to walk out the door undetected, he said.

“An eye of a person cannot look at 16 cameras at once,” Singh said.

Software looks for suspicious activity by shoppers

Human eyes might not be able to, but he’s counting on something else that could. Singh recently added a new level of high-tech security — artificial intelligence software developed by French company Veesion that plugs right into his 16 cameras.

The program looks for suspicious body activity from shoppers and records in real time, Veesion Sales Manager Pablo Blanco Poveda said.

“Every time someone takes an item from the store, if they put it inside the pocket, inside the trousers, inside the jacket, we send an alert so you can see that before they leave,” he said.

The News4 I-Team saw firsthand how it works with a producer agreeing to play the thief. Less than 30 seconds after he snatched a bottle of wine and put it in his coat, Singh got an alert on his phone. The message read “very suspicious activity” and provided a video clip of the producer caught in the act.

“You have the proof. So, when you go to stop someone, you are not going to do like, ‘Open your bag.’ No. You have proof; you show the video,” Poveda said.

According to Veesion, more than 350 stores in the U.S. are using the system. More than 30 are here in D.C., mostly smaller retailers.

But larger retailers also are beginning to incorporate AI to nab shoplifters.

“These are some really effective tools that can layer in on top of existing camera systems, existing camera technologies,” explained Khris Hamlin, with the Retail Industry Leaders Association, a trade association for major retail giants like Macy’s Target and Walmart.

According to the National Retail Federation survey, more than one third of respondents — 37% — said they’re researching technologies, including AI.

AI is not enough of a deterrent

While technology offers one layer of deterrent, it’s not enough, Hamlin said. Recently, the association launched the first of its kind national partnership to combat retail crime, bringing together leading retailers, law enforcement and district attorneys’ offices.

“Now you have this collaboration of different resources to be able to say, ‘How do we deal with this? How do we send that habitual offender to the correct side?’ Or, ‘How do we have a diversion program that gets it to a social service entity?’” explained Hamlin.

While a lot of business owners choose not to share their security measures, Singh wants everyone who shops in his store to know AI has an eye on them.

“We don’t need any trouble if you just don’t steal,” he said. “As long as customers know there’s somebody watching over them, they would never steal.”

Singh said since installing the technology, he’s confronted a number of shoplifters and was shocked to see some of them were his regulars.

“They were very surprised that they’ve been coming here for so long and nothing had really happened because we never bothered to look at them because they were regulars,” he said.

Reported by Susan Hogan, produced by Rick Yarborough, shot by Steve Jones and edited by Lance Ing.

On a hot September day, the News4 I-Team spotted Simon Reed, a Northeast D.C. resident, in his wheelchair along Stuart Lane in Clinton, Maryland, a suburb in Prince George’s County. He was panhandling outside a McDonald’s. 

He said he’s been living in the Clinton Healthcare Center for three years — longer than he ever expected. He said he was sent to Clinton after a medical emergency.

“I got my triple bypass, my heart surgery,” Reed said.

He told the I-Team a nonprofit that provides medical care to people experiencing homelessness in D.C. sent him to the Maryland nursing home.

Reed was one of many residents the I-Team observed over several weeks taking an almost daily dangerous trek along busy roadways in their wheelchairs and walkers.

It was that dangerous circumstance that first prompted viewer Melinda Williamson to contact the I-Team. She said she was concerned about safety for the nursing home patients.

“As you can look behind us, the residents are rolling up the hill in wheelchairs and many of them do not have motorized wheelchairs,” she said.

Williamson — a registered nurse who lives nearby — was so worried about what she saw she started talking with some of the nursing home residents to find out what was going on.

“A lot of it has to do with that there’s no place for them to go is what many of them have shared with me,” she said.  

The I-Team found Simon isn’t the only D.C. resident there.

DC lost 439 nursing facility beds in a decade

According to D.C.’s Department of Health Care Finance, 180 Medicaid beneficiaries had paid claims at the facility last year. The I-Team’s investigation found that this nursing home is part of a larger trend. 

Legal Counsel for Elderly Long-term Care Ombudsman Director Mark Miller said there’s a reason more local people — especially the city’s Medicaid patients — are being sent across the Maryland line.

“Right now, we believe there’s probably close to 500 District residents that are in Maryland facilities, and D.C. Medicaid is paying millions of dollars for these people that are not in their own community,” he said.

According to a 2021 long-term care study from D.C.’s Department of Health reviewed by the I-Team, the District lost 439 nursing facility beds in the past decade. Most of them were converted to other types of housing.

And when it comes to the D.C. Medicaid program, most nursing facilities enrolled — 31 out of 53 — were in Maryland. Three were in Virginia, though there were no D.C. residents in Virginia. 

“D.C. currently is under bedded in terms of nursing homes,” Miller said. “There’s just not the capacity to meet the current need.”

Miller called that more than an inconvenience, saying it’s also isolating for many of those residents. 

The I-Team found that it’s also potentially dangerous for some residents who find themselves in a new area. 

In August, Clinton Healthcare Center resident David Cunningham, who also uses a manual wheelchair, told the I-Team he was rushed to the hospital after being hit by a car — sustaining injuries that he said included a broken hip.

“I came across the street from the gas station, and the car hit me. And when it hit me, I blacked out,” Cunningham said.

DC’s ability to look out for patients is limited when they are moved out of the District

Another patient died after being struck by a vehicle in 2016. After that incident, some of the nursing home residents told News4 the nursing home started providing reflective vests for those who leave the facility.

The I-Team took the neighborhood concerns involving some D.C. residents putting themselves at risk in traffic to Wayne Turnage, who serves as D.C.’s deputy mayor for Health and Human Services and the director of the Department of Health Care Finance.

“If that were to happen in D.C., the provider would find DC Health on their doorstep probably the next day,” Turnage said.

Turnage said the city’s ability to advocate for its residents is limited when they cross state lines. While the city could pull the money it sends to facilities to care for its residents, that would possibly present a new set of challenges since there may not be anywhere else to put them.  

Turnage said he does not believe D.C. is building any new nursing homes right now. He said while the number of nursing homes has dwindled from 17 to 14, there is still space in some facilities. But he added not all nursing homes automatically accept every patient, especially those with more severe conditions.

“I can see situations where a person who was unhoused might have a difficulty finding a nursing home, especially if they don’t meet the nursing home level of care criteria,” Turnage said.   

Turnage told the I-Team his agency is looking at incentives for nursing homes that might have turned away certain patients in the past.

“We are evaluating our reimbursement methodology for nursing homes to see if there are things that we need to do differently to reduce the financial disincentive for taking patients who have these special needs.” Turnage explained.

A spokesperson for Clinton Healthcare Center emailed a statement, saying, “Ensuring the well-being of our residents is a top priority for the facility, and so is our focus and commitment to the safety of the surrounding community. The facility provides reflective vests and flags for residents’ wheelchairs. We have monthly resident council meetings educating the residents on safety precautions and do quarterly assessments to ensure they have the cognitive ability to make decisions. We take these responsibilities seriously and are an integral part of improving the broader neighborhood and being good community stewards.”   

The county is also doing something that could make things safer for residents. The Prince George’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation told the I-Team it’s in the design phase for building new continuous sidewalks along Stuart Lane along with striping for a new crosswalk and streetlights. They estimate starting construction in 2025.

As for Simon Reed, he said he wants to get back to D.C. now, closer to his family.

“I go to visit them on the weekend,” he said. “Every other weekend I go to my sister’s house.”

Reported by Tracee Wilkins; produced by Rick Yarborough; shot by Steve Jones, Jeff Piper and Carlos Olazagasti; and edited by Steve Jones.

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“From age 15 until I was 40 … I used alcohol to cope with the pain, but all that did was turn me into an alcoholic,” said the man identified in court filings under the pseudonym “Richard Roe.”

Roe is one of three men named in the filing, which asserts the archdiocese did little to prevent and protect them from abuse when they were children in the church.

He sat down with the News4 I-Team after the Archdiocese of Washington filed a legal challenge last month to the Child Victims Act – the Maryland law allowing child abuse survivors like him to bring forward civil claims regardless of when the abuse happened – in response to Roe’s class action lawsuit. The men filed the suit in Prince George’s County, where the archdiocese is headquartered.

In the filing, Roe said he was assaulted by an unnamed priest at St. Jerome Parish in Hyattsville in the 1960s. In the complaint, Roe alleges that, around age 10, he was lured to the priest’s bedroom and molested.

“I couldn’t tell nobody. My mother was a devout Catholic. Who was she going to believe? Who was anybody going to believe?” Roe said through tears.

The other two men in the complaint describe ongoing sexual assaults and rape at the hands of priests in Montgomery County, Maryland, in the 1960s and 1990s. One of the priests accused in the filing, named Robert J. Petrella, was later convicted of sexually abusing multiple children.

“We have to right this wrong,” said Baltimore attorney Jonathan Schochor, who represents the men.

In the complaint, Schochor laid out the Catholic Church’s long history of admonishing priests for abuse of children — an indication, he said, the church has known of the problem for hundreds of years.

“Once people gain that perspective and they understand the course of conduct by the priesthood and the archdiocese, they can better understand how important it is to back Mr. Roe and his fellow survivors to get what they deserve,” he said.

Schochor accuses the Washington Archdiocese of aiding and abetting abusers.

“They hid it. They concealed it. And then they would move” the offenders, he said. “They played a shell game.”

Schochor said it’s not lost on the survivors he represents that the Baltimore Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in September in anticipation of civil suits expected under the Child Victims Act, only for the Washington Archdiocese to now try to overturn the law.

“Their goals are twofold. One, shield their assets and not compensate these folks for admitted sexual abuse. And two, somehow circumvent the law,” Schochor said.

The archdiocese declined an interview request with the I-Team but, in a statement, it defended its challenge to the Child Victims Act, saying, “The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is asserting its legal defenses in the cases filed against it.”

It continued that it remains “committed, however. .. to our longstanding efforts to bring healing to survivors through pastoral care and other forms of assistance…”

The I-Team reached out to St. Jerome’s Parish for this story but did not receive a response.

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In a statement, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown’s office said it’s prepared to defend any challenges to the Child Victims Act. Earlier this year, the AG’s office announced it’s investigating claims of abuse against priests who worked for the Washington Archdiocese, just as it did in the Baltimore Archdiocese. According to a spokeswoman, the investigation is ongoing.

Under Maryland’s Child Victims Act, survivors are eligible to receive up to $1.5 million in damages in cases against private institutions like the church. Roe said he’s also looking for an apology.

“Give me that bit of closure. Accept responsibility. You all knew about it,” he said. “That’s what I want. I want that apology.”

This story was reported by Tracee Wilkins, produced by Katie Leslie and edited by Jeff Piper.

The report from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) speaks volumes about just how far D.C. has to go when it comes to getting kids back in school full time.

Almost 90% of the students at Ballou High School were chronically truant last school year, according to the report. That’s the highest rate in all of D.C. — but not the only school with a problem. According to the report, 75 campuses — almost a third — have half their kids who are chronically truant.

D.C. Public Schools has struggled for years with getting and keeping kids in school, especially during the pandemic.

The OSSE report shows only minor improvements for the 2022-2023 school year.

Chronic truancy, defined as having 10 or more unexcused absences, dropped from 42% in the 2021-2022 school year to 37% last school year.

In D.C. high schools, the number is far worse, with 47% of school students considered chronically truant.

The report also found Black students were nearly 10 times as likely to be chronically truant as their white peers.

“If we expect them to show up every day and commit themselves to the work of their K-12 education, we have to have school environments that are welcoming and supportive for those students,” said Danielle Robinette, a policy attorney with D.C.’s Children’s Law Center.

That means scaling up the ongoing efforts at DCPS to meet students’ needs, she said, whether it’s transportation help or other issues facing their family.

Jahnia Franklin, a Ballou senior who told the News4 I-Team she just made the honor roll, said she’s missed eight days of school this semester.

“Eight’s not a lot, though,” she said.

She said she’s dealing with a lot outside of class.

“Everybody knows D.C. is dangerous sometimes,” Ballou senior Montez Hardy said.

He said some of his friends don’t always feel safe getting to and from school.

The OSSE report shows truancy hits hardest among economically disadvantaged families already facing significant challenges.

“You need this collaborative kind of multidisciplinary response to find out what needs of that particular child aren’t being met,” Robinette said.

The report clearly shows more attendance equates to better assessment scores.

In a statement, an OSSE spokesman said they are working on improving school culture and mental health resources. They also have programs which help individual families, though experts like Robinette say they’re not enough.

There’s also the legal side of this. Under D.C. law, a school must refer a teenager who has more than 15 unexcused absences to court social services and potentially the attorney general. More than 7,700 kids fit that bill last year. According to the AG’s office, the court social services ultimately sent them about 300 referrals. Neither DCPS nor OSSE wanted to answer questions on camera Friday.

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Katie Leslie, and shot and edited by Jeff Piper. Steve Jones contributed to this story.

Glock switches, sometimes called “giggle switches” in D.C., are coin-sized accessories typically added to Glock-style handguns. They turn a semiautomatic handgun into a machine gun. Without them, a single bullet is fired with every trigger pull as the gun was designed. With the addition of the switch, the gun fires bullets until the magazine is empty.

On a recent trip to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives range in D.C., the I-Team witnessed an ATF firearms expert fire five bullets in less than a second with a Glock switch-equipped handgun.

The danger is not just from the number of bullets, but what it does to the accuracy of a shooter. Even with years of experience working for the ATF, Firearms Enforcement Officer Wayne Moser could not hit what he was aiming at nearby.

“I was aiming dead center of the neck,” Moser said as the I-Team examined his target spotted with bullet holes far from his intended aim. “Definitely shot a couple of different spots.”

And he is a former Marine. Few shooters in D.C. have that level of proficiency.

“It’s an incredibly serious problem right now,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves said. “It’s something that’s relatively new that has exploded.”

While they have been found in D.C. for years, police and ATF agents say they have found 167 of the devices in 2023. That is 40 more than in all of 2022, a more than 30% increase, with more than a month to go this year.

Craig Kailimai, the special agent in charge of the ATF’s Washington Field Division, told the I-Team he is “absolutely” scared it is going to get worse for his agents and for D.C. residents, too.

“You don’t have to aim (with a Glock switch). You don’t have to be precise,” he said. “You’re sending 10 rounds at your target, whereas normally you would have been firing one round.”

The ATF knows it, but so do people in D.C.’s neighborhoods.

‘It’s dangerous out here everywhere you go’

The I-Team visited three D.C. communities where federal court records show people have recently been arrested for using switches. It is not easy to get people to speak about the problem for fear of becoming a target. One mother said she homeschools her 11-year-old daughter for fear she would get caught in crossfire. Another man, who recently lost a nephew to a shooting involving a switch, said his nephew had been shot 19 times.

“It’s very dangerous,” said one mother, who did not want to be identified.

She knows what a Glock switch sounds like fired outside her home and knows the devastation gun violence is creating. Just a year ago she said she lost a son shot multiple times.

“It’s dangerous out here everywhere you go these days,” she said.

The I-Team spoke with her a block from where court records show a man was arrested after 19 quick shots were detected by ShotSpotter, the gunfire detection technology used in cities across the country that senses the sound of any gunfire and can zero in on automatic fire in seconds.

As Glock switches have grown in popularity, the details of how brazenly they are shown off is chilling.

Federal court records show the work D.C. police do to track Glock switches and the people who have them. The I-Team reviewed cases in which defendants were seen on Instagram Live showing off switches. Another was found on Instagram after posting “Switch it up” over photos of switch-equipped guns. The Instagram photos are included in court records.

Others were found in music videos bragging about their switches.

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gun violence Nov 15, 2023

As some DC families try to move away from gun violence, they find it's not always so easy

Under federal law, the switches are illegal and punishable with serious prison time, but the federal courts do not take every case. That leaves many to be prosecuted under local D.C. laws, which defines these switches as machine guns but punishes them the same as a switchblade or brass knuckles. Under a law first passed in 1932, people caught with switches are eligible for a fine of no more than $2,500 and a year in jail.

Those penalties for possession of what could be an incredibly dangerous weapon are part of the reason U.S. Attorney Graves says District law does not treat machine gun possession seriously enough.

“There’s this view that if a person is caught with a firearm but not quite using the firearm, it’s some kind of possession offense and maybe it’s not really that serious,” he said. “We think that that is dead wrong in all circumstances, but it is particularly wrong with these conversion devices.”

Bill would toughen penalties for Glock switches

Graves is backing a bill from Councilmember Brooke Pinto to change that. That council legislation that would toughen penalties for possessing switches is still waiting on a vote. (Read Pinto’s “Addressing Crime through Targeted Interventions and Violence Enforcement (“ACTIVE”) Amendment Act of 2023” here. The changes involving gun charges are on pages 1 and 10.)

There is proof this is not just an issue of possession. The switches are being used. According to the ATF, 45% of the switches found in D.C. are attached to guns that can be traced to use in previous crimes.

“Not since prohibition have we seen so many machine guns being used to commit violent crimes,” said Tom Chittum, who used to be associate deputy director at ATF.

He now works for the company that makes ShotSpotter.

The technology detected 400 automatic fire alerts nationwide in 2019. In 2022, there were more than 9,000 ShotSpotter automatic gun fire alerts nationwide. They predict even more this year. Across the country, ShotSpotter data shows that what D.C. is seeing is what communities all over America are seeing.

“The danger here, I think, is obvious,” Chittum told the I-Team. “The number of rounds, the rate of fire, the difficulty of controlling them and trying to hit what you’re actually aiming at poses an incredible public safety risk.”

D.C. police refused to share their ShotSpotter data with the I-Team, even denying a Freedom of Information Act request. D.C. police initially told the I-Team they did not have the data but later revised that, saying it was not available to the public.

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, shot by Jeff Piper and Carlos Olazagasti, and edited by Jeff Piper.

Four years ago, Virginia businessman Fredric Gumbinner paid thousands of dollars to become a Culpeper County auxiliary sheriff’s deputy.

According to an assistant U.S. attorney in court and the indictment against him, Gumbinner gave $20,000 to Rick Rahim, another auxiliary deputy, on Oct. 1, 2019, with intent to influence and reward Sheriff Scott Jenkins.

Gumbinner’s attorney admitted the sheriff got at least some of that money as a quid pro quo bribe to make Gumbinner an auxiliary deputy.

According to the indictment, Jenkins never reported a campaign contribution from Gumbinner. The I-Team confirmed that after reviewing campaign filings for the sheriff.

In court Monday, Gumbinner responded to the judge in one- or two-word answers, including pleading “guilty” to the bribery charge.

Gumbinner’s is just one of the bribes Jenkins is accused of accepting. As part of his plea deal, other counts against Gumbinner were dropped. He could face years in prison and won’t be back in court for sentencing until July.

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Gumbinner didn’t talk to the News4 I-Team as he walked in and out of court Monday.

Jenkins, who just lost his reelection bid this month, is scheduled to go on trial in May. According to Gumbinner’s plea agreement, he is obligated to testify.

Both Jenkins and Rahim have pleaded not guilty. Their attorneys had no comment about Monday’s development.

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Jeff Piper.

Mark Williams is the former head of the acclaimed art school’s Literary Media and Communications Department. In 2022, the I-Team reported two women — who had never previously shared their stories publicly and who did not know each other – said they were abused by Williams while students at the school.

The I-Team found complaints about the teacher were made to the school, the school district and police in 2004 and 2018, but Williams didn’t face charges at the time. Following the I-Team’s reporting, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department assigned a new detective to investigate the allegations.

Maryland district court records show Williams was arrested Sunday at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, listed as a fugitive from justice from Washington.

Multiple sources familiar with Williams said he’s been living overseas for several years, which is why police have been unable to track him down until now. D.C. police learned Thursday Williams was back in the country and issued an arrest warrant for him Friday. He was attempting to leave the country again when he was arrested, police said.

He’s now in custody in Anne Arundel County and will be extradited to D.C.

According to warrant information obtained by the I-Team, he’s been charged with first-degree sex abuse of a secondary education student in January 2014.

The I-Team previously told the story of a woman who graduated from Duke Ellington in 2014 and said she was abused by Williams. The woman never came forward with her story until the I-Team approached her in 2021.

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“There’s like a certain level of shame that will keep silence going on for a very long time,” the woman told the I-Team at the time.

Attorney Dawn Jackson represented another woman in a civil case against Williams. That was dismissed due to the statute of limitations, but Jackson said she hopes he will now face justice.

“Mark was one of the people that took advantage of young women who entrusted him as a teacher,” she said. “He stole their innocence. And this is an opportunity for him to be brought to justice.”

Williams resigned in January 2019 while under investigation. He could not be reached for comment Monday.

A court clerk said he was represented by a public defender in a bond hearing Monday. He was ordered held for 30 days, pending extradition. The Anne Arundel County Public Defender’s office declined comment.

In a statement to News4, a spokesperson for the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Project said, “Duke Ellington School has fully cooperated with law enforcement’s investigation of former teacher, Mark Williams.”

Stay with News4 for more on this developing story.

Almost 100 juveniles have been shot in Washington, D.C., so far this year.

Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children in America, and on Monday, Nov. 13, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency on juvenile crimes.

The News4 I-Team put all of its resources together to look at why youth gun violence is happening, how it impacts youth and their families, and what can change.

Our series explores how gunshots change the victims and their families, how social media can fuel gun violence, the obstacles families face getting away from violent communities, and the impact it has on young people living in those communities.

Previous coverage by the News4 I-Team:

On her first day of school in third grade, she recalled, a man was shot in front of her and her family as they exited a bus.

“All I knew was to just run; didn’t stand there in fear. I knew what to do,” she said. “It’s a shame that I know what to do when I hear those bullets and I see that gun come out.”

Years later, she said, little has changed in her community, where she said the sounds of guns are a regular occurrence – so much so the teen said she only feels safe in one place in her home: her family’s bathroom.

There, she explained, “I know a bullet can’t come through the wall.”

Jasmine and her sister, Jessica, are among a half dozen D.C. teenagers — including siblings Nya and Arin, Giovanni and Jordan  — who sat down with the News4 I-Team to discuss the impact of gun violence on their daily lives. They’re all part of the Deanwood Radio Broadcast Youth Journalism Program, a safe space where kids learn about mass media and dream of their future.

The teens live in different neighborhoods and go to different schools in the District, but many of them tell a similar story about what and whom they’ve lost to gun violence.

“I will say that gun violence has definitely deprived me of my youth,” Jessica said.

“It makes you anxious all the time because, you know, you never know what can happen,” Jordan added.

Several of the teens said they have had a classmate or friend killed by guns in recent years. A young man killed outside a convenience store. Another outside his home.

“When it hits so close to home, it just leaves like a sense of fear over everyone,” Nya said. “You shouldn’t have to feel that way as a teenager in D.C.”

Many of these students live in wards 7 and 8, where data show violent crimes with guns have risen the most in the past year.

The teens are all focused on their studies and planning where they want to go to college, but they’re doing so despite a near constant fear for their safety.

“Everything from the outside comes in … There’s people with bullets going through their windows and that’s literally our last resort for safety,” Jessica said of the threat of violence piercing her Anacostia home’s walls.

Asked if they feel safe at home, only a handful of the teens raised their hands. None raised their hands when asked if they feel safe in their schools or communities.

“School should feel like a safe place, but in school you still have to stay paranoid because when we get out of school at 3:30, you don’t know if a gunshot is gonna go off because people are beefing,” Giovanni said.

Earlier this year, the teens sat down with some city leaders to tell their stories and share ideas for what they say could help, like more programs for kids through recreation centers and opportunities for employment.

“We just need more programs for young Black males,” Arin said. “…A lot of young Black males don’t have that luxury of going to a Boy & Girls Club and having that one counselor, one teacher that they’re close with. I felt like that’s something that the young Black males need right now.”

While the teens said they believe the District could offer more paid opportunities for teens, they were divided on whether they felt failed by city leaders.

“In D.C., you make it how you want to make your life,” Giovanni said. “If you hang around the people who are going to push you to do the things that you want to do, then you could be successful.”

But Jessica said too many young people are lost to gun violence simply while living their lives – as bystanders to the surrounding violence in communities like hers.

“They’re losing their lives doing what they’re supposed to do, coming home from work; their extracurriculars,” she said, adding, “The things that are out of our control and in [city leaders’] hands have not been managed well.”

This story was reported by Tracee Wilkins, produced by Katie Leslie, shot by Jeff Piper and Steve Jones, and edited by Steve Jones.

Previous News4 I-Team coverage:

“What we’re seeing now is a community that is deteriorating from its core,” said Houseal.

In July, the Houseals’ security cameras captured a gunfight outside their home. The family sheltered inside as the shooters fired at each other through the family’s front yard.

“You could see the bullet, the fire from the bullet, from the gun,” Houseal told the News4 I-Team.

“That was the last straw for us,” she said.

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‘People want out. They want to feel safe’

Houseal and her husband have started looking for a new home in a different neighborhood. They’re considering leaving the District for Maryland or Virginia.

But the move isn’t one Houseal takes lightly, she said, since she’s the voice of the community, serving as the advisory neighborhood commissioner for Ward 7.

She said many of her constituents echo her concerns about crime.

“People want out. They want to feel safe,” she said.

But escaping the gunfire and random acts of violence isn’t that simple for Houseal or many of her neighbors. Though she owns her home and could sell, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage is hovering near 8%.

Other families in the District told the I-Team they’re held back by a different set of obstacles, especially those living in D.C.’s public housing.

Ebonee Hill said all she wants is for her kids to feel safe doing simple things: “Taking the trash out; getting the groceries out of the car.”

News4 first interviewed Hill in 2019 after an unimaginable pattern of events. Her two sons — then only 12 and 13 years old — were shot within months of each other near Kenilworth Avenue NE. They both survived, but her 13-year-old, Roy’Nal, was paralyzed from the waist down.

After the shootings, she said she pleaded with the D.C. Housing Authority to relocate her family. The Housing Authority eventually did — but the Lincoln Heights house was not wheelchair accessible for her son, Hill says. And her family doesn’t feel any safer. They live within a few blocks from where 10-year-old Makiyah Wilson was shot and killed by gang members in 2018 while sitting on her front stoop.   

“I need a bigger unit that is handicap accessible, but they’re claiming they don’t have that,” Hill said.

She feels her options are limited, because she can’t afford market-rate rent while also paying utilities and other bills families face. She has applied for federal relief through the Housing Choice Voucher Program, which could allow her to rent anywhere in the city, but she said she’s been on that list almost 20 years.

“I’m stuck here in D.C. trying to make an honest living to provide for my children, trying to keep them safe, but it’s so dangerous out here,” she said.

D.C. Housing Authority’s waitlist to access housing vouchers and public housing has been closed since 2013, and there is no scheduled time to reopen it. 

“Everyone can’t afford to buy houses and live in a nice area,” she told News4 back in 2019, after her sons were shot.

We wanted to ask the Housing Authority about the waitlist and some of the challenges it’s up against when trying to relocate families. The authority’s police chief, Joel Maupin, couldn’t talk to those larger issues but acknowledged residents’ concerns.

“The residents are very concerned — especially if you were a victim of crime — then certainly you feel you are in crisis,” said Maupin.

However, he said he feels hopeful about D.C. improving safety for residents.

“I think with a good enforcement effort, with enough police, we can turn this corner,” he said.

Yesim Sayin, the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said the issue in part is the lack of affordable housing units and where they’re being built.

The D.C. Policy Center, a nonprofit think tank, has helped decision makers in D.C. get fact-based research to aid them with policy proposals regarding housing issues.

“It’s cheaper to build these units in less-resourced parts of town,” Sayin told us. “So, these units come out in probably neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates, and that creates more economic segregation for the city and for the families.”

Maupin said the city is trying to do more mixed development and hopes Mayor Muriel Bowser’s programs help.

“And in those, each of those areas, you see more of the of the amenities being placed in those areas,” Maupin said.

As for Houseal and her family, they haven’t found a new home yet but have started packing anyway. They hope the new city initiatives eventually will make a difference.

“We’re hoping that there are, with some of the new initiatives coming down the pike, that the communities will begin to be safer,” said Houseal.

She’s referring to some of the new legislation introduced by Bowser, including the Crime Trends Now Act, and the Secure DC Plan: two initiatives aimed at improving public safety by providing law enforcement more tools to keep neighborhoods like Houseal’s and Hill’s safer.

There are several resources for which D.C. residents can apply, including HPAP and EAHP programs that can help them become homeowners. The National Low Income Housing Coalition has more information on housing policy.

More resources:

• Bread for the City
• D.C. Department of Human Services
• D.C.’s Children’s Law Center
• Empower DC
• Legal Aid DC
• Legal Counsel for the Elderly

Reported by Susan Hogan, produced by Ambar Rodriguez, and shot and edited by Lance Ing.

Previous News4 I-Team coverage:

“When it comes to safety, I feel like they’re a little bit safer in Maryland,” she said.

But this mom said despite moving them out of the District, she still worries for their safety and well-being because of social media. In recent years, one of her daughters had to change schools after a dispute on social media turned physical.

“It happened on social media for a couple of weeks and ended up spilling into the schoolhouse where they ended up getting into a fight all because of all this he said, she said stuff,” Kenner recalled.

But Kenner counts her family lucky, as researchers like Desmond Patton say social media is all too often fueling disputes among young people that can turn deadly.

“In the communities that I work in, cyberbullying means life or death,” said Patton, a University of Pennsylvania professor.

Patton began studying how inner-city youth violence plays out over social media after observing an online fight between two young Chicago rappers — Chief Keef and Lil JoJo — in 2012.

“They were beefing on Twitter for a couple of weeks … And then Lil JoJo posted his exact location on Twitter and was like, ‘I want to do something about this beef. Meet me here.’ And he was murdered in that exact location within three hours,” Patton said.

Chief Keef denied involvement, and the rapper’s killer was never caught. But the killing inspired Patton to create the SAFELab, where he documents how kids of color relate to the internet. Patton calls social media a megaphone that can accelerate conflict.

“Twenty years ago, someone would step on your shoe, and you would get upset about that and want to fight about that,” Patton said. “Now the stepping on your shoe is happening on social media, and now you have thousands of people that are expecting you to do something about it.”

Andre Wright, assistant chief of the Youth and Family Engagement Bureau for the Metropolitan Police Department, said there’s real reason to be concerned about how quickly a life can end after a simple post.

“It could be minutes. It could be minutes. I mean, there are cases where children are making these threats to one another while they’re driving to meet each other,” he said.

Too often, innocent people are caught in the crossfire, including 10-year-old Makiyah Wilson, shot and killed outside her Clay Terrace home in 2018.Federal prosecutors say several men opened fire in the neighborhood “because of a petty social media feud.” In October six men were sentenced for their role in her murder.

Data directly linking social media to violence is hard to come by, but some researchers see a connection between the explosion of social media apps and a rise in youth homicide rates.

Federal data show that, among people ages 15 to 19, homicide rates declined from 2006 to 2014 but increased 91% from 2014 to 2021.

Among people ages 20 to 24, the homicide rate increased 49% in roughly the same time frame.

“The youth are very savvy with using social media to be able to get messages across to their ‘opps,’ or individuals who they feel are their opposition,” said EZ Street, a community activist and radio personality who also works as a violence interrupter in the District.

He said much of his work is focused on teaching kids conflict resolution and relationship building – an effort to address the trauma he said many young people who go on to be involved in the criminal justice system experience as kids.

“These kids experience things when they’re very, very young that they should not be seeing, feeling, experiencing, and then they end up in a system, you know, committed because what happens? Hurt people. Hurt people,” he said.

He knows what it’s like to lose a mentee to violence that started online and ended a real life.

“Like, one minute you’re working with the kid and, you know, you’re seeing them in one of your programs … Then you hear the next day that so-and-so is no longer with us because the kid, you know, was on the internet and said some things and somebody saw the video and bam,” he said.

Patton, the University of Pennsylvania professor, said social media should be thought of as a neighborhood — a place where young people are living their lives – and that communities working to end gun violence should pay attention to what’s happening on those virtual streets.

“We are focused on improving upon the physical realities of violence prevention and getting guns off the street and intervening in real time,” Patton said, calling that work incredibly important. “But what we’ve missed is that a lot of the translation of that, the arguments of that, the acceleration of that, the amplification of that is happening in a comment section.”

Tonye’ Kenner’s son, Tony, who’s focused on getting into college, said the risk of online conflict is part of why he doesn’t spend a lot of time on social media.

“I definitely limit how much access I give the social media. Like I say, I do it for entertainment and just observe things so I can keep up with the trends and know what’s going on to protect myself,” he said.

Pressed on what he means by protecting himself, Tony added, “I’d rather know what’s going on then be out here naive and blind.”

A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said the company acts against reported content that violates community standards, such as removing language that incites or facilitates “serious violence.”

The spokeswoman said when warranted, the company will disable accounts and work with law enforcement when it believes there’s a “genuine risk of physical harm or threats to public safety.”

Reported by Tracee Wilkins, produced by Katie Leslie, shot by Steve Jones and Jeff Piper, and edited by Jeff Piper.

Previous News4 I-Team coverage:

“A lot of shame. And in certain places I go, I feel I can’t tell people I’m an addict because they’ll judge me,” she told the News4 I-Team in her Arlington apartment.

Yet she does.

“I want to help people,” she said. “Those people like me who are in my shoes.”

She knows it’s a miracle she’s still alive.

“For me, it’s a brain disease,” she said. “I can’t just do one (pill) and stop.”

She’s battled addiction since she was a teenager, but her pathway to fentanyl didn’t start until about a decade ago.

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“I was a boxer and I messed my knees up,” she said. “And I had to have both my knees replaced in 2012.”

A doctor prescribed her OxyContin — even with her known history of addiction. When it became too expensive, as with many people battling addiction, fentanyl became her drug of choice.

“It’s cheaper and it’s more powerful,” she said. “I think that’s it.”

And Chiarotti is very honest about the high.

“Oh, God. I can’t even. I can’t even. It feels really good. It feels really good,” she said.

Chiarotti said a weekend of cocaine could cost as much as $400. To stay high on fentanyl for the same time cost just $20, she said.

But that high, at just $1 per pill, often has an even bigger price.

“You’re either going to get addicted or you going to die,” Chiarotti said. “There is no one time with this drug. That’s how powerful it is.”

“It’s pushed out coke. It’s pushed out heroin. It’s pushed down molly. It’s pushed down meth, morphine, all that,” she said. “It’s pushed out everything.”

And people are dying. Last year, almost 2,000 people in Virginia died from fentanyl, making up 75% of all fatal drug overdoses, according to the Department of Health.

And the agency predicts — at the current rate — fentanyl overdose deaths this year will surpass 2022.

“It’s killing people because the drug dealers think, they’ll come back to me. But they’re killing their clientele because there’s people who have not used before and don’t now,” Chiarotti.

She remembers the day she almost lost it all on her living room floor.

“When I woke up, a friend of mine had came in,” she said. “I still had the needle in my arm. And when she Narcanned me, I was throwing up.”

But even that wasn’t enough to make her stop. She said she got high the very next day. It took losing all those friends and spending her last $2 on one last hit to admit her truth.

“Just got tired of hiding,” she said. “I was ashamed, at first because I had pickleball friends who were lawyers and doctors, and on this side, I had users and addicts and recovering addicts. And it was like two of me.”

This is not her first attempt at sobriety. The day she spoke with the I-Team, she said she’d been clean for 55 days. Volunteering with the Arlington Addiction Recovery Initiative — telling her story — keeps her focused.

“I do it because it keeps me clean. It keeps me. It keeps me going. I have an obligation, I feel, because people have saved my life,” she said. “So, I go on for the people that their lives have not been saved, and that’s what pushes me as well.”

It’s apparent she’s loved. Greeting cards cover the walls of her home.

“These are cards from everyone throughout the years that people have given me,” she said.

No matter where she moves, they follow.

“I keep them up just to give me encouragement, remind me that I am loved and people do care about me,” she said.

And while eradicating the fentanyl crisis feels impossible at times, she said saving one more life — like her own — is possible. There was always one constant when she was alone and using.

“I think the one thing I wanted was I didn’t want to die,” she said. I couldn’t stop using and I didn’t want to die.”

In that moment when she thought she might, she prayed.

“I said, ‘God, please God, please, please, just let me get through this, and I promise, I promise I’ll try to do better,’” she said. “And I asked him to use me.”

Chiarotti said being able to share her story of addiction, loss and now recovery is proof to her God listened.

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, these are some helpful resources:

• Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources
• Before It’s Too Late — Maryland
• LIVE. LONG. DC.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
• U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
• Operation Prevention

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Steve Jones and Jeff Piper.

“I can see the addiction,” she told the News4 I-Team, “but I know that that wasn’t him. I don’t think that there’s been a day that has gone by that one of us hasn’t said his name.”

As communities across the D.C. area continue to fight fentanyl, the I-Team asked the Lowry family to share Aiden’s story as we examined why the opioid still has such a powerful pull on users.

It’s not an easy conversation for Lowry – the details of her son’s journey are brutal to remember. But she does it, tells her family’s story as often as she can, pushing for more treatment, more harm reduction, more prevention efforts at schools. She thinks people need to hear about the true costs of fentanyl.

“It was just too strong,” she said. “It was just too powerful.”

Aiden was addicted to fentanyl before he ever knew he was using it, Lowry said.

A straight-A student before COVID-19 hit, Aiden withdrew during the lockdown. Isolation led to anxiety, his mother explained. Anxiety led to depression.

Lowry says a new friend introduced Aiden to a THC-vape. She had no idea the kid who normally shared everything was now using.

“It’s just … it’s actually completely crazy to think that it was happening right under my nose, like, in my home,” she said. “But he was exceptionally good at hiding it.”

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At some point, Aiden tried what he thought was Percocet, a tiny opioid pill, his mother said.

Concerned by what they thought were symptoms of a mental health issue – fatigue and withdrawing from family — Lowry and her husband sent Aiden to therapists and a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist suggested a drug screen, and when it came back positive for fentanyl, Lowry said Aiden was as surprised as she was.

It’s not a surprise to experts tracking the fentanyl crisis. At the Drug Enforcement Administration lab in Largo, Maryland analysts are examining thousands of pills a week testing for fentanyl. There is so much of the drug in our area, we’re told that every analyst must test Fentanyl every day. 

DEA supervisory chemist Jaclyn Brown called the pace of fentanyl work, “grueling, daunting,” and said it’s been this was for at least a year.

Just as frightening as the amount of fentanyl is its appearance. On the day the I-Team was in the lab, Brown showed bag after bag of tiny pills. Many of them were stamped with the identical markings as a legitimate oxycodone pill – down to the manufacturer and dosage markings.

“Six in 10 pills have a lethal dosage in them,” Brown explained. “All you really need is one. One pill can kill.”

At the same time Aiden was fighting his addiction, the I-Team found a case involving a now-convicted fentanyl dealer in the same community.

Federal court records show Alpha Kamara was moving thousands of fentanyl-laden pills from his base in Prince William County in 2022. No users or victims are identified in the Kamara case, and police have not yet arrested anyone tied to Aiden Lowry’s death. But the massive amount of pills Kamara was able to transport for as little as $1 per pill shows just how much of the drug is out there.

Jessica Aber, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, told the I-Team about the case against Alpha Kamara.

“He was selling 10,000 pills in Lorton, Virginia, in exchange for $10,000,” she said. “Two days later, he is being chased by the Virginia State Police on I-95. He is doing 140 miles an hour in a stolen car. He’s finally taken into custody. He slips off the first set of handcuffs. They put him back in cuffs. The police search the vehicle and find 18,000 counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, about $13,000 in cash and a loaded firearm.”

If one pill can make an addict — and one pill can be fatal — think of how many lives and families 18,000 pills can affect.

According to the court record, Kamara was convicted of a gun and drug charge in 2018. As he ended his sentence, he was put on home confinement. Just days after that home confinement ended, Kamara had suppliers in Arizona and Washington shipping him thousands of pills through the U.S. mail, court records show.

Aber told the I-Team she believes they were likely sourced from Mexican cartels.

All of it in the custody of a 24-year-old previously convicted of a felony and just three days off home confinement.

Aber called it “amazing,” “horrifying” and just one case against one dealer. As Kamara was sentenced, Aber said that he showed no remorse, but that maybe some would develop during his 11-year sentence.

“I don’t think that anyone sets out in life to be a drug dealer and to kill your users,” he said. “That just cannot be how Americans operate. So, I can’t speak to him specifically, but I’d like to think that people, when they have some time and distance to reflect on these kinds of activities, do feel some remorse.”

Aber calls fentanyl “one of the greatest public safety crises of our time” and reminded the I-Team 109,000 Americans died of opioids last year alone.

Aiden Lowry was one of them.

Last spring, Aiden went to rehab in California.

“He was thankful that he had gone and he felt much better,” his mother told the I-Team. “He felt renewed. But I think that there was also this like, ‘I can’t promise, you know, I can’t promise sobriety … I don’t know how I’m going to do this. This is so hard.’”

Aiden continued treatment at home in outpatient programs, his mom said. She thinks he was clean for six weeks until early fall last year.

Aiden’s family worked hard to find a doctor who would treat him with Suboxone, a medication to treat opioid dependence. Lowry said despite many calls, they could not find any who would give it to adolescents. Aiden was 17.

“We were just, it was like turned down at every angle,” she said.

Aiden eventually started using again.

“He told us that he had made a big mistake. He said, ‘I just, I’ve ruined my life.’ He was just desperate for a change, but he felt like it was an impossible task … It was completely devastating,” Lowry said.

He agreed to a second trip to rehab last November. A day after he arrived, he ran away from the center and was sent home, Lowry said.

“He really struggled with (his drug use) because he really wanted to be a good person,” she said.

As Thanksgiving passed last year and Christmas approached, the pull of the pill Aiden never wanted to take was just too hard.

“It’s just so easy to get,” his mother told the I-Team.

As his struggle intensified, Lowry believes Aiden sought fentanyl for its cheap and intense high.

On a Saturday morning in December, she found her son in his bedroom.

“I went into his bedroom,” she said. “I saw him there with his eyes closed and I called his name, and he didn’t answer. And I started calling louder, and he didn’t do anything. He wasn’t moving. And I knew then.”

They tried Narcan, but it was too late.

Aiden, her 17-year-old son who had big dreams, was gone.

“I’m angry at addiction and I’m angry at the creators of this pill,” she said. “And I honestly think that he was somewhat innocent in this like that. He did not ask for this and certainly didn’t understand what he was getting himself into.”

Aiden is buried beneath a stone bearing words he wrote himself. His mother says Aiden was a poet and as he fought his addiction, he wrote that he “had the devil on one shoulder, but God on both sides.” His family’s pastor read the line at his memorial service just days before Christmas last year.

If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, these are some helpful resources:

• Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources
• Before It’s Too Late — Maryland
• LIVE. LONG. DC.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
• U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
• Operation Prevention

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, shot and edited by Steve Jones and Jeff Piper.

Tim Chilton, an assistant chief for the city of Culpeper, is projected to be the next sheriff in the county. He won every part of the county and has two months to get ready to take over

Sheriff Scott Jenkins was indicted earlier this year on charges that he took bribes and gave auxiliary badges to people who allegedly paid for them. He pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial in May.

The federal government seized almost all of his campaign funds in January.

In two public debates, the indictment wasn’t really raised as an issue.

Chilton said the issues in the indictment may not be the last concerns about what’s going on inside the sheriff’s office. He plans audits of the budget, guns the office purchased and an overhaul of an auxiliary deputy program.

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Jenkins has worked for the sheriff’s office for 33 years and is well known for his service and at times outspoken support of gun rights.

Jenkins and his attorney did not respond to several emails from News4 about the election.

Joe Watson, a retired Alexandria police officer who also worked in the Culpeper County Sheriff’s office, was the third candidate.

According to court testimony, days after being sent home that girl and her half-sister were part of a group that allegedly called and then carjacked a rideshare driver last Thursday.  Her half-sister died in a crash Thursday in D.C.’s Brentwood neighborhood shortly after the alleged carjacking.

“In my opinion, you’ve been arrested for the seventh time for carjacking, [secure detention] is where you belong,” Bowser told reporters Monday. “DYRS (Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services) does not make that decision. Judges do, and it’s the judge’s right to say I prefer shelter. And if I can’t get a shelter, then I’m going to send this child home. The child was sent home. The child is now not with us.”

Juvenile court records are sealed. Bowser did not elaborate on the seven carjacking arrests. Through court testimony, the I-Team can confirm robbery charges from April and armed carjacking charges from the incident last week. The 15-year-old’s attorney told the judge the girl was not guilty and/or not involved in the carjacking.

In a hearing Friday, it was revealed following the April charges, D.C. Superior Court Judge Andrea Hertzfeld ordered the girl be held in a secure house awaiting trial. It is considered a secure placement, but not a jail like setting. Juveniles are still allowed to go to school and work but must stay at the secure home.

In court, Hertzfeld explained when a secure house placement couldn’t be found for the teen, she allowed her to go home to her parents with a GPS monitor.

Six days later the teen was allegedly involved in the recent carjacking, according to D.C. police. At the time, police said the battery on her GPS monitor was dead. A court supervision officer said she had not been reporting for supervision, nor was she regularly attending school.

On Friday, Hertzfeld said she had repeatedly considered holding DYRS in contempt, adding that finding placement for girls has been a persistent problem.

“If we have children who are doing carjackings, it’s probably not a single one that they’ve done or have been arrested for,” Bowser told reporters. “We need to make sure the children don’t learn that they can do carjackings randomly and without punishment. A secured environment may actually help them get the services that they need.”

But it may not be that simple. The I-Team checked DYRS’ population count at the agency’s Youth Services Center, its most secure facility. As of Monday at 11:15 a.m., 92 children were housed there. DYRS says it has an 88-bed capacity. 

As the agency deals with a surge in juvenile crime, D.C.’s fiscal year 2024 budget shows the agency’s bottom line was cut $2.3 million this year. The cut was recently reported by DC Crime Facts. 

Reached Monday, a spokesperson for D.C. Courts told the I-Team, “Judges are prohibited from discussing any active cases – in both juvenile and adult court proceedings. The court follows the statutes and interprets the laws passed by the D.C. City Council every day. In pre-trial detention hearings, in consultation with the defense and prosecuting attorneys, judges take into account the safety and welfare of the public as well as those accused of committing crimes when making their determination. These findings include identifying the least restrictive pre-trial conditions while ensuring the safety of the public. “In juvenile matters, when a judge orders a juvenile to a D.C. Department of Youth and Rehabilitation Services’ Community-Based Residential Facilities (C.B.R.F) pending their trial, DYRS is not legally permitted to detain juveniles at the 24-hour secure Youth Services Center when bed space is not available at one of their Community-Based Residential Facilities. In such cases and scenarios, the court should immediately be made aware of the unavailable bed space so that a hearing can be scheduled that permits all sides to make their arguments and positions known in order to shape the rulings made by the court connected to pre-trial placement involving juveniles.”

Another hearing in the case is scheduled for Nov. 13.

In a statement, Sam Abed, the director of D.C.’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services told the I-Team, “While DYRS cannot comment on a specific youth due to confidentiality, it should be noted that DC Superior Court’s Court Social Services Division is responsible for the supervision of youth pre-trial. Any loss of life is deeply tragic; this is certainly true when a child is killed. We must do everything we can to ensure that our youth live, and that includes giving Courts the ability to consider risks mitigating against the safety and the corresponding safety of the public; for youth who commit a violent crime or a dangerous crime, a provision of Mayor Bowser’s proposed Safer Stronger Amendment Act of 2023. We renew our ask for the passage of this critical provision because no group is at higher risk of harm than those young people engaging in the most risky and dangerous criminal activity.”

A Montgomery County family was shocked recently to learn a property it owned since the 1970s was listed for sale – but not by them.

“Sure enough, there it was, our property, my family’s property with a for sale sign online,” Jim told the News4 I-Team. (News4 is not using his real name to protect his family’s identity.)

The two-acre lot sits along a peaceful road in Potomac, Maryland, lush with trees and bushes. According to the listing, it was “a unique opportunity to own and build your own beautiful home” on the vacant lot.

“They wanted all cash, which presumably means you avoid having a lender scrutiny involved,” said Jim.

So, if Jim’s family wasn’t selling it, who was?

“Once we saw who the actual listing agent was, we picked up the phone, and I asked a couple of quick questions about the listing and that prompted him to quickly say, ‘Well, who are you? Who is this?’”

After Jim and his family met with the agent and provided documentation proving his parents were the rightful owners, the realtor realized he had been duped.

It was a close call. Jim shared a text chain with the I-Team between the realtor and the imposter.

The realtor wrote, “We have an excellent offer in hand that requires a response from you.”

The scammer responded, “Kindly lock down the offer, as long as it’s a cash offer and closing date is a short period.”

“They had no intention of ever meeting in person to set things up,” Jim said.

Fortunately, the sale didn’t go through after the scammer ghosted the realtor, who was pushing for a photo ID to be emailed.

How they do it

The I-Team has documented several incidents like this around the area.

“Primarily they’re targeting properties that are not monitored regularly by the people who own the property,” said Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy. “Quick in, quick out. They forge documents, usually driver’s licenses and things like that with pictures. They mine off the Internet, send them in and say, this is me.”

The criminals find targets by scouring public records for properties with no mortgage or liens. They research the real owners, often pulling information from social media or public records to create falsified documents. Then they contact a realtor posing as the seller, refusing to sign closing documents in person.

The elaborate scheme has even caught the eye of the U.S. Secret Service agents at Global Investigative Operations Center.

“We started seeing these vacant land scams or seller impersonation scams going back to last fall and then increasing ever since,” financial fraud investigator Stephen Dougherty said.

People have lost their property. In Fairfield, Connecticut, neighbors were shocked to see a $1.5 million house built on land that sat vacant for decades. But not as shocked as the actual owner.

Blame it on COVID

Experts say COVID-19 made the scam possible. During the pandemic, many transactions were done remotely, not in person, including home sales.

Businesses got good at it and so did criminals.

“I think people have gotten psychologically a little bit more comfortable with doing more business at a distance,” said Matt Troiani with the National Association of Realtors.

Troiani said remote transactions are here to stay. That’s why his organization is warning members about the scam and telling them to be extra vigilant.

“If the property is for sale and you’ve never met the seller, maybe what you do is you send a certified letter to the actual address on the tax records for the actual owners,” said Troiani.

Investigators said, while there are local scammers, most of the phony owners are operating overseas.

“It is highly organized,” Dougherty said. “You need people to launder your money. You need people to be doing your research in terms of the properties that you want to attack.”

Jim said there were red flags with the ad for his family’s Potomac property. It was listed for way less than the actual value of the property, and the realtor admitted all their conversations were done by text.

Protect against the scam

There are some things you can do to protect yourself, especially if you have vacant property that’s been sitting there for a while.

Jim signed up for Google alerts for the targeted address and asked the regional listing service to flag his property.

Make it a habit to routinely check the records of the property – perhaps when paying taxes – to make sure all the information is accurate.

The I-Team tried the phone numbers associated with the fake ads, but the person simply hung up.

Just weeks after that fake listing was pulled, Jim had another surprise: Another listing for his family’s property popped up online, this time with a different realtor

“I called him up, had to explain the same thing, and I think it was he who expressed some degree of surprise or frustration that he says, ‘Well, I guess this means maybe I’m going to have to ask for a photo ID for all my listings now.’”

Reported by Susan Hogan; produced by Rick Yarborough; shot by Steve Jones, Carlos Olazagasti and Jeff Piper; and edited by Jeff Piper.

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For years, the so-called “no paper rate” steadily climbed. It’s the rate at which arrests by D.C. police were not prosecuted in court. In fiscal year 2022 (ending Sept. 30, 2022), two of every three criminal arrests in D.C. were not prosecuted – 67%. In fiscal year 2023 (ending Sept. 30, 2023), that rate dropped to 56%. It is lower, but still higher than nine of the past 10 years and almost twice what it was in 2013.

Graves said the high number was due in large part to D.C.’s shuttered crime lab not being able to test drug evidence. He has since worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration to test more D.C. cases.

In an interview with the I-Team, Graves acknowledged last year’s rate was too high.

“There were absolutely too many cases where we wanted to go forward and couldn’t go forward,” he said. “We worked hard to address that issue.”

Graves pushed back however on criticism that the low number of prosecutions somehow contributed to a perception of a lack of consequences for D.C. crime, saying judges this year have sentenced defendants to “thousands of years” in custody.

“As a career prosecutor, it is incredibly important to me to hold people accountable for their criminal conduct,” Graves told the News4 I-Team.

While admitting not prosecuting two-thirds of people arrested is too high, Graves wouldn’t say what the right number is. Graves says it is not 100%, either. In a presentation for reporters, Graves explained the 42% of cases his office does not prosecute.

1. 18.2% are cases in which a victim does not want to assist in the prosecution. According to Graves many of those are low level cases. He offered that one such group of cases is minor domestic violence in which D.C.’s “mandatory arrest” policy mandates police arrest someone.
2. 13.9% are cases in which there is insufficient evidence. 
3. 7.2% are not prosecuted due to prosecutorial discretion.
4. 2.9% are declined when prosecutors determine there is an affirmative defense such as self-defense.

Of all those categories, Graves told reporters the 13.9% of cases in which there is “insufficient evidence” will be the easiest place to make progress. He said some of that could be due to the Metropolitan Police Department’s short staffing; others on a need to retrain D.C. officers on recent appeals court cases affecting how firearm evidence is handled.

Graves was eager to point out 90% of the “most serious violent crimes” are prosecuted. According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, those numbers have been at or slightly above 90% every year since 2016, which is as far back as statistics released Thursday go). The one exception was fiscal year 2022 when that rate for violent crime dropped to 87%. The statistics from his office however narrow the definition of “most serious violent crimes” to homicide, assault with intent to kill, carjacking and first-degree sexual assault. They do not include robbery or assault with a dangerous weapon, which includes most shootings. As first reported by DC Crime Facts and verified by reports from the D.C. Sentencing Commission, prosecution rates for assault with a dangerous weapon were 66% for 2019 to 2022.

As D.C. continues to fight violent crime, Graves said he is taking more cases to federal district court where penalties for gun crimes can be more severe than in D.C. Superior Court. 

The I-Team reached out to the Metropolitan Police Department and the D.C. police officer’s union for reaction. On a busy news afternoon for both, neither has offered comment.

The I-Team reviewed daily summaries of the guard’s nearly $2 million mission and found that, over roughly three weeks, they referred about 1,800 people to border authorities for illegal crossings and 145 people to police. But the reports also show the guard didn’t encounter fentanyl at any point and experienced what one commander described as a “weakening of the deterrent effect of our Soldiers and Airmen” on migrants and alleged human traffickers.

Shortly after Youngkin announced his decision to send troops to Texas, critics pounced on the move as politically motivated, arguing the governor was using the guard to prove his conservative bona fides ahead of a possible presidential bid.

But Youngkin, who was among more than a dozen Republican governors responding to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request for help, insisted Virginia has a stake in what happens on the border.

Due to the “unmitigated danger posed by the increasing drug supply exacerbating the fentanyl crisis and the impact of criminal activity in the Commonwealth, Virginia will do its part to assist the State of Texas’ efforts,” Youngkin wrote in his May executive directive.

Through an open records request, the I-Team obtained invoices and daily “situation reports” detailing the guard’s July deployment to Eagle Pass, Texas. None of the reports, which outline what the guard observed each day, indicates troops encountered or seized fentanyl.

In an interview with Roanoke NBC affiliate WSLS 10 News during the deployment, the task force’s commander, Maj. Sidney Leslie, acknowledged the members “haven’t seen (fentanyl) in this particular area,” while referring the reporter to the Texas Department of Public Safety for more.

An NPR analysis of federal data in August found nearly 90% of illicit fentanyl is seized at official border crossings — not spots along the Rio Grande River where the Virginia guard was deployed. According to immigration authorities cited in the NPR report, the majority is smuggled by people legally authorized to enter the country, with more than half by U.S. citizens.

Though the Virginia guard members didn’t find fentanyl, Leslie told WSLS his troops encountered human trafficking “every single day.” But the guard was powerless to arrest bad actors, however, and instead worked to track potential illegal crossings and refer people they suspected of criminal activity to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Records show the guard recorded 6,717 people they described as “illegal immigrants” – anyone a guard member believed intended to cross into the United States. Of those, the guard referred less than a third – 1,834 – to federal border authorities.

They also reported 145 people they described as criminals to Texas authorities, though it’s unclear whether any were charged with a crime.

On July 18, their eighth day working the border, the “commander’s assessment” reported “a weakening of the deterrent effect of our Soldiers and Airmen,” writing, though “soldiers are giving clear commands,” human traffickers and immigrants “know that [they] will not use physical force against them.”

The reports also reveal conflict over Virginia’s policy to withhold water to migrants.

On July 22,when the temperature in Eagle Pass reached 102 degrees, the commander’s assessment notes the task force “continues to faithfully adhere to precise special orders, such as not giving water” to migrants, a policy some of the troops reported caused conflict ”between individuals or small groups of officials external to (Task Force) Cardinal, such as questioning why they are not giving (immigrants) water…”

The guard declined an interview request with News4, but in a statement, a spokesman said troops were following Texas’ policy and that Virginia troops only had water for personal needs and “not to operate a water distribution point.”

“For the safety of all involved, the Texas policy was for DPS and CBP to provide water to individuals once they were in custody. While VNG Soldiers and Airmen remained under the control of their Virginia task force leadership and ultimately the Governor of Virginia, they still needed to follow the operational rules established by Texas for the safety and efficiency of the mission,” the spokesman wrote.

After reviewing the I-Team’s findings, Virginia State Sen. Scott Surovell, a Democrat, said, “It just suggests that the mission really was not all that effective and didn’t really accomplish its purpose.”

Surovell, who represents Fairfax County, has been a critic of the mission since it was announced, arguing to News4 the money would’ve been better spent on drug enforcement squads and treatment and prevention programs inside the Commonwealth.

The records show the mission cost Virginians at least $1.9 million, with nearly half of that, about $788,000, on salaries; more than $550,000 on lodging and food, and more than $300,000 on travel.

“I can think of a lot better ways to spend $2 or $3 million to help address the fentanyl problem,” Surovell said. “I’m just disappointed that our National Guard troops are being used like this. They’re not political pawns.”

Asked about the I-Team’s findings earlier this month, Youngkin defended the mission as “without a doubt” worthwhile.

“We need to secure our border,” Youngkin told the I-Team, adding the troops did so by helping “thousands and thousands and thousands of other guardsmen who were working on the border in Texas.”

At the conclusion of the 30-day deployment, the commander of the Virginia National Guard task force also declared the mission “highly effective.”

This story was reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Katie Leslie, shot by Steve Jones and edited by Jeff Piper. WSLS 10 News anchor John Carlin and photojournalist Jeff Perzan contributed to this report.

The recent college graduate began looking for an apartment online while still living in Southern California, creating a post on Facebook Marketplace advertising what he needed.

Quickly, he heard from a prospective landlord looking for a tenant for her apartment in Northeast D.C. He said he was familiar with the building from a prior trip to D.C., but because he wasn’t able to see it in person, he was encouraged when the landlord sent a video walking him through its alleged interiors.

“It looked like a perfect fit. It had everything that I needed,” Barillas said.

But before proceeding, the landlord said, she wanted a reference. And Barillas, in an effort to do his due diligence, too, said he researched her name – allegedly Victoria White — and found it matched with social media profiles. Next, the landlord sent him a rental agreement from an attorney, whose name and bar information was included.

“I made sure that the lawyer was legit. I searched their name up, and it came back to a real law firm,” he said.

Thinking he did everything right, Barillas signed a lease and wired around $2,000 to secure the apartment, only for the landlord to ignore his messages when he flew out to D.C. A day later, the person sent a message saying there was a problem with the apartment and it wasn’t yet ready.

“At that point, I was like, I feel like I am getting scammed right now,” he said.

Barillas said once in the District, he checked out the building in person and realized that, while the address was correct, the apartment number that he thought was his didn’t exist. He called the attorney on his rental agreement.

“And they said, ‘Oh, sweetie, this is a scam,’” he said.

His experience is part of what the D.C. Office of Attorney General has described as an uptick in rental fraud complaints this year. The issue is a perennial problem, but Emily Barth, assistant attorney general with the Office of Consumer Protection, said her office saw a surge of complaints over the summer of scams targeting college students, short-term renters and people moving to the District from out of the area.

“We’ve been seeing consumer losses anywhere from $500 for an application fee to upwards of $1,000 to $5,000 for security deposit fraud,” she said.

According to the FBI, consumers lost nearly $397 million last year in real estate related fraud, a crime the bureau indicates exploded during the pandemic. According to the FBI’s 2022 Internet Crime Report, the bureau received more than 11,700 complaints, though it doesn’t specify how many were due to rental fraud versus other types of real estate-related crimes.

Barth said rental schemes can take different forms.

In some, scammers steal photos from real listings and advertise them with their contact information. Some use phantom rentals which use photos of a property that is not located at the advertised address. And they may also steal the name of a real person or company — such as a real estate agent, property management company or attorney — to make the scam seem legit.

In Barillas’ case, the landlord may have been a fake, but the attorney she claimed to use isn’t. Miriam Davidson, who practices law in New York, told the I-Team she has no idea how her name got caught up in this scheme.

She said she and her legal assistant have fielded more than a dozen calls from victims of someone or people using the name “Victoria White” since 2019.

“I had numerous people crying on the phone because they handed over money,” said Ericka Pombo, Davidson’s legal assistant.

“Once the money is gone, it is just gone, because most of the scammers ask for the money to be sent in a non-refundable way,” Barth said, such as by wiring money or using cash apps like Zelle.

Their office advises people pay with personal check or credit card to provide some measure of protection, should something go awry.

Barillas said, in hindsight, he was the ideal candidate to be scammed, since he was unable to see the apartment in person before moving to the area. Thankfully, he eventually found a place to rent and said there’s no substitute for picking up the phone and meeting face-to-face first.

“What helped me out this time was being able to see the place in person, knowing that the people I’m meeting are real,” he said.

Tips for avoiding rental scams online:

1. Don’t send money without seeing the property first, whether in person, through a friend or by asking the landlord to walk you through the unit via FaceTime or Skype.
2. Google the address of the unit to see if a different person’s name is associated with the address. If applicable, call the property management company associated with the address and ask to speak with a supervisor to confirm whether the unit is for rent. Also check online to see if that address is connected to reports of fraud.
3. In D.C., search to see if the landlord is licensed to do business in the District. You can search for their name on the D.C. Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection’s SCOUT database.
4. Pay application fees or security deposits with personal check or credit card, which give greater protection than paying through wire or cash apps. Of note, security deposits by law cannot cost more than one month’s rent in D.C. by law.

This story was reported by Susan Hogan, produced by Katie Leslie, shot by Jeff Piper and edited by Steve Jones.

According to D.C. police reporting, when Rep. Henry Cuellar says he was carjacked Monday night, he became at least the 754th carjacking this year in D.C. in 2023. That is nearly three a day.

D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department reported 79 carjackings in September.  That’s down from the highs over the summer, but still enough to be one of the worst months for carjackings in the District in the nearly six years D.C. police reported the stats.

There were more than twice as many carjackings in September 2023 as in September 2022. Comparing the past week, D.C. police reports nearly seven times as many as the same week last year.

According to police, the carjackers who allegedly took Cuellar’s car were armed; so are 75% of D.C. carjackers.

Cullar’s alleged carjackers also haven’o’t been caught, which the I-Team found is common as well. Of the 754 carjackings, D.C. police report just 113 arrests – roughly 15%.

Some of those suspects have been charged with more than one carjacking. D.C. police report 189 cased closed this year.

On Tuesday, Asst. Chief Carlos Heraud of MPD’s Investigative Services Bureau told reporters they are making progress in the fight against carjackings. He said the last 30-60 days show a drop in the number of incidents.

Many are committed by young people, but police don’t know why, Heraud said. Not a single juvenile has talked to police after an arrest, he said.

One thing he was clear on: He wants more help. He told reporters his bureau does not have enough officers.

“The chief’s asked for 4,000 officers … The mayor’s also asked for 4,000 officers,” he said. “You know what our staffing’s like. So, when you have an increase in cases and a decrease in numbers, it’s going to put a strain on detectives.”

Months ago as the carjacking numbers started climbing, the News4 I-Team spoke with the head of D.C.’s Carjacking Task Force. At that time, Sgt. Valkyrie Barnes told News4 these cases are hard to solve as there is typically hours of video to go through, often times masked suspects, cars aren’t kept for long and she could use more help on the task force.

In Rep. Cuellar’s case, D.C. police will get help. The investigation is being handled by U.S. Capitol Police with help from the FBI.

Citing a need to fill social worker positions in the District, a bill from Councilman Robert White would eliminate the exam for entry and masters-level licensure applicants, whose work must still be supervised.

The move comes as the nation grapples with a shortage of social workers, but also as scores of social workers decry licensure exams for which data show people of color fail at higher rates than white counterparts.

“What the exam is doing is de-diversifying the profession,” said Catholic University professor Michael Massey, who said for years he’s observed too many students of color succeed in class but fail the licensure exam.

The multiple choice tests, which ask social workers what they’d do in hypothetical scenarios, aren’t made public. But Massey says the exam fails to capture cultural nuances and real world experience and marks some responses as wrong that would be reasonable in practice.

As a result, “We have great social workers of color who came to social work schools to serve their communities, and they’re not being allowed to do it despite rigorous preparation at school,” he said.

Others say it’s not the exam – but systemic educational challenges leading up to it – that are the issue, and defend it as necessary to ensure competence in the field.

“It will create an unnecessary risk of harm to the most vulnerable, marginalized residents in the District of Columbia,” said Anniglo Boone, executive director of the Consortium for Child Welfare and head of the Social Workers Unite DC Coalition.

The issue came to a head after the Virginia-based Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB), which for decades has administered exams for multiple levels of licensure, was pushed to release pass rate data.

The results, made public last year, were stark.

Between 2018 and 2021, 76.2% of white test takers passed the bachelor’s level exam the first time. The percentage dropped to 63.6% for Native American/Indigenous peoples, followed by 59.6% for Asian test takers and 52.8% of Hispanic applicants.

Only 33% of Black test takers passed – a 43% difference between white test takers.

The organization also released numbers showing how many eventually passed the exam, and while improved, the racial disparities persisted. Data also show older test takers passed at lower rates than younger ones.

“It was very shocking that African Americans have the lowest passage rate,” said Karla Abney, a doctoral student at Catholic who passed the master’s level exam last year to become a licensed graduate social worker. She is also head of the Greater Washington Society for Clinical Social Work.

Abney says passing the exam was “one of the toughest things I’ve ever done,” but said she isn’t convinced it’s necessary for entry-level social workers.

The exam is just one of the requirements needed for licensure in D.C., in addition to degrees in the field. Abney noted bachelor’s and master’s level licensees typically work under the supervision of more experienced social workers, such as independent clinical social workers, with many eventually taking the exam to practice independently.

“As long as we prepare our social workers [for] independent licensure, I think that’s the main thing,” said Abney, who was recently appointed to a Maryland workgroup to study the same issues there.

Classmate Raquel Ruiz – among four Catholic University students interviewed by the I-Team for this story – said of the data, “It’s easy to say you could possibly blame the test takers, but I think accountability has to be taken of how the exam is structured.”

D.C. is among the latest to consider the move. Illinois eliminated the master’s level test two years ago and saw at least 3,000 social workers licensed the following year, according to the National Association of Social Workers Illinois chapter.

“We will not sort of release unqualified people onto the masses, but this exam is not a proven method of qualification,” White said of his bill.

White says he hopes doing so here will help solve a mental health “crisis” by filling vacancies in schools and social service organizations. His legislation would also create a committee to study licensure requirements for the independent social worker level – those who diagnose and treat mental and behavioral disorders.

“This bill by itself does not solve our problem. It moves us significantly in the right direction,” White said.

But Boone said more research is needed to explain the pass rate disparities before tossing out the exam. She argued D.C. could allow social workers to work with a provisional license while they take the test again.

In a statement the social work board told News4 it “stands by our social work licensing examinations as one part of an overall system that educates, licenses, and regulates the social work profession. These exams serve as uniform, objective measures of social work knowledge and skills, and their development meets industry standards that include multiple layers of anti-bias review.”

The statement continued DC should keep the requirement because “doing so brings legitimacy to our profession.”

In a September hearing before the council, the head of the ASWB said it isn’t the test that’s the issue, but systemic challenges facing students of color long beforehand.

“People are bringing a lot into the exam experience and they are not coming to that exam experience with a level playing field,” said Stacey Hardy-Chandler, CEO of the testing board, adding: “The outcomes I think are reflective of these larger societal issues.”

In the statement to News4, the board also said it is researching ways “to address the larger institutional inequities.”

But back at Catholic, some students expressed doubt it would be enough.

“I really have to prepare to understand this exam that really wasn’t created for someone who looks like me, someone who has a similar background as me,” said graduate student Emely Fortiz, who spoke of the need for more bilingual social workers in the District.

Sarah-Ann Nestor, who hopes to work in D.C. after securing licensure, said the pass rate data has given her pause.

“Having that on my back … is nerve-racking,” she said.

In a statement, the National Association of Social Workers noted it supported similar legislation in Illinois and called the exam flawed and biased. It also said it’s working to address the shortage of social workers by proposing an interstate licensing compact that would allow clinical social workers to work across state lines.

The Council has not yet set a date for voting on the measure.

This story was reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Katie Leslie, and shot and edited by Steve Jones. NBC4 photographer Carlos Olazagasti contributed to this report.

Jenkins pleaded not guilty to federal bribery and conspiracy charges. Among other allegations, federal prosecutors claim Jenkins took bribes from people who then became auxiliary deputies.

The News4 I-Team learned Friday the sheriff’s new defense lawyer set up a GoFundMe account for Jenkins’ legal bills. The page claims “the Biden Justice Department indicted Sheriff Jenkins … on outrageous allegations” and asks for donations to mount “a legal defense against the full weight of the federal government.”

The page makes clear donors are not entitled to input into Jenkins’ legal defense.

When the I-Team checked Friday, the largest donor so far was Donald Trump-pardoned, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, who gave $500 and told followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, “Jenkins took a stand and now the DOJ has placed him in their crosshairs.”

Flynn posted a link to a Breitbart video in which Jenkins answers questions about his promise to deputize thousands of civilians nationwide if Congress passed gun confiscation laws.

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At last check, the GoFundMe is well shy of its $650,000 goal.

Citing the ongoing case, the Justice Department had no comment on the fund.

Neither Jenkin’s lawyer nor Flynn’s representatives has replied to the I-Team.

Though schools or other groups could be affected,  much of the focus is on the Catholic Church. In anticipation of being sued by potentially hundreds of victims, the Archdiocese of Baltimore filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Friday.

Some survivors, including Teresa Lancaster, said while financial settlements pale in comparison to finally holding their abusers — and the systems that protected them — to account, they see the church’s move as an effort to undermine the law.

“They don’t want to help the victims,” she said in an interview with the News4 I-Team.

Lancaster said the sexual abuse she endured at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore began as a junior in 1970, continuing until she graduated in 1972. But the survivor and attorney said the effects of the abuse last to this day.

“I have three daughters, and every one of them has told me there were times when they just didn’t understand what was wrong with Mom. I mean, the depression and the anxiety rears its ugly head,” Lancaster said.

What happened to Lancaster and other girls at that high school at the hands of Father Joseph Maskell was explored in a 2017 Netflix series called “The Keepers.” Church leaders initially tried to discredit parts of the series. Then last spring, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown released a report detailing how more than 150 Catholic priests and other Maryland clergy sexually abused more than 600 children and were never held accountable. 

The report stated Maskell was accused of abusing at least 39 boys and girls. But despite the church knowing about these allegations for nearly 30 years, according to the report, he was repeatedly reassigned until he was placed on leave in 1994.

“When the attorney general’s report was released, they knew about Father Maskell in 1966,” Lancaster said. “I was abused in 1970. They could have stopped it.”

Maskell died in 2001. Though he was never criminally charged, the church added him to its list of priests who had been credibly accused of abuse after his death. According to the church’s account on that public list, it states it became aware of allegations against him in 1992 that couldn’t be corroborated, until additional allegations emerged two years later.

Lancaster sued the archdiocese in 1995 but said her case was blocked by the statute of limitations. For 21 years, Lancaster fought alongside others for the state to change the law preventing child abuse victims from seeking justice decades later. Last session, lawmakers passed the Maryland Child Victims Act of 2023.

“We won,” she said of that moment. “Finally.”

The law allows for individual victims to sue governmental entities for up to $890,000, and private institutions, like the church, for up to $1.5 million.

But Lancaster said that’s not just what this is about.

“I just want to hear, ‘I’m sorry, and I won’t let this happen to anyone else,’” she said.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore wouldn’t talk to the I-Team on camera but pointed to a Sept. 5 statement from Archbishop William E. Lori, who said the church was considering filing for bankruptcy ahead of possible litigation.

“With the passage of the new law, there is a high likelihood that the archdiocese will face multiple lawsuits … Litigating them individually would potentially lead to some very high damage awards for a very small number of victim-survivors while leaving almost nothing for the vast majority of them. The archdiocese simply does not have unlimited resources to satisfy such claims,” he said in that letter.

Attorney Jonathan Schochor, who represents dozens of abuse victims, said, “That would represent the height of hypocrisy, in my view. It’s unthinkable to me.”

Schochor is working with Lancaster to file a class action lawsuit on behalf of church victims on Monday, once the law is in effect.

“We can’t undo the sexual abuse. We can only get full, fair and adequate compensation to help them heal,” he said.

David Lorenz, who heads the Maryland chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said for abuse survivors like him, “You don’t move on. You learn to live with it.” 

He, too, fought for the law change and said filing Chapter 11 could impose a new deadline on victims to come forward, if they want to be named as creditors. He worries that pressure could prevent many victims’ stories — and the names of their abusers — from coming to light.

“The terrifying part of coming forward is you believe you’re alone. You believe you’re the only one. You believe that no one will believe what you say,” Lorenz said. “If you see that name in print, it helps you have the courage to come forward, and then your healing can start.”

The I-Team asked the Archdiocese of Baltimore about these concerns, and a spokesman said the church believes bankruptcy would be a “reasonable and equitable method of compensation.” 

Earlier this month the archbishop cast doubt on the validity of the new law, writing, “While passed with the aim of enabling victim-survivors to find justice, the new law’s method is also believed by many to violate Maryland’s Constitution. The courts will need to make that determination.”

Anyone interested in filing a claim should file a report with police and the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, in addition to retaining legal counsel. Under the law, the abuse must have occurred in Maryland, but filers do not need to reside in the state.

This story was reported by Tracee Wilkins, produced by Katie Leslie, and shot and edited by Jeff Piper. Rick Yarborough contributed to this report.

John Jones owns a single two-bedroom unit in Southeast D.C. The I-Team first met him when he complained he was missing $14,000 from a COVID-era rent relief program. City documents show a check was sent in 2021 to the tenants, and that check was cashed — but the tenants never sent the money to Jones.

He says they hadn’t paid rent for a few months before, and haven’t since. He says he’s now owed $46,800.

Jones waited for D.C.’s eviction moratorium to expire and months later filed an eviction petition. His first case was dismissed, he says, because the judge told him he needed to hire a lawyer. His second petition was filed this spring. Six months later, he got his first hearing, which happened Wednesday.

In court, one of the tenants, Dimonte Cosbert, told the magistrate judge he hadn’t paid rent “due to a lack of conditions. That’s one possible reason the rent wasn’t paid.”

Cosbert, who attended the hearing remotely, said the stove, outlets and smoke detectors weren’t working. The other tenant, Shandell Whren, initially called into the hearing but dropped off after Cosbert said her phone died.

Magistrate Judge Stephen Rickard told the tenant he may be able to reduce a portion of the rent due to the appliance issue and set a hearing in mid-December, three months from now.

During the hearing, Jones was not asked about the appliances at all, but outside the courthouse minutes later, he told the I-Team he’d never been told those appliances weren’t working until now and called it a way to avoid paying.

“I was pretty much sure that they would use stalling and delaying tactics and lied to the court, which they did today,” Jones told the I-Team.

Norm Slye, the property manager, told the I-Team he’s never received a complaint about those items.

In addition to the hearing in December, the case was set for mediation in November and an eviction trial in January.

Jones left the court unsatisfied.

“It says to mom and pop and middle class landlords who maybe have another property other than the property that they’re living in that you are actually putting yourself at financial risk if you actually trust this city to enforce the laws that are in place and the rules and regulations that are in place in terms of good behavior and paying your rent,” he said.

The I-Team called Cosbert after the hearing and asked why they haven’t paid rent. There was no answer.

The I-Team also asked about the $14,300 check, which came from the STAY DC program. Cosbert hung up. 

The D.C. Office of the Inspector General is currently investigating dozens of alleged fraud cases with the STAY DC program. STAY DC was a $352 million program designed to keep vulnerable D.C. residents from being evicted. The money, awarded to cities across the country by the U.S. Treasury Department, was supposed to be used to pay rent and other housing related costs during the pandemic.

Documents from the city’s Department of Human Services included Jones’ case on a list of possible fraud cases. No charges or prosecutions have happened as of Wednesday.

Just weeks ago, the D.C. Office of the Inspector General issued a report on the program finding STAY DC met its goal to quickly help people with rent and utility payments, but said the speed led to “weakened internal controls that were insufficient to detect, respond to and prevent improper payments.”

The same report said the errant payments resulted in “economic hardship” for landlords, finding “that at least $396,614.40 in excess STAY DC funds were disbursed and not recovered.”

The Office of the Inspector General did not comment to the I-Team but recently told a staffer for D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto: “Unfortunately, due to the U.S. attorney’s office for D.C.’s workload … the STAY DC cases have not moved as expeditiously as we’d like.”

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Steve Jones.

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife were indicted by a grand jury on federal bribery charges stemming from their relationship with three businessmen, according to court filings, including possible dealings with an admitted felon and the authoritarian regime of Egypt.

The indictment unsealed Friday morning by prosecutors with the Southern District of New York revealed corruption allegations as brazen as they are breathtaking. Prosecutors allege Menendez received cash, gold bars, payments towards a home mortgage, compensation for a low or no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other items of value from businessmen Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes.

A search of the couple’s home turned up $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in hidden cash, said prosecutors, who announced the charges against the powerful 69-year-old Democrat nearly six years after an earlier criminal case against him ended with a deadlocked jury.

The indictment comes after Menendez had been under investigation for more than a year, as prosecutors were said to be looking into whether a businessman who faced more than a dozen counts of bank fraud gave hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold bars and gifts to the state’s senior senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez.

At the time of the pricey gifts were handed off, according to court documents, Daibes was facing federal bank fraud charges that could have landed him up to a decade in federal prison. The businessman had allegedly lied about a $1.8 million loan from Mariner’s Bank where he served as chairman.

Investigators with the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation were looking into whether Menendez offered to contact the Justice Department to try to help Daibes, a New Jersey developer and one-time bank chairman — as well as longtime friend of the senator. Prosecutors said that in exchange for cash payments and gifts, Daibes asked Menendez to interfere with the office of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Phil Selinger. The alleged goal was for federal prosecutors to go easy on Daibes.

U.S. Attorney Selinger was recused from that case.

After Menendez called a government official about Daibes’ case, according to the indictment, his wife was given a Mercedes-Benz convertible by Uribe and Hana, both friends of the senator and his wife. The indictment says that after the purchase was complete, Nadine Menendez texted her husband to say: “Congratulations mon amour de la vie, we are the proud owners of a 2019 Mercedes,” with a heart emoji.

The indictment stated that just days after his wife texted Daibes thanking him for “Christmas in January,” Menendez did a Google search for “kilo of gold price.”

The federal grand jury in Manhattan heard testimony from witnesses before handing up the indictment. The investigation into the senator is believed to have started back in 2019.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams claimed that “Menendez and his wife engaged in a corrupt relationship” with the three businessmen, alleging the senator agreed to “use his power and influence to protect and enrich those businessmen and to benefit the Government of Egypt.”

In response to the indictment, Menendez said that “forces behind the scenes have repeatedly attempted to silence my voice and dig my political grave,” going after what he called an “active smear campaign of anonymous sources and innuendos to create an air of impropriety where none exists.” He also criticized the prosecution as he thoroughly denied the charges.

“The excesses of these prosecutors is apparent. They have misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office. On top of that, not content with making false claims against me, they have attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had before she and I even met,” read a statement from Menendez. “I have been falsely accused before because I refused to back down to the powers that be and the people of New Jersey were able to see through the smoke and mirrors and recognize I was innocent…[prosecutors] wrote these charges as they wanted; the facts are not as presented.”

David Schertler, a lawyer for Menendez’s wife, said his client “denies any criminal conduct and will vigorously contest these charges in court.”

There was no answer at the couple’s Englewood Cliffs home.

Daibes’ attorney, Tim Donohue, said his client would be “completely exonerated of all charges.”

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The issue of whether Menendez improperly accepted gold bars is just one part of the investigation. Investigators were also probing his connections and possible gifts he received from a halal meat company that later won an exclusive government contract in Egypt.

The indictment alleges that Menendez provided sensitive U.S. government information and took other steps to secretly help Egypt, including ghost-writing a letter on behalf of Egypt pushing other senators to lift a hold on $300 million in aid to the country.

In April 2020, shortly after meeting with an Egyptian official, authorities allege, Menendez lobbied then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to increase American engagement in stalled negotiations involving Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to build a dam over the Nile River, a key foreign policy issue for Egypt.

As NBC New York first reported, officials had previously been looking into whether Menendez or his now wife improperly took gifts, including use of a Mercedes and a luxury D.C. apartment from the owners of a New Jersey business. That business, IS EG Halal, won an exclusive contract with the Egyptian government to perform all Halal meat inspection for the county, even though the firm had no prior experience.

The New Jersey company being named the sole company to certify that imported meat met religious requirements surprised U.S. agriculture officials. Previously, several other companies had been doing that certification, but they were dismissed by Egyptian agriculture officials in favor of IS EG Halal.

Investigators sought to know if Menendez used his position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which oversees billions in aid to Egypt, to help that New Jersey firm get the contract in exchange for gifts.

The switch happened the same year that Menendez became engaged to Nadine Arslanian, an acquaintance of the new halal certification company’s owner, Hana, of Edgewater.

Records show Arslanian, 56, was battling foreclosure on her Bergen County property in 2018. When she and Menendez got engaged it began a period of financial turnaround for Arslanian, a former marketer for a medical company.

Within weeks of their engagement, she incorporated a business, Strategic International Business Consultants LLC, according to state records. Her foreclosure case was dismissed soon after. The following year, her assets included gold bars valued between $100,000 to $250,000, according to a Senate disclosure form amended by Menendez in March of 2022.

Between April and June of 2022, the couple cashed out at least part of their precious metal holdings, forms show, selling between $200,000 and $400,000 worth of gold bars, while keeping at least $250,000 worth of them.

The indictment also says Menendez provided sensitive U.S. government information and pressured an official as the USDA for helping businessman Hana and the government of Egypt. The court document states Menendez and his wife made a “promise that Menendez would, among other things, use his power and authority to facilitate such sales and financing to Egypt, Hana promised, among other things, to put Nadine Menendez on the payroll of his company in a low-or-no-show job.”

A spokesperson for Hana said the charges “have absolutely no merit.” A spokesperson for IS EG Halal has issued a denial of ever giving the senator any gifts and said they won the Egyptian contact on their merits. As NBC News first reported, federal investigators previously seized the phone devices of Hana.

A federal court filing shows that in Nov. 2019, the FBI searched IS EG Halal headquarters and Hana’s residence. According to a filing by the Hana’s attorney, Lawrence Lustberg, federal agents at that time seized cellphones, computers, tablets, USBs, business documents, notepads, a photo album, $5,943 dollars in cash, jewelry and Hana’s passport. Most of those items were later returned to Lustberg two months later.

Prosecutors said that Menendez and the other defendants are scheduled to be back in court on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. in lower Manhattan.

A source close to Menendez told NBC New York he is stepping down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the case. Rules for the Senate Democratic caucus say that any member who is charged with a felony must step aside from a leadership position.

Menendez has not given any indication that he plans to resign from the Senate — but that doesn’t mean others, even those in his own party, haven’t called for him to step down. The most damning call came from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who called the allegations against the senator “deeply disturbing” and presented a risk to national security.

“The alleged facts are so serious that they compromise the ability of Senator Menendez to effectively represent the people of our state. Therefore, I am calling for his immediate resignation,” Murphy said in a statement.

Congressman Andy Kim echoed those sentiments, while fellow Congressman Jeff Van Drew didn’t go quite as far. He called the accusations “extremely disturbing” and said Menendez will have our day in court.

Menendez rebuffed those calls to resign late Friday, vowing instead to keep serving his New Jersey constituents.

“Those who believe in justice believe in innocence until proven guilty. I intend to continue to fight for the people of New Jersey with the same success I’ve had for the past five decades. This is the same record of success these very same leaders have lauded all along. It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere,” Menendez said in a statement.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Menendez has held public office continuously since 1986. He first won a school board seat at 20 years old, then subsequently was elected mayor of Union City, to the state Assembly and Senate, and later to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he spent more than a decade. In 2006, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate after Jon Corzine resigned to become governor. He was elected to a full term later that year, and re-elected in 2012 and 2018.

The latest indictment is unrelated to the earlier charges that alleged Menendez accepted lavish gifts to pressure government officials on behalf of a Florida doctor. In 2015, a federal grand jury indicted Menendez on bribery, conspiracy and fraud charges, alleging that he had accepted gifts from Salomon Melgen in exchange for using his office to benefit that doctor’s interests.

Melgen was convicted of health care fraud in 2017, but President Donald Trump commuted his prison sentence.

His 2017 trial ended in a hung jury, and in early 2018 the government opted not to retry him after a judge threw out some of the counts in the indictment. After he was cleared of the charges, Menendez resumed his post as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that same year. The Senate Ethics Committee later rebuked Menendez, finding that he had improperly accepted gifts, failed to disclose them and then used his influence to advance Melgen’s personal interests.

But months later, New Jersey voters returned Menendez to the Senate. He defeated a well-financed challenger in a midterm election that broke a Republican lock on power in Washington.

The Senate Historical Office says Menendez appears to be the first sitting senator in U.S. history to have been indicted on two unrelated criminal allegations. Menendez faces reelection next year in a bid to extend his three-decade career in Washington as Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

“What we’ve seen in that space is that there is a 30% decrease with our focused patrol efforts,” acting Police Chief Pamela Smith told the I-Team in late August.

According to an I-Team analysis of documents provided after Smith’s statement, total crime rose in areas D.C. police included in its Focused Patrol and Community Engagement Strategy by 15.5%. Violent crime dropped by 3.5% from May 1 to August 22.

Both are lower than crime increases citywide, but nowhere near the suggested 30% drop.

Focused Patrol was announced by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, then-Chief Robert Contee and the department’s command staff on April 27, the same day Contee announced his retirement. According to a press release from Bowser’s office, the plan would:

“Utilize data to identify specific areas in each police district and employ focused patrols for proactive policing, community engagement, and problem solving within a small geographical area. The MPD members assigned to these areas will proactively engage in business and building checks, assist in traffic enforcement, collaborate with the community, and identify area-specific issues with police officials to problem solve and determine necessary solutions to community concerns and crime.”

According to MPD documents, the department picked four zones in each police district. D.C. police would not share maps of the areas or say exactly where they were.

In D.C.’s Second Police District, which includes part of Chinatown, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Michael Shankle hears from neighbors concerned about crime “all the time. I probably have several calls a week.” Since Focused Patrol was announced, he said he has seen officers frequently parked under the neighborhood’s iconic arch for hours, many days of the week. It is the same block where Shankle easily identified crimes committed in recent months. He pointed out where a shooting took place, robberies at a nearby store and drug dealing near the Metro station.

“We need some focused attention here,” Shankle said.

The I-Team looked specifically at crime in the Second District during the time D.C. police records show they were using the Focused Patrol strategy there. In Focused Patrol zones in the Second District, violent crime increased by 78% compared to the same time in 2022. Total crime — the sum of violent and property crimes — rose by 28% in the Focused Patrol zones.

While officers were in the neighborhood frequently, Shankle said, when the I-Team asked more specifically about the engagement he was seeing, Shankle was less optimistic.

“I don’t think that is happening,” he said. “I don’t believe we’ve noticed an officer out over there (talking with people and business owners) at this point.”

It is one of the pivotal factors needed for success, said Will Pelfrey, a criminologist at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“Any community engagement initiative is predicated on engagement, the police have to be involved with the community,” he said. “They have to knock on doors; they have to talk to people as they walk by.” 

Community policing programs like Focused Patrol have been around since the 1970s and can be effective in shaping public perception but don’t always have large impacts dropping crime, Pelfrey said. Departments need to monitor or track officer engagement with the community to know if it’s working, he said.

“As long as police are engaged with the public, then they can start to see positive impacts,” Pelfrey said.

The I-Team asked D.C. police if any sort of tracking was done. A week after first asking the MPD Press Office, it has not responded.

It is one of many questions the department has not answered, including how the chief’s announced a 30% drop in crime that was not supported by the department’s own data.

The I-Team tried for three weeks to get clarification on the discrepancy. Despite numerous calls and emails to the department’s press office, little explanation has been provided aside from a suggestion the chief was talking about another crime plan – the department’s Robbery Suppression initiative. The I-Team asked for statistics on that program more than a week ago to verify the claim. No statistics were provided.

When the I-Team pushed about the decrease, Smith mentioned Focused Patrol by name twice and stood by the stat even after given a chance to specifically limit it to robbery.

Smith noted she plans to roll Focused Patrol out citywide.

Pelfrey told the I-Team it could take time to see how effective the program really is.

“To determine whether a program like this, a focused engagement program, really works, you need several years’ worth of data,” he said.

Shankle said he is “concerned about” whether MPD has resources to expand the program as they’re currently facing staffing shortages.

Since Focused Patrol was announced, MPD has started a Robbery Suppression program, enhanced youth curfew enforcement, increased traffic enforcement and, according to Smith, held seven community walks by District commanders across the city every week.

“There’s a risk of kind of a whipsaw effect on police officers, who feel like they’re being told every couple of months, ‘Here’s what your job is; no, here’s what your job is; no, here’s what your job is,’” Pelfrey told the I-Team. “And police start to lose focus on what their job is. It can also influence community perception of police. If you go to a neighborhood and say, ‘We’re really here for you; we’re going to put police officers in this community because we value you and your neighborhood,’ and then a few months later, those officers are gone, the residents are going to start to wonder how serious the investment of the agency is in their neighborhood.”

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Jeff Piper.

One 17-year-old senior, who happens to be the son of Culpeper Sheriff Scott Jenkins, did not.

Two law enforcement sources close to the incident and a high school parent confirm to the News4 I-Team the 17-year-old boy left the school during the three-and-a-half-hour stay-in-place order, grabbed a sheriff’s office tactical vest from his truck and joined the sheriff’s office response inside and outside the school.

It’s unclear who directed him to do so or why.

Virginia law says any law enforcement officer, including sheriff’s deputies, must be 18 years old and have a high school diploma or equivalent. If the boy was in school Wednesday morning, it’s unlikely he has that.

Culpeper sheriff’s personnel records obtained by the I-Team earlier this year show the son is employed by his dad’s department.

The same documents show he started last summer and earns $19,000 per year — all while still in school. The sheriff’s office would only confirm Wednesday that two employees share the same first and last name of the sheriff’s son.

A spokesperson for the Culpeper Sheriff’s Office told the I-Team, “We had numerous support staff on scene and all were in some type of CCSO attire so they could be identified as they assisted during the incident.”

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The I-Team’s further questions about why the sheriff’s son was there were not addressed.

As for the incident itself, it was wrapped up by 2:05 p.m. after law enforcement swept the building.

In a statement, a school spokesperson told the I-Team, “One of our staff was performing his daily restroom checks and noticed a dislodged ceiling tile, which prompted a look into the ceiling where he found a box of ammunition. This discovery led to the threat response. School officials worked with law enforcement to ensure safety. The law enforcement response included a K-9 sweep of the entire building, which required the continuation of the ‘stay in place order’ to safely complete the event. No other dangerous objects were found.”

The school district sent a text to parents Wednesday night saying, “Out of an abundance of caution there will be an increased law enforcement presence on the campus of Culpeper High School tomorrow.”

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Jeff Piper.

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But Kunce, of Washington, D.C., soon encountered a new headache: finding someone to fix the damage left behind.

The school teacher said she and her insurance agent called several body shops in the D.C. area, hoping to find someone to repair her busted back window and steering wheel column.

“When I called the first body shop that my insurance recommended, he kind of laughed — like, not in a mean way — but he was like, we’re not working on Kias or Hyundais,” she told News4. “My insurance claims adjuster said she would call around, and she has not been able to find anyone who will work on it, either.”

Kunce is among potentially thousands of Kia and Hyundai owners whose cars have been vandalized or stolen, with many left in limbo as they wait for replacement parts.

For well over a year, the I-Team has been tracking the surge in theft of older model Kia and Hyundais that lack a standard immobilizer, making them easy to hotwire with a USB cord.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said theft claim frequency for 2003 to 2023 Hyundai and Kia models was seven times as high in the last six months of 2022 as it was in early 2020, and four times as high as other carmakers between July to December 2022.

What’s more, the IIHS reports vandalism insurance claims — presumably from theft attempts — were roughly twice as high for Hyundai and Kia cars as other makers in that same time frame.

The I-Team called more than a half dozen body shops in the area, with all confirming they’re experiencing long delays for older model Kia and Hyundai replacement parts.

“Be prepared to wait a long time,” Abdi Barre, a manager at Autobody Dimensions in Gaithersburg, Maryland, advised.

Barre said the problem is so bad that he can’t tell his customers when parts like ignition lock cylinders will become available.

“One time we had an ignition cylinder on order, we were number 86 on the list,” he said. “From last year to this day, it still hasn’t shown up.”

The issue isn’t just that millions of these cars are considered vulnerable to theft and vandalism. The I-Team found that, because they’re older model vehicles, many of the parts are out of production.

In a statement a Kia spokesman said that, “previous to this issue” these cars “had very little parts demand.”

Now Kia is working with vendors to “re-introduce production,” telling News4 it has “updated our systems so customers who have been the victims of theft are given top priority for expedited distribution of needed parts.”

A spokesman for Hyundai, which has an ownership stake in Kia, told the I-Team that “while ignition lock cylinders are experiencing backorders,” Hyundai is “minimizing the aging of these back-ordered parts through expedited air shipments throughout the supply chain from Korea to U.S. dealers.”

car theft Jul 27, 2023

Hyundais and Kias top District's most stolen list

car theft Jul 24, 2023

Some Kia owners question anti-theft software fix after cars were stolen following upgrade

And as more car owners get the updated software fix offered to drivers for free, both automakers hope to see demand for parts slow down.

“But the unfortunate thing is the thieves don’t know if you have the software or not. They still will break into your car,” Barre said.

After weeks of waiting, Kunce credits Safelite for replacing her broken car window, but said she and her insurance adjuster are still trying to find a body shop that will fix her steering column.

And though she’s grateful she can still drive her vehicle, she said she worries about how many times thieves may try to steal it again, anyway.

Reported by Susan Hogan, produced by Katie Leslie, and shot and edited by Carlos Olazagasti and Jeff Piper. NBC4 photographer Steve Jones contributed to this report.

The data, analyzed by the News4 I-Team, also show the District’s 911 center is routinely failing to meet national standards in how quickly it answers emergency calls.

The report comes after the D.C. Council passed emergency legislation this summer requiring OUC to provide greater transparency on staffing levels, call-taker or dispatcher errors and answering times. The dashboard gives a previously hard-to-obtain look inside the center, which fields D.C.’s 911 calls and dispatches police, fire and EMS calls citywide.

The 911 center has long been plagued with complaints over its performance, such as misrouting calls, with many errors blamed on short-staffing.

The report shows that, in July, 22 of 67 shifts did not meet minimum staffing levels— a third of all shifts. In August, 26 out of 66 shifts — or 39 percent — fell below minimum staffing goals.

The data doesn’t show, however, how often OUC employees have worked overtime to meet staffing requirements or how far below staffing goals the department fell in each shift. The law did not require that.

In a statement, an OUC spokesperson said “the ideal staffing levels for the District’s 911 operations are 44 employees for day shifts and 37 employees for night shifts” and said it currently employs 180 people in 911 operations.

Instead, data show that on average, about 75% of calls to OUC are answered within 15 seconds. The I-Team found more than 45,000 calls took too long— more than 15 seconds— to pick up since July 1.

The I-Team also found more than 45,000 calls that took too long — more than 15 seconds — to pick up since July 1, accounting for about 23 percent of all calls received since July.

Data analyzed by the I-Team also show the average time to answer was 12 seconds, with the average maximum answer time exceeding three-and-a-half minutes.

The report also included a breakdown of several complaints about call-taker and dispatcher error, including the concern, actions taken and overall finding.

One of the complaints concerned the emergency response to the August 14th flooding at District Dogs, a daycare where 10 dogs drowned in flash flooding.

The report indicates that “calls were received at 17:06 and 17:09” and states “calls were handled appropriately using the call taking questions available at the time.” The report goes on to acknowledge the call was dispatched as a “water leak,” however, something OUC Director Heather McGaffin later acknowledged was an error.

Last month, McGaffin told reporters DC 911 didn’t have a code in their system to categorize a flooded building.

Friday’s report indicates that, as a result, OUC is working with DC Fire to “make changes to call taking questions and call type that is selected for inside flooding when people are trapped.”

In a statement to News4 Friday, OUC said it’s working to hire 911 call-takers and dispatchers through job fairs and monthly “prospect days.” It’s also offering a $2,500 hiring bonus.

“In addition to recruitment, the agency is focused on our greatest asset, our people,” the statement said. “Our first, first responders are public safety professionals that face challenging situations every day in their roles. We want to make sure they know they are valued, respected, and appreciated.”

NBC4 reporter Mark Segraves contributed to this report.

“As a principal, the first thing you think of every day is keeping the students safe. And the parents, when they send the students to school, they trust that you and the staff will keep everyone safe every day,” said Bull Run Middle School Principal Matthew Phythian.

He makes it a point to greet every one of his students each morning at the Prince William County, Virginia, school. But this year, something else will also be watching.

“It definitely gives me a peace of mind,” he said.

It’s a new weapons detection system called Evolv that uses sensors and artificial intelligence to detect potentially dangerous weapons coming through the front door. The school district said the safety screening technology is going in all Prince William County middle and high schools at a cost of $10.7 million over the next four years.

“It’s looking at objects that may be threatening but ignoring other everyday metallic items. And so what it’s not picking up, is my keys, for example, or my cellphone,” said Jill Lemond, the director of education for Evolv.  

More than 600 schools around the country already use Evolv, according to the company. Lemond told the News4 I-Team it’s able to scan close to 2,000 people an hour through a single lane. Unlike regular metal detectors, the AI can provide a specific location, noted with a red box.

“Those individuals who do have an alert are going to go to a secondary search area where someone who’s been well trained is going to look in a very particular spot for that item,” Lemond said.

“I was very surprised,” said eight grader Olivia McBride about her school deciding to go high tech. “It just adds a different level of security that can help teachers because they have so much going on.”

But she said she welcomes anything that can make school a safer place, especially when it comes to gun violence.

“I feel like a lot of people think, ‘Oh, that’ll never happen to us,’ and then one day it does and you just are so surprised by it,” she said.

Principal Phythian said no guns have been found at Bull Run, but there have been times when knives were discovered on students in the past. PWCS told the I-Team 71 weapons were found in county schools in the 2021 to 2022 school year. That number dropped to 61 last year. Phythian hopes the new screening technology will be a deterrent to make any student think twice before making a bad decision.

In Maryland, Charles County is the first school district in the state to use AI to detect guns and potential threats. Charles County Public Schools has seen an increase in weapons found over the past two school years, jumping 25% from 70 to 88.

“We have to prepare for everything. We have to be right all the time,” said Jason Stoddard, the director of school safety and security for the county.

The Omnilert Gun Detect software will monitor already-existing external cameras throughout campuses to identify not only weapons but physical behavior or movements consistent with possible violence.

“It is constantly scanning our exterior cameras for the presence of people and then it looks for a weapon. And then it looks for what they’re doing,” said Stoddard.

Once a potential threat is found, an alert is sent.

“We get an automatic notification through an electronic means, through a text message or an app on our phone. And then we get to see the video and the pictures of what’s going on to determine whether we would call the police or not,” Stoddard said.

The cost of the system is $207,000 according to the school district. A grant through the Maryland Center for School Safety’s Grant Funding Program will cover the first two years. CCPS also installed panic buttons in every main office this year that staff can use in case of any emergencies.

And while Stoddard said this type of technology plays a part in keeping everyone safe, he still thinks building those open relationships between students and faculty is key.

“Our kids can’t learn if they don’t feel safe. Our staff’s not going to teach if they don’t feel safe,” said Stoddard.

In Prince William County, the new AI screening system is being rolled out to all middle and high schools with training underway.

“I hope that it helps the students first and foremost feel comfortable, because we want them to come in these doors into a learning environment, into a social environment,” physical education teacher Amy Wetherbee said.

Principal Phythian doesn’t think the new tool will take away from the positive mood around his hallways.

“Our staff will still greet the students with smiles and high fives,” he said.

And while AI can sometimes raise privacy concerns, he said he hasn’t heard any complaints from parents.

“I think there’ll be an initial transition getting used to the system and have students familiar with what to do,” Phythian said.

Reported by Tracee Wilkins, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Steve Jones.

But Kimberlin said she never imagined the process through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) would take longer than four months, forcing her to delay paying many bills and wrecking her credit score.

“I always paid my bills on time. I couldn’t even pay anything,” she said, adding, “I didn’t know how far I was going to have to wait. It didn’t take me too long to figure out it was going to be awhile.“

Kimberlin, of Maryland, described long hold times to speak with a representative and longer waits to get the paperwork she says she needed to access her benefits.

Meanwhile, her bills — and her stress — piled up.

“I was worried if they’d shut off the lights, if they’d shut off the water,” she said, adding, “I was very scared.”

Former Secret Service agent Jim Manion said he’s also among those who have waited too long for their benefits.

Manion, also of Maryland, had two careers in the federal government, retiring for good as a civilian in 2017. He said he didn’t immediately file for benefits when he was eligible, thinking it wouldn’t be a problem to collect when he was ready.

But, like Kimberlin, Manion described long wait times to speak with an OPM representative and a lack of communication about his application status. He also said he was frustrated at times after being given wrong information by OPM staff.   

After several months without resolution, he hired a private consultant to intervene.

“I just wouldn’t have thought it would take this long,” he said.

A review of federal data shows just how big a problem the processing of retirement applications is for the agency, with OPM facing a backlog of more than 17,000 retirement applications in July.

The data, released monthly by OPM, also shows signs of progress, as the current backlog is down from a height of 36,349 applications in March 2022.

Despite that improvement, the agency has seen the average processing time climb in recent months to 85 days, with more complicated cases taking 122 days on average.

“It’s unacceptable,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who oversees funding for OPM as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

Van Hollen is among many lawmakers whose offices have fielded calls from frustrated constituents about the issue.

“They have to put in place new systems,” Van Hollen said. “We’ve been after them to do that. They’re not doing it fast enough, in my mind.”

In a congressional hearing earlier this year, the head of OPM blamed the backlog on historic underfunding of the agency, staffing and technology, noting OPM is still transitioning from a paper-based system to the digital era.

Former President Donald Trump also pursued and then abandoned an effort to dissolve the agency while in office.

“We have not had the resources,” OPM Director Kiran Ahuja told lawmakers at the March hearing, adding, “I will tell you we have improved processing times and we are making a considerable dent in the inventory.”

OPM declined an interview with News4 but said they’re taking steps to make the retirement application process easier, unveiling a quick guide to help retirees prepare to apply for benefits, step-by-step videos and an online chatbot to help answer some of their easier questions.

“Our end goal is to improve processing times and ensure that retirees get the benefits that they earned over their careers in service,” OPM said in a statement. 

Tammy Flanagan, a federal retirement benefits consultant, said because OPM processes applications from several agencies, the breakdown isn’t always its fault.

“I can’t say it’s all on OPM,” said Flanagan, of Retire Federal. “If the agency lags in getting everything over there [to OPM], if it’s not all together, if there’s something missing, that’s certainly going to cause problems.”

Flanagan said most applications are processed smoothly, but those with complications, such as breaks in service or marital changes, can take longer. Survivor annuity benefits, which is what Kimberlin applied for, are also considered among the more complicated and time-consuming applications.

Still, Flanagan said, OPM should be more transparent with retirees and survivors about where their application stands along the way.

“That would do a lot to help people feel more secure, more that somebody cares about their long, lengthy, dedicated federal career,” she said.

With Flanagan’s help, Manion began receiving most of his retirement benefits about a year after applying, but he said he is still trying to work out some discrepancies in the amount.

Kimberlin said she received her husband’s death benefits more than four months after applying, but the damage to her credit score from falling behind on bills while she waited makes her future uncertain.

“I think [my husband] would have been so angry and so sad because … the day he signed for that annuity, he thought he had done the best for me you could do,” she said.

Experts like Flanagan offer this advice for federal workers:

• Take a retirement planning class — many are offered by the federal government.
• Try to send application to your agency at least three months before planning to retire to give them time to get it to OPM.
• Make sure there are no discrepancies in the service or application — OPM says more than 20% come in with errors that can cause delays.
• Finally, contact your local member of Congress for help if you need it.

Reported by Susan Hogan, produced by Katie Leslie, and shot and edited by Steve Jones and Jeff Piper.

Richards and her partner were responding to a call for someone having trouble breathing. Minutes later, Richards was the one who needed help, she said.

Shortly after arriving at the Southwest D.C. apartment the afternoon of July 31, 2020, the people inside starting fighting, Richards said. She and her partner decided to leave, but before they could reach the stairs and call for police backup, Richards was attacked, she said.

“The girl jumped over the railing and she came down and just started, like, wailing on me, basically,” she said. “Then the other girl came down, the (trouble breathing) patient that we were there for. They literally beat me for two minutes.”

Richards said the last things she remembers were radioing for help and seeing one of the women’s shoes kicking her face.

When she got to the hospital, she needed stiches above her eye, had bruises on her face, a concussion and was missing hair where she said the attackers pulled handfuls from her head.

When questioned by police, one of the women told officers, “They were in a fight with the EMS personnel because they were unhappy with their services,” court records obtained by the News4 I-Team show.

Court records show the two women were arrested, but charges against one were dropped. The other was sentenced to more than 60 hours of community service, according to records.

Richards said she is still dealing with the effects years later.

“We are the good guys,” Richards told the I-Team, adding, “I feel like a lot of things changed.”

The I-Team’s examination of violence firefighters and EMTs face on our streets comes as insiders suggest violent attacks are on the rise.

Just days ago, assault charges against two D.C. firefighters were dismissed. Those firefighters had been seen on video hitting someone on scene as other firefighters treated someone nearby. The firefighters always said that a bystander started the assault. 

“I would say it’s getting worse,” D.C. firefighters union President David Hoagland told the I-Team. Firefighters are getting hit “fairly often,” according to Hoagland, but official counts are hard to find.

After she was assaulted, Richards told the I-Team, “I just moved differently because I was always on a high alert.”  Eventually, she said, the PTSD from her assault kept building up inside. She got back to work, but withdrew, said she stopped seeing friends, drank far too much and one day on a medical call just couldn’t do her job anymore.

“I just kind of froze,” Richards told the I-Team. “I could not really function other than the only thing I could worry about was what everybody else was doing and how we can get up out of there.”

She finished her shift and checked herself in to a 45-day inpatient rehab in Maryland solely for firefighters dealing with addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. The Center of Excellence is funded by the International Association of Firefighters for its members.  

Now back at work, Richards is speaking out.

“I’m very vocal about talking about it because I’m not the only one, right,” she said. “And I think that we all get in that position where we think that we’re the only ones, and sometimes talking about it helps other people.”

Most departments don’t keep records, and Hoagland said many firefighters consider some assaults from patients as “part of the job.”

The FIRST Center at Drexel University tracks “media-covered” assaults on firefighters. In 2021, researchers scoured online reports of firefighters assaulted on duty and found 350 around the United States. A year later, in 2022, researchers found 593. 

Jennifer Taylor, the center’s founding director, cautioned the I-Team the data only reports those assaults picked and reported by news organizations. She doesn’t dispute that firefighters are facing tough conditions on America’s streets.

“The first time someone assaults you, you’re never going to forget it and you’re never going to do the job the same,” she said.

FEMA and the International Association of Firefighters help fund work at the FIRST Center solely studying firefighter injury and safety.

Taylor warns the nation’s EMS workforce is overworked and doesn’t have time to recover from either the PTSD of seeing traumatic situations or violent patients.

“We hung out a shingle that says, if you need something, call 911, but we didn’t staff for it,” she said. “We don’t have enough EMS responders to respond to the 29 million calls we had for EMS last year and so we’re doing the work on the back of this workforce, and they are not able to recover from the day-to-day stress of maybe going on 15, 20 runs for who knows what.”

Taylor and her team at the FIRST Center are developing training programs to deal with the emerging threat.

“There’s nothing that trains a paramedic or an EMS responder in a fire department that the work may become violent until now,” she said.

The center developed model SAVER policies for fire departments to adopt including:

• Allowing on-scene personnel to decide to leave an unsafe call with or without a patient.
• Mandating dispatchers share information about previously known violent locations.
• Dispatching police with fire and EMS to potentially dangerous calls.
• Increased violence reporting and sharing of that information within departments.

Experts told the I-Team addiction and untreated mental illness are fueling many of the assaults. They occur not just on calls for health emergencies, but even sometimes responding to a burning home.

The union that represents D.C. firefighters would like to see de-escalation training for its members.

Hoagland confirmed getting hit or kicked is considered part of the job as long as it isn’t a serious injury.

“I think unfortunately it’s moving in that direction, but we’re realizing that that really needs to change,” he said.

D.C. Fire & EMS still offers all members professional counselors but has seen a 10-15% annual growth in the number of peer counselor visits.

“I think you need it now more than ever,” D.C. Fire & EMS Lt. Dan Brong, one of the program’s leaders, told the I-Team. “We’re seeing more, more horrific calls.”

Brong explained after a particularly traumatic or assaultive call, peer counselors check in on firefighters with support and resources to cope with what firefighters face.

In Loudon County, firefighters and dispatchers have new tools to deal with the changes, in part after firefighters were met with a handgun after responding to a call for a possible medical emergency.

Firefighters were dispatched to a supposed cardiac arrest but couldn’t get into the home when they arrived. After minutes of knocking and looking in windows, they had to force entry. When they did, the man, who’d been inside asleep (and not in cardiac arrest), was holding a weapon. Thankfully, no shots were fired.

Now before Loudoun firefighters force their way into a home, they gather more details about who might be inside from neighbors, officers or if there’s been a history of violence at that address.

Loudoun now dispatches calls with important clues for teams responding, describing scenes as hot or cold. A hot scene is code firefighters know.  It means be cautious. In some cases, wait for police to join you. It is all aimed to keep firefighters from becoming targets.

“They’re very aware of the risk,” Loudoun County Fire Battalion Chief Daniel Neal said. “And, you know, everybody wants to go home.”

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, shot by Steve Jones and Jeff Piper, and edited by Steve Jones.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated that over a three-year span, from 2016 to 2019, there were almost 3,000 injuries tied to the collapse of decks, balconies or porches.

In May, four people were injured when a deck collapsed in Camp Springs, Maryland. The homeowner told the News4 I-Team the deck ripped right off her house.

In Montgomery County, the Department of Permitting Services offers a free deck inspection to its residents each year. The I-Team went along on an inspection with Jeremy Shupp, a field supervisor for the county. He said one of the most important places to check for potential failures is the deck ledger. That’s where the deck attaches to the house.

“You want to make sure it’s bolted properly, check the spacing of those bolts,” said Shupp.

He also checks to make sure the bolts connecting beams together are long enough to have washers on both sides to make it more secure.

See Montgomery County’s deck maintenance guidelines here. 

Decks failing early

But those aren’t the only potential issues with decks. There could also be a problem before it’s even used. This spring the I-Team heard from industry insiders who said they’re seeing an alarming number of newer decks deteriorating long before they should because the wrong type of wood was used to build it.

Tim Carter was a custom home builder for 20 years and is now the author of “Ask the Builder,” a syndicated newspaper column. He said a well-maintained lumber deck can last up to 50 years. But he’s seeing some decks failing after 10 years or even less.

“I’ve visited many, many a deck where the deck railing posts are rotting. It’s very, very common,” said Carter.

He said he typically hears from homeowners after their decks collapse, but by then it’s too late.

“I just hope that we can get consumers to slow down, do their homework and get the right materials,” said Carter.

Reading the labels

Buying the correct materials, according to Carter, starts with reading the labels on the lumber.

“What the treated lumber manufacturers are supposed to do, they have to put a very tiny little label on the end of each piece of lumber, and it’s very small,” Carter said. “But some of them will say for ‘aboveground’ or it may say for ‘direct ground contact,’ but it won’t have all the time these fancy classification acronyms.”  

Carter was referring to acronyms developed by the American Wood Protection Association, a nonprofit organization that sets voluntary standards for the treated-wood industry. And he said those acronyms are key to determining what lumber should be used for what project. 

According to the AWPA’s standards, there are several key bits of information you should see on the treated wood labels, usually found at the end of each piece.

“The highest concentration or the best treated lumber you could buy has got a rating of UC4C,” Carter said. “I know it’s very complex, but that one is rated for extreme conditions … I would say a majority of the contractors do not know this.”  

That’s why it’s important homeowners know the right questions to ask and also to do their part maintaining their deck.

To see specific categories for the treated wood use, click here.

4 signs your deck needs repairs

If you already have a deck there are signs you can look for that it might need to be repaired or replaced.

1. Rotting wood: Use a screwdriver and poke the wood, especially where it meets the ground. If it feels soft, it might be time to replace it.
2. Cracked/splitting wood: Not only a sign that it may need to be replaced, it could also lead to injuries, like splinters.
3. Rusty screws/metal connectors: This could be a sign of corrosion that could possibly weaken your deck’s structure.
4. Wobbly railings: Loose and wobbly rails can come from improper fasteners used to attach railings to deck posts. Rather than screws and nails, lag screws or bolts should be used to keep deck railings securely attached to posts.

If you are concerned about your deck, contact your county or a licensed contractor and get it inspected.

Industry experts stress the importance of asking their contractors if they are aware of the various types of treated lumber to make sure the correct wood is being used outdoors.

Reported by Susan Hogan, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Lance Ing.

But none of these memorials is for any of the victims of the most recent shooting. Seven people were shot in the area Saturday night in the latest mass shooting. Three of them died.

A News4 I-Team analysis of crime trends in the police districts east of the river show 201 more incidents of gun crime here this summer than last. That’s an 80% increase.

“Don’t nobody want gunshots in their community,” said Terry, who said he’s lived there more than 40 years.

He’s not sure what the answer is or what will stop the violence right away.

But Ward 8 Council member Trayon White said he has an idea.

“We’re looking for sworn, armed National Guard members,” he said.

It’s an imperfect solution. The National Guard has no arrest powers nor ability to investigate on its own, and who would pay for it remains uncertain, too. White said he’s had or will have discussions with the mayor’s office, D.C.’s interim police chief and the guard about his idea. The federal government would have to approve any deployment of the D.C. National Guard. White said it’s been used here in the past and it would put more boots on the ground.

“One of the biggest things that they can provide is presence,” he said. “The issue right now in our community is that you hear over and over again we don’t have enough officers.”

“The District regularly requests the support of the D.C. National Guard where our needs are within their mission,” D.C. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Lindsey Appiah said. “We will continue to make these requests as appropriate while also being mindful of the staffing constraints of the DCNG. Our focus, and where we will continue to request Council support, is on attracting and retaining more officers at the Metropolitan Police Department and ensuring they have the resources and policy environment to do their jobs, have a strong presence in our neighborhoods, and make arrests and close cases.”

“I don’t want the National Guard out here,” said Mark Garrett, an artist who runs a gallery and kids program across the street from Saturday’s shooting scene.

He does think more police could help.

“There perhaps needs to be a few more beat walkers,” said Garrett.

The I-Team looked at D.C. police staffing reports and found police districts east of the river have 65 fewer officers this July than last. And as crime continued to climb into early August, they lost even more.

That’s frustrating for Terry.

“It’s not fair to the taxpayers, it’s not fair to the everyday citizens that just want to walk around and be a part of anything. But we’re the last of the last,” he said.

The I-Team repeatedly asked D.C. police for an explanation of the strategy of having fewer officers east of the river as crime rises. So far, that hasn’t come.

As of now, police said there have been no arrests or suspects in the shooting Saturday night on Good Hope Road.

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Jeff Piper.

But Brown, a nine-year veteran of the Prince George’s County Police Department, said he wasn’t prepared for what came next: an investigation that yielded a trove of text messages between fellow officers that were not only racist in nature, but exposed what some county officials describe as a call to abandon Brown and others in the line of duty.

Worse, Brown questions whether his department has done enough to protect whistleblowers like him.

“My safety wasn’t … regarded as a priority,” Brown said.

The ordeal began in October 2020, when Brown and his partner assisted another officer – Cpl. Darryl Wormuth – in tracking down someone matching the description of a possible armed suspect. After apprehending the person, later identified as 17-year-old Kayvon Hines, Wormuth struck the teen in the throat, Brown and others would later testify.

“I think everyone on the scene was shocked that witnessed it,” Brown said, later adding, “We’re trained not to put any kind of hands on anyone’s neck.”

Brown and his partner, former PGPD Officer Thomas Lester, reported Wormuth for unnecessary use of force. Wormuth was eventually charged and convicted of second-degree assault and misconduct in office. Officials including Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy would later say Hines was not the person police were looking for.

But it’s what police investigators found on Wormuth’s cellphone during the case, Braveboy said and records show, that led to new concerns: a multitude of racist text messages Wormuth exchanged with officers, some whom were still on the force.   

For instance, while discussing a criminal investigation involving Black officers, Wormuth called them “f***ing animals” and remarked they were “black people in a white man’s job.”

In another, Wormuth texted a different cop: “God forbid we make a black person look bad, or expose them here for what they are … f***ing animals.”

Braveboy, whose office prosecuted Wormuth in the assault, said she grew so concerned about the contents of the text messages that she added Wormuth and another officer, Anthony Brooke, to her “do not call” list of police witnesses.

“As the top law enforcement officer, it is my duty to protect everyone, and I was very concerned that, knowing there were racist individuals in our department, that we were putting our citizens at risk,” said Braveboy, who notified police command of her decision with a letter in May 2021.

An attorney for Wormuth declined an interview request but said Wormuth is appealing his conviction. Wormuth, who was sentenced to 45 days and had his police powers suspended, has said he committed no wrongdoing in the Hines arrest.

An attorney for Brooke also declined comment, though court records show Brooke sued the department for trying to fire him as a result of the messages and won in a lower court. In that case, the judge ruled his personal texts – which were uncovered through a subpoena of Wormuth’s phone records — were private and protected by the First Amendment.

‘Code Red’

The texts also revealed how Wormuth and some others regarded Brown and Lester, with some calling the Black officers “snitches” and other derogatory terms.

In February 2021, an officer whom the I-Team confirmed is no longer with the force asked Wormuth for the “ID numbers” for the officers he said “snitched.”

Court records show the county would later accuse some of the texting officers of conspiring to not back up Brown’s squad in the line of duty – a retaliatory act some officers call a “code red.”

“A lot of times, as an officer, you think you’re invincible,” Brown told the I-Team. “This was like, Oh, you can be touched, whether it be friendly fire or we just leave you vulnerable on scenes. You’re in danger.”

But despite those actions, Brown said higher ups didn’t alert him to the possible threat to his safety. Instead, he learned about the texts through office gossip.

Brown said he approached his higher ups with his concerns in April 2021 and found a superior’s response dismissive.  

“It caught me off guard,” he said. “Like, we don’t have protocol in place to safeguard officers that report malicious actions.”

He said he was eventually offered a desk duty job in a unit where injured or suspended officers go – which could’ve included the officers being punished for the troubling texts. He declined and said he wasn’t moved off patrol for seven more months.

Charges pending

News4 obtained a letter Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz sent to officers following Wormuth’s conviction earlier this year in which he thanked them for their service while cautioning, “It is so important for all of us to remember that new legislation and laws are changing the way we police  … Our words and actions are captured on cell phones. We are truly held to a higher standard.”

In the letter, Aziz said his support for his officers is “unwavering.” But Brown said it’s what was missing that stood out to him – any mention of support for the whistleblowers in the case.

By that point, Brown had testified against Wormuth in his criminal trial and said he was discouraged by how many current and former officers – the majority of whom were white – showed up to support Wormuth.

“We didn’t introduce race into this conversation or this incident. It was brought to us,” Brown said.

The police department declined multiple interview requests but issued two statements on behalf of Aziz that said, since he took over as chief, he has “made it clear that we do not tolerate racism within the department” and “any threat or retaliation against any officer or employee won’t be tolerated.”

The statement went on to say the department initiated administrative charges against Wormuth and a fellow officer related to the “inappropriate comments.” Those cases are pending. The department said the administrative process related to Wormuth’s assault charges has resumed.

Asked specifically about how the department responded to Brown’s concerns, the chief said in the statement that, once police learned of threats of retaliation, the threats were immediately investigated by the internal affairs division and several officers linked to the allegations were suspended during the investigation.

The chief did not say how many remain on the force,  but the statement notes the department worked “hand-in-hand with the State’s Attorney’s Office, the Department of Justice and the Prince George’s County Office of Law to ensure that all aspects of the investigation were handled properly and in accordance with the law and departmental policies.”

The statement continues to say Brown and Lester’s chain of command extended their support to the officers, noting, “The safety and wellbeing of all officers is of utmost concern. Agency leadership strives to maintain communication with officers and have [sic] an open door policy should issues arise.”

Brown said that, while some of his higher ups extended support, he’s most frustrated that he was never fully briefed on the contents of the texts or who sent them, leaving him in the dark as he stayed on patrol. Brown was eventually moved to an investigator role in the fall of 2021 – roughly a year after the initial incident.

Don Quinn, whom Brown retained for the purposes of the I-Team interview, said the department’s anti-retaliation policy is lacking. The orders prohibit an officer who is the subject of a complaint from reaching out to the complainant or directing anyone else to do so.

“What does that mean to the officer on the street?” said Quinn.

“Unless you protect the protectors, you’re not going far enough,” he added.

Brown’s partner, who declined an interview with News4, has left the department. Brown said he doesn’t know what his future on the force will be but said he doesn’t regret reporting an officer for going too far.

“Kayvon needed a voice. He needed an extra voice, an advocate in that moment. And I was proud to stand there for him,” he said.

Reported by Tracee Wilkins, produced by Katie Leslie, shot and edited by Jeff Piper and Steve Jones.

Trump’s case is one of more than 6,000 pending criminal cases in the D.C. federal district court.

Trump may be the best known, but he’s far from the first defendant charged in connection with crimes related to the 2020 election. More than 1,069 people have been charged with crimes related to Jan. 6, which the indictment says Trump’s actions helped fuel.

“This is the case of the century,” former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said. “Indeed, I would say this is the case of our nation’s history. So, no, this is not just any other case.”

D.C.’s federal courthouse reports the hundreds of cases related to the Capitol riot are taking a toll. It reports the court is taking five months longer to handle case than before Jan. 6 – a 36% increase in time. Prosecutors say there could be hundreds more Jan. 6 cases yet to be filed.

“This is so unique,” Kirschner said. “This courthouse is situated virtually in the shadow of the crime scene, one of the crime scenes, the U.S. Capitol.

“This crime is unusual,” he said. “It permeates everything in and around Washington, D.C.”

During that march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, insurrectionists walked just steps away from the courthouse where Trump will be tried.

Even though D.C. voted overwhelmingly for President Joe Biden, legal experts told the I-Team they think Trump can get a fair trial.

Donald Trump Aug 2, 2023

Trump indictment reveals new details of Jan. 6, pressure campaign to subvert election

Elections Aug 1, 2023

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“I have more faith in juries than some do,” George Washington University law professor Paul Schiff Berman said.

“It is true that the District of Columbia voted for President Biden, but that’s different from convicting President Trump, and I would expect people to take it very seriously,” he said.

Trump said it would be “impossible” to get a fair trial in D.C. in a Truth Social post and called for it to be moved to an “impartial” venue such as West Virginia.

Several Jan. 6 defendants have raised the idea of a trial outside of D.C. and away from where the conduct allegedly occurred. None has convinced a D.C. judge that D.C. jurors can’t fairly and impartially decide these cases.

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Evan Carr.

Data obtained from the Metropolitan Police Department, which previously did not track car makes in its theft data,show nearly 2,300 Hyundais and Kias were stolen between Jan. 1 and July 20.

By comparison, the District saw 1,825 total car thefts at the same point last year.

As the I-Team has reported for months, Hyundai and Kia have been under siege – targeted by a viral “Kia Boyz” social media challenge that’s led to a rise in thefts of these cars nationwide. At issue are older models that lack a standard engine immobilizer, rendering them more vulnerable to hotwiring with a USB cord.

Manufacturers announced a software update they said would help fix the problem in February but tell the I-Team only about 15% of eligible drivers have had the software installed. On Thursday, Hyundai launched a free mobile software clinic in the District in hopes more drivers will get the software upgrade.

Meanwhile, data from D.C. police show the theft of these car makes in the District has climbed in the month since the software upgrade was unveiled, replacing other car brands that previously led the theft chart.

social media May 22, 2023

Hyundai, Kia TikTok Challenge Spotlights Rise of ‘Performance Crime' on Social Media

HYUNDAI May 19, 2023

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For example, Toyotas and Hondas were the most commonly stolen car make in the District in 2022, with 501 Toyotas and 413 Hondas reported stolen. Hyundai and Kia were the third and seventh most commonly stolen, respectively, with 355 Hyundais and 192 Kias reported stolen last year.

By comparison, D.C. police data show 1,468 Hyundais and 806 Kias were stolen between Jan. 1 and July 20 of this year, accounting for more than half of the nearly 4,000 car thefts in the District. An I-Team analysis shows that, on average, a Hyundai or Kia is stolen in D.C. every two hours and seven minutes.

In response to the theft surge, both Hyundai and Kia have offered free steering wheel locks, distributed through police departments, in addition to the free antitheft software upgrade.

The I-Team recently reported concerns some Kia drivers have with the software upgrade, but the manufacturers say it’s performing as designed and stressed drivers must lock their cars for it to work.

Hyundai is holding a free antitheft software event at RFK Stadium through the end of the month for eligible drivers.

Reported by Ted Oberg and produced by Katie Leslie.

That’s why the Maryland couple booked an appointment at the dealership earlier this year when Kia offered a free fix: an anti-theft software it said would prevent thieves from hotwiring their car with a USB cord.  

But just three months after having the software installed in their 2020 Kia Sportage – and anti-theft stickers placed on its windows – their car was stolen from outside their home.

“I was like, Kia, did you just put these stickers on or did you really do something? Or is the software not what you think it is?” Marie Guerrero Pincheria said.

She’s among a handful of Kia owners interviewed by the I-Team who question whether the software fix is enough to protect their cars. Meanwhile, the manufacturer says the software, which requires vehicles to be locked to function properly, is working as designed.

But Guerrero Pincheria, who acknowledges no glass was left behind when her car was stolen, said she did lock her vehicle, noting, “Even if had we not locked it and, as I said, I really remember locking it, how did you get the ignition hotwired?”

Antonette Cook, of Pennsylvania, showed the I-Team receipts for her Kia Sportage’s anti-theft upgrade in May. But she said that, just weeks later, it was nearly stolen after thieves broke in through a window and hooked up a USB cord.

Cook said a neighbor who saw the break-in called the cops. By the time she arrived, she said the cops were on scene and her car was running – an indication, she said, that someone was able to hot-wire it. She said she doesn’t know if the would-be crooks or the cops turned on her car, and the police report didn’t address the issue either way.

“If it was working the way it was supposed to … I know they probably still would’ve broken my window to get into my car, but they never would’ve been able to cut my car on,” Cook said.

In Louisiana, Taylor Rose’s Kia Optima was stolen just hours after getting the software upgrade in April. Asked whether it’s possible he left the vehicle unlocked, Rose, 19, said no and showed the I-Team photos of his car’s busted out window.

“If my car was unlocked, then what was the intention of the window being broken into it?” he said.

Rose’s father, who works in law enforcement, headed back to the dealership. There, he says an employee told him the only way someone could start his son’s 2020 Optima after receiving the software upgrade is with a key.

The Roses, however, had both copies of the key.

“I said, ‘Well, it was stolen without a key,’” Scott Rose said. “And everybody in the room was quiet.”

Taylor Rose’s car was found just days later, but the Roses said the interior was largely destroyed and drugs were found inside – alongside a still intact USB cord. The Roses said they’re still waiting for answers on what went wrong after getting the upgrade.

“I would love to find out if the program was actually put in or the program failed,” Scott Rose said.

Carmakers’ response

The I-Team called the dealerships for Guerrero Pincheria, Cook and the Roses, and each confirmed they installed the software.

In a statement a Kia spokesman said the company remains “confident the software upgrade we developed for eligible Kia models works as intended” and is “not aware of any cases – including these specific instances – where the software has not worked as designed.”

A spokesperson for Hyundai, which has an ownership stake in Kia, said while the manufacturer has seen compatibility problems with some cars that have remote start capabilities, “Hyundai is not aware of any confirmed failures of the software and can report the software is in fact working as designed.”

According to Hyundai, the upgrade works on certain vehicles “equipped with standard ‘turn-key-to-start’ ignitions so they cannot be started without their keys.” But, Hyundai continued, “Customers will need to lock their doors with their key or key fob button in order to set the factory alarm and activate the software’s ‘ignition kill’ feature.”

A spokesman for Kia said its software works similarly.

car theft Apr 25, 2023

Kias, Hyundais Account for Half of Cars Stolen in Prince George's This Year

car theft Nov 1, 2022

Thefts of Hyundais, Kias Up in DC Region

The carmakers have been under fire for several months as thefts of certain older models of their vehicles have soared across the country.

D.C. police, for instance, report more than 1,460 Hyundais and 800 Kias were stolen in the District so far this year – a more than 300% increase compared to 2022 theft reports.

Kia and Hyundai announced the free software upgrade in February to help combat the social-media fueled theft craze, but so far only about 15 percent of all eligible owners have had the update installed, according to the manufacturers.

In May, the carmakers agreed to pay roughly $200 million in a class action lawsuit to owners of certain Hyundai and Kia models that lack push-button ignitions and immobilizing anti-theft devices. The carmakers have also provided steering wheel locks to eligible customers.

Call for recall

Michael Brooks, with the Center for Auto Safety, says these solutions aren’t enough. He’s among those calling for the feds to take action.

In April, 18 state attorneys general asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to recall millions of Kias and Hyundais over the theft problem, which they called a “serious safety issue” that’s led to “deaths” and “property damage.”

“We know that people have died because of this,” Brooks said, echoing the state AGs letter. “When you call it a safety recall, you’re going to get a better response than what’s going on right now, which is a customer satisfaction campaign.”  

So far, NHTSA has declined to take action.

In response to the I-Team’s request, NHTSA forwarded a letter it sent back to the state AGs stating it hasn’t determined the issue constitutes either a “safety defect or noncompliance requiring a recall.” It added: the “safety risk arises from unsafe use of a motor vehicle by an unauthorized person.”

“Basically, they say there is a criminal act that has taken place that kind of lets Hyundai and Kia off the hook. We don’t agree with that,” Brooks said.

Marie Guerrero Pincheria still hasn’t gotten her Kia back, nor has anyone been arrested in the crime, but she did receive two speeding tickets in the mail she blames on the thief.

She’s now on the hunt for a new car, since hers is still missing.

“Shopping for a new car has been a nightmare, and will cost us much, much more,” she told the I-Team. “We are in our 80s and living on pensions.”

She said her insurance company is among those now declining to insure certain models of Kias, but she and her husband have already decided to buy from a different maker.

Reported by Susan Hogan, produced by Katie Leslie, and shot and edited by Steve Jones and Jeff Piper.

Chief Pamela Smith said she wants to deploy more officers to spots in the city dealing with increased crime. The News4 I-Team found some of those neighborhoods have seen a shrinking police force. According to D.C. police’s own crime reports, parts of the city with the most violent crimes have fewer officers than they did a year ago at this time, while some with less gun violence got increased police presence.

The I-Team recently visited a summer safety initiative in Southeast D.C. put on by Ward 8 D.C. Council member Trayon White. It didn’t take long to find someone touched by gun violence: Tressy Conyers lost her daughter in a shooting.

“That’s my heart; that’s my best friend,” she said.

It happened nine years ago but still feels fresh to her.

“The pain,” she said. “That pain I wish that pain on nobody. It hurts.”

Standing, next to her Jasmine McPherson, a mother of two young children, said, “It’s unsafe. It’s affordable, but it’s unsafe.”

She’s trying to find a way to move out of this neighborhood where she says gunshots are so common, sometimes police aren’t called.

“No. I mean, it’s become a version of like a normal thing,” she said.

D.C. police report the neighborhood in the city’s farthest southeast corner is home to the most gun crime in the city. Forty-one shootings or homicides with a gun have occurred since January in Police Service Area (PSA) 708. That’s 16 more than this time last year.

“People have got a spirit of lawlessness where they are shooting in front of the police,” Councilman White said. “Oh, you can see it every day.”

But despite a rising number of shootings, the I-Team found there are fewer police officers there. According to most recent staffing report from D.C. police, 25 officers are assigned to patrol that corner of the city. A year ago, there were four more.

The I-Team found seven of the highest crime PSAs in D.C. lost officers or at best kept the number of officers they had last July. 

At the same time, six of the PSAs with the least amount of violent gun crime gained officers compared to this time last year.

As D.C. police deal with a shrinking force, the I-Team found nearly half of PSAs have fewer officers than last year.

McPherson, the mom of two young children, said she wants more officers.

“Yes. More help would be nice,” she said. “These are people, too.”

White said he’s asked for more officers “each and every day.” But the council member isn’t certain more cops would stop crime there by itself.

It’s layered. He and longtime residents say it’s more than just officers. Jobs, new homes and investment are needed to help the community, as well as officers who have time to do something other than move from awful call to awful call.

“It’s bad for public safety and it’s bad for community relations, because a tired officer is not going to be as effective as a fresh officer,” said Will Pelfrey, a criminologist at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Metropolitan Police Department (DC Police / MPD) Jul 17, 2023

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He said D.C. is fighting an all too familiar battle in American cities: too much crime and not enough people willing to be police officers to stop it.

“Officers sometimes say we don’t want to work there, we don’t want to work night shift, we don’t want to work in these parts of the city, and police agencies have few options right now because they’re so desperate for people,” Pelfrey said. “So, they may be allowing officers to make requests or submit requests that they would not otherwise field because they’re down so many people.”

The I-Team sent questions to D.C. police weeks ago asking what was leading to fewer officers in some of the most violent parts of the city, but they didn’t offer any answers.

That’s something Tressy Conyers said she’d like to know, too.

“I think they need more police, more of these out here,” she said. “I think they need more.”

A D.C. police spokesperson suggested it was important to expand the view beyond just comparing this month to last July, so the I-Team looked at the past year. PSA 708 is at its lowest number of officers in any month in the past year, and police districts east of the river lost a combined 65 officers – the most in number and percentage.

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Steve Jones.

Attorneys for a convicted killer in Prince George’s County challenged whether crime scene analysts can definitively match bullets to a gun.

Maryland’s highest court ruled the idea of a perfect match doesn’t match up with the science. The court placed limits on what forensic experts can say in all cases involving guns moving forward.

Shell casings recovered at crime scenes are sent to a lab where technicians microscopically inspect them looking for evidence the casing can be linked to a weapon and, ultimately, a shooter.

“This specific type of testimony – this type of, this piece of ammunition was fired by this specific gun – this is absolutely routine,” University of Maryland College of Law professor Maneka Sinha said.

A former public defender, Sinha said she’s seen too many cases where a forensic expert declared a specific casing came from a specific gun.

The Maryland Supreme Court ruling puts limits on that kind of testimony.

“They can still say that there is some pool of weapons that could have fired this and this gun that was recovered on the scene is within that pool,” Sinha said. “But they can’t go further than that to say, ‘It was this gun,’ because the science    doesn’t support that.”

Not only does the ruling change criminal cases in the future, but it could also impact many in the past.

“We have a case that was getting ready for sentencing, and they postponed sentencing this week so that they could pull the transcript and see exactly what the expert said,” Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said.

The issue is whether firearms experts have told jurors a bullet matched a gun, he said, which he admits is testimony jurors lean in to hear.

He’s telling his prosecutors to look at current and old cases.

“We will be pulling cases, checking transcripts and seeing if that testimony had been given on other cases,” Shellenberger said.

The technology has been used by police departments all over the country for years. It’s one of many pieces of evidence law enforcement rely on for prosecution.

Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham said he hasn’t reviewed the Maryland decision but still believes “as with most forensic evidence, [firearms testing] can serve as an investigative lead that needs to be corroborated.”

Shellenberger advises fellow prosecutors across the country pay attention to Maryland’s ruling.

“It could happen in their state and, therefore, impacts the ones that they’re trying this week and next week, and they may not know it for a couple of years,” he said.

“This is really a step in the right direction towards sort of uncovering those flaws and bringing them to the public’s attention and making sure that convictions are based on reliable evidence,” Sinha said.

Another significant challenge to this science is about to be heard in D.C. next month. Under current law, a firearms examiner can’t testify a specific bullet came from a specific gun without offering the jury some limitations.

The commonwealth’s attorney in Alexandria said in Virginia, experts can’t testify a bullet matches a firearm, either, but can say it isn’t impossible.

The I-Team caught up with the sheriff Monday outside his office. He refused to answer any other questions citing the case, but said he was at the Sheriff’s office to meet someone for business. After the brief but cordial exchange, Jenkins rolled up the window on his pickup and drove off.

It happened four days after he appeared in a federal court in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was the first step in a case that could send Jenkins to a federal prison for decades.

The 38-page indictment alleges Jenkins accepted at least $72,500 dollars in cash and campaign contribution bribes since April 2019 from at least eight people— including two undercover agents, as well as Rick Rahim, Fredric Gumbinner and James Metcalf.

In exchange for the campaign donations, the feds allege Jenkins appointed the men auxiliary deputies, which allowed them to carry concealed firearms in all 50 states without obtaining a permit.

Culpeper County Jun 29, 2023

Culpeper sheriff indicted for accepting bribes for police credentials: Feds

Culpeper County Jun 29, 2023

Culpeper County sheriff, 3 other men charged in bribery scheme

Culpeper County Apr 11, 2023

FBI Seizes Culpeper Sheriff Campaign Cash

The three men indicted with Jenkins all pleaded not guilty last week. The sheriff has yet to enter a plea, and his attorney has not commented to the I-Team.

The indictments come after years of reporting from the News4 I-Team regarding the sheriff and the way he runs his office and Auxiliary Deputy Program.

County Supervisor Tom Underwood told the I-Team the allegations were “embarrassing for the county,” but stopped short of calling on the sheriff to step down even temporarily.

“The sheriff has a lot of challenges right now,” Underwood told News4, but left the decision to step aside to voters and the sheriff himself.

Former Culpeper Police Chief Chris Jenkins (no relation) was less forgiving.

“To see the leader of an organization, a leader in this county, betray the trust and basically sell out badges to the highest bidder – it’s unfathomable I think to this community,” he said.

When asked if Jenkins should remain in charge of the Sheriff’s office, the former chief was clear, “I don’t think so… I don’t think it sits well with anyone here.”

There appears to be little in Virginia law that could force the sheriff to step aside before a trial.

Jenkins is set for trial in September. He is running for re-election in November.

But the News4 I-Team found most of those students likely have no idea exactly what their education will cost them, because – according to a study by government researchers – the majority of colleges aren’t transparent about the true cost of attending.

According to a November 2022 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, an estimated 91% of American colleges fail to tell students the full cost of their college education.

“Students and their families deserve to know that price,” said Melissa Emrey-Arras, who heads up the GAO team that examined more than 500 aid offers from nearly 200 colleges across the country. “It took quite a while for our own staff to decipher them, and these are people that are trained looking at these. It was still very difficult to figure out what the cost was.”

The GAO, which did not name any of the colleges it examined in its report, found 41% of the offers it examined did not estimate the net price of attending and about half understate the net price by excluding costs such as living expenses and books.

It also found roughly 75% refer to aid as “awards,” which the GAO slammed as confusing as aid packages with loans will need to be repaid.

Emrey-Arras said federal higher aid officials created and recommend ten best practices to make these financial aid offers more transparent, but “colleges are choosing not to follow them.” 

Asked why, Emrey-Arras said, “We heard from people during our work that they have an incentive to not tell people what the full cost is, because if they do so, it will make their school look more expensive.”

Though the U.S. Department of Education created a financial aid offer roadmap for colleges, federal law doesn’t standardize how colleges must present their financial offers to students.

The GAO, which serves as the spending watchdog for lawmakers, has recommended Congress fix that, though legislation to increase transparency in those offers has so far stalled on the Hill.

Justin Draeger, the president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, told the I-Team that while “we can’t make any excuses for schools that are purposefully trying to hide or disguise their costs,” the majority are doing the best they can.

Draeger said, in most cases, confusion on these offers isn’t intentional.

“Paying for college is a really complicated issue in this country …  There are just so many entities involved in helping students and families pay for college,” he said, explaining financial aid officers are trying to organize information from government entities, scholarship providers and families.

“The financial aid office is trying to put together a single package with all of these funding … and it’s really complicated. And I sympathize with students and families who are trying to figure all of this out,” he said.

Draeger welcomed some congressional action on the issue, noting lawmakers could mandate minimal standards on financial offers to make the bottom line easier to understand.

“But I also don’t think that’s going to be a panacea,” he said. “This is going to take all stakeholders coming together and trying to figure this out because the complexities aren’t going to end today or tomorrow.”

The transparency matters more than ever. The Education Data Initiative reports the average four-year college now costs about $35,500, including the cost of books, supplies and living expenses. The EDI reports that average cost has more than doubled in the 21^st century.

The same group reports the average federal student loan debt is about $37,000, and students in the District, Maryland and Virginia have some of the highest average debt loads in the nation.

“Have we done enough? No,” U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said in an interview with the I-Team about college cost transparency.

Kaine, who sits on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, supports efforts to expand loan forgiveness for public sector employees, increase the Pell grant for low-income students and make it available for job-training programs. He’s also behind bipartisan legislation that would require colleges to provide more in-depth information about student outcomes, such as graduation rates or post-college earnings. So far, however, none has passed.

“We’ve done a lot of different things, but sometimes it’s one step forward, two steps back,” he said.

Kaine said he’s hopeful Congress will eventually tackle an overhaul of the 1965 Higher Education Act – a behemoth bill which he said could address many of these issues – though it hasn’t been reauthorized since 2008.

“The Higher Ed Act gives us the opportunity to look at it comprehensively, and it is my hope on the committee that we will tackle that. It’s long overdue,” he said.

Until then, families like Christine Collins’ are doing their best to prepare for the college bills headed their way.

Collins’ daughter, Taylor, who recently graduated from Magruder High School in Montgomery County, is planning to study neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder this fall.

Collins said that, while her family expects annual costs will exceed $30,000 for out-of-state students like Taylor, “We don’t know really the actual bottom line as of yet.”

The Maryland mother isn’t convinced Congress should determine how schools prepare financial offers, but agreed more should be done to make it easier for parents and students to understand the bottom line.

“I think in all areas of higher education … it should be a more transparent process,” she said.

This story was reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Katie Leslie, and shot and edited by Jeff Piper. NBC Boston contributed to this report.

The I-Team has tracked Metro fare evasion citations for months. Metro’s CEO pledged an increase in citations late last year and agency data shows enforcement is way up this year over last. Despite the increase, citations in the District of Columbia are still far behind those in Maryland and Virginia.

Metro statistics show a nearly 600% increase in the number of citations issued for Metro fare evasion in the first five months of 2023. In May alone, officers patrolling the transit system issued 681 fare evasion citations. An I-Team analysis however found just 29 of those citations were issued in D.C. itself – despite Metro’s insistence that the vast majority of fare evasion happens in the District.

Metro has not replied to repeated requests for explanation or an interview over the past two weeks.

D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto wants to make it easier to enforce fare evasion in D.C. Pinto, the chair of D.C.’s Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, introduced a new bill she says will close a persistent loophole and could cut violent crime on the system.

Pinto explained to the I-Team current D.C. law makes it easy to evade a fare evasion ticket.

“Right now, if somebody jumps the turnstile and transit police say, ‘Hey, you can’t do that. I need your name,’ the person can just walk away from them,” Pinto said.

Under her proposed bill, offenders must give officers their name and address (not necessarily an ID). If not, they can be detained and possibly face a fine of $100, twice the current $50 fare evasion fine in D.C.

Maryland and Virginia already have tougher fare evasion laws.

Metro CEO Randy Clarke backs the bill, believing it will increase enforcement further, saying in a letter to Pinto, “When (Metro) increases fare enforcement, our Part I (serious) crime number is lower,” adding, “the vast majority of persons who commit criminal acts within Metro fare evade.”

Pinto shared Clarke’s sentiment.

“I believe we will be more successful in stopping some of the violent crime when we could have an enforcement mechanism for fare evasion,” she said.

The bill is likely headed for a D.C. Council hearing later this summer. If it passes, fare evasion would still be a civil penalty in D.C. The D.C. Council voted to decriminalize fare evasion in 2018.  

Metro (WMATA) Mar 21, 2023

Metro Says Riders Aren't Paying for 13% of Weekday Trips, Eyes New Gates to Cut Fare Evasion

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Former mayor and Councilman Vincent Grey and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson support the bill. 

Plenty of people in D.C. believe Metro should be free, especially for low-income riders. The I-Team heard from them reporting on the start of the fare evasion crackdown months ago.

The D.C. Council decided not to move toward that with a free bus plan this year but will soon give discounts to SNAP recipients.

Pinto also said she wants to make it easier for young people to access their free passes, which are already available.

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough and Katie Leslie, and shot and edited by Steve Jones.

“It’s a First Amendment issue,” he said.

Leydon was refused access to Greenwich Point Park in Connecticut in the mid-1990s because it was open to residents only. A law student at the time, Leydon filed a court challenge testing the constitutional bounds of the beach ban.

“Beaches are just a subset of parks,” he explained. “Streets and sidewalks are deemed quintessential public forums for people to communicate on whatever they want to.”

In other words, by closing off a park or a beach, he said Greenwich was violating his freedom of speech. In 2001, the Supreme Court of Connecticut agreed, issuing an opinion stating: “We conclude that such a restriction is prohibited by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.” The court also found the restriction was in violation of several articles of the Connecticut constitution.

That’s why Leydon was interested to see the News4 I-Team’s recent report about what’s happening now in Chesapeake Beach.

Citing the public health emergency, town officials voted in 2020 to restrict access to Bayfront Park, which includes the less than half-acre-size Brownie’s Beach, to residents only. This year, town leaders voted to extend the ban to 2025.

But it was a comment from the local mayor, made in response to a councilman who suggested reopening the beach to tourists this year, that prompted questions over its intent.

“I’ll be the voice of the south side now. Quote-unquote: We don’t want them people down here,” Mayor Pat Mahoney said during a March meeting.

“The way that he said it, it is definitely perceived as a discriminatory term,” longtime Chesapeake Beach resident Denise Plater previously told the I-Team.

Mahoney has not responded to News4’s repeated interview requests, but video recordings show he apologized for the remark during an April town council meeting.

“To be honest and sincere, there was no malice on my part or any particular demographic group or groups targeted when I referred to non-town residents as ‘them people,’” he said.

“As mayor, I should and must be careful, mindful and responsible for what I say,” he continued. “For anyone hurt, offended and the citizenry in general, I sincerely apologize and promise to do better.”

Still, former Chesapeake Beach Councilman Bob Carpenter, who now owns a travel agency in the area, worries those comments and the beach restrictions could have long-term economic impacts on the town.

“We are a town that that needs tourism. We need people coming here,” he said.

He said tourism dollars help Chesapeake Beach maintain its property.

“It’s important that we have those tourist dollars, and to shut that down is going to affect us all,” he said.

In recent days, one councilman suggested revisiting the issue.

At a June 6 work session, Councilman Greg Morris asked for support in re-evaluating the policy and exploring ways to mitigate some of the complaints residents raised in prior years, which include beach crowding, lack of parking for out-of-towners and unsafe crosswalks.

In the meeting, Morris suggested a few ways to address those problems, such as by limiting the number of people on the small beach at once or by imposing access fees, as some nearby towns do.

Reached by text message this week, Morris told the I-Team that, after meeting with residents who voiced concerns the restrictions are discriminatory, he believes “there is a model that could give everyone what they want.”

Leydon, the Connecticut attorney, calls the beach restrictions “non-resident discrimination” and added the principle against the bans is important, regardless of the size of the beach.

“Legally, parks and beaches are deemed similar to streets and sidewalks. And likewise, this town has a duty to maintain streets and sidewalks,” he said. “That hardly means they can say, ‘Only our residents can drive on our streets and sidewalks.’”

The town administrator previously pointed the I-Team to its town code, charging officials with maintaining “public parks, gardens, playgrounds, and other recreational facilities and programs to promote the health, welfare, and enjoyment of the inhabitants of the town.”

Similarly, according to the Supreme Court of Connecticut ruling in Leydon’s case, Greenwich had argued a 1919 special act authorizing the town to “establish, maintain and conduct public parks [and] bathing beaches for the use of the inhabitants of [the ] town” meant “for the exclusive use of its residents.” The state Supreme Court sided with a lower court, however, in rejecting that argument.

Like many experts the I-Team interviewed, Leydon also said it’s hard to ignore the role race has played in beach access battles across the country, saying many cases he’s reviewed involve “white enclaves near other urban, diverse areas that seem to suddenly need to protect the environment … One wonders what the real motivation is.”

Fighting the beach access case in Connecticut took Leydon seven years and thousands of hours, a fight he said people shouldn’t have to undertake.

“I think people should just relax and enjoy the beach,” he said.

The I-Team sent multiple requests for comment to the town administrator regarding the Greenwich case and what it could mean for the Chesapeake Beach restrictions but did not receive a reply.

In the meantime, Plater has begun an online petition to re-open Brownie’s Beach to outsiders, though a search of Maryland court records indicates no legal challenges against the Bayfront Park restrictions have been filed.

This story was reported by Tracee Wilkins and Katie Leslie; produced by Katie Leslie, and shot and edited by Jeff Piper. NBC New York photographer Will Caldwell contributed to this report.

“We’re going into month 14 of the condo being in this condition,” condo owner Merry Wiley said. 

News4 first visited Wiley’s top floor condo at Treetop Condominiums in Largo, Maryland, in April 2022, just a few days after the ceiling collapsed, trapping and injuring her elderly renter. A year later, it looks the same as it did then. 

Wiley said nothing has changed, and her neighbors said nothing’s changed for them next door or across the hall.

Cynthia Lowry, who also lives on the top floor, said she’s had warping floors for years.

“Merry lives next door to me, so usually what happens with her is going to directly affect me,” she said.

Across the hall, Dale Evans has holes in her roof and has been repairing the ceiling over and over. She said she’s paying for her own repairs. 

After News4’s report on Merry’s cave-in in 2022, the condo association sent an email to tenants saying they had already hired a structural engineer to inspect her unit and had already started reviewing all the buildings.

The email obtained by the News4 I-Team said, “The engineer concluded that the issue with (Merry’s) ceiling was the same issue that the Board had notified the community about in 2015 and 2018, that the ceiling drywall boards were attached with nails that were spaced too far apart.” The email went on to say that’s how top floor condos were originally constructed in the complex.

After earlier incidents of collapsed ceilings, the condo association asked residents to look for cracks. Wiley said she did that. 

“I find it difficult to believe that they would have built this building in a manner and not done every other building on the property in the same manner,” she said.

After Wiley’s incident, the county’s Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement inspected and concluded ceiling drywall had become wet, causing the ceiling to fall.

According to a report obtained by the I-Team, the county inspected three of the four top apartments and found sagging ceilings and warped floors, all signs of water entry and penetration from the roof, and permits would be necessary for repairs.  

After months of going back and forth with the condo association and management, Wiley filed a lawsuit for repairs in February.

In April, the condo association agreed to pay for repairs but only if she dropped the lawsuit, signed a confidentiality clause and didn’t talk to the media, meaning News4. 

Wiley said she also was surprised to find out the condo was offering to make repairs since it had no permits to do the work.

“I found that not only did they not have permits, at no time did they put in the appropriate paperwork to request the permits,” Wiley said. “They had no permits in hand and none were pending.”

Wiley and her attorney said they have tried to find out how many other top floor condos have had collapsed ceilings but have not been told. When the News4 I-Team contacted attorneys for the condominium, they told us they do not comment on pending litigation. 

The I-Team checked with the Prince George’s County Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement, which wouldn’t talk on camera.

But the county did put a stop work order on the condo door and released a statement saying, “At this point, no proof of permits has been submitted to DPIE. Repairs may not start until the appropriate steps, as outlined to the HOA, have been followed.”

Attorney Dwight Clark, who is not connected to the case, has represented both condo associations and owners for 35 years. He said agreeing to the terms the condo has presented to Wiley could be risky.

“Who knows what kind of work they did without the proper inspections from the county,” he said. “So, I would say, no, don’t go that route.”  

As for signing a non-disclosure agreement, Clark said, “I would definitely advise her not to sign anything like that, not to let them off the hook, because that’s what they’re looking for. They’re looking for a way out and also to hire the work done without a permit.”

Because cases like this can be messy, he suggests people reach out to the Consumer Protection Division of their Attorney General’s Office which is a free option.

“They usually hire an investigator, listens to both sides, and tries to mediate the situation,” Clark said. 

Attorneys for the condo responded in Wiley’s lawsuit denying all liability and asked for a jury trial. 

For now, her unit sits empty as she waits to see if she will ever be made whole. 

Since the I-Team talked with Wiley, she received an update from the attorney for the condo’s board of directors, who said engineers they hired could not all agree on what made the ceiling collapse.

But they had approved repairs to be done to her ceiling and were awaiting access to her unit.

The I-Team checked back in with county inspections; they said the condo still has not requested the permits they recommended for the repairs.

Long ago, Langston knew the family who lived there. Now that family is a memory, the property is abandoned, and Langston is worried.

“It’s a danger, but I just pray every day that won’t come by me,” she said.

Across D.C., the News4 I-Team found 291 blighted homes in D.C. property records – homes that, by law, are unsafe, unsanitary or a threat to our health, safety and welfare. The property on 50^th Street NE is one of them and has been on the D.C. list for 10 years. That, too, isn’t rare. The I-Team found 95 D.C. homes listed as blighted for a decade but still standing in neighborhoods all over the District.

Vershelle Robinson-Ross lives nearby, just two doors down from another of the decade-long eyesores. She said she’s called the city worried about safety.

“I had to call and have it boarded up because kids go in and out the house,” she said.

The property is just across from a school. Now, after what she says is a 15-year wait for change, she’s fed up.

“It matters to everybody else who lives around here, but there’s nothing that is being done about it,” she told the I-Team. “At some point, you just … you get tired.”

Both Langston and Robinson-Ross are in D.C.’s 6^th Police District where the I-Team found the most blighted buildings. Thirty of them in a small area; almost a third of them on the problem list for a decade.

That property on 50^th Street has a $190,000+ tax bill after not paying for years. In 2018, a D.C. inspector hung a sign on the fence of that property that the home could soon be torn down. Five years later, the sign is still there and so is the blighted house.

The problem is larger than just what neighborhoods look like. D.C. has a housing shortage. According to a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report last year, as many as 36,000 families in D.C. alone could be waiting for affordable housing. The official waiting list however has been closed for a decade, so the real need could be even larger. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson is insistent homes like those on the I-Team’s map can be cleaned up and once again made useful.

“The inspector should be looking and saying, ‘That property shouldn’t be like that, and we’re going to make sure that it’s taxed, and we’re going to look at other tools to see if we can get that property back in use,’” Mendelson said.

He said he was alerted to the problems of blight on a visit to a decrepit Northwest D.C. apartment building. Forty units, he said, that “could be rental housing.”

Years later, the building he first saw years ago still isn’t in usable condition, and neighbors there are fed up as well.

“It’s been derelict for way longer than seven years,” neighbor Heather Williams said. 

These days bricks are missing up high, windows are broken down low, and a sign says the city stopped work on some project in 2017. D.C. records show it was noted vacant since 2014. 

“Let’s shame the government, because this is wrong,” Williams said. “This is very, very wrong.”

D.C.’s primary tool to clean up vacant and blighted homes is higher property tax rates. Livable homes pay the lowest rate. Vacant homes pay five times the normal rate, and a blighted property is billed 10 times the normal property tax rate. That is supposed to incentivize owners to clean up these eyesores, but it doesn’t always work.

D.C. has almost 3,000 vacant properties that could be put back in use with less effort than a blighted property. Vacant properties are just empty, but not on the rental or sales market.

Complicating enforcement even more, D.C. has been criticized in the past for not always keeping up with the higher rates.

The I-Team found that, too. In the example on 50^th Street, the home has been listed in tax records as blighted, vacant and residential all without any noticeable repairs. Once the I-Team brought it to Mendelson’s attention, the Department of Buildings once again listed it as blighted and taxed it accordingly.

“They can fix it retroactively, but it shouldn’t be on you (the I-Team) to figure this out,” Mendelson said.

The I-Team asked D.C.’s Department of Buildings repeatedly over weeks via email how that occurred. It is correct now, but we never heard how or why it was wrong in the first place.

As for the larger issues, a spokesperson for the Department of Buildings said, “At this time, the average length of time for a property to remain on the vacant list or returned to productive use is 2.9 years. Despite higher tax rates being applied, some property owners choose (to) keep properties vacant.”

On the larger issue of persistent eyesores, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is comfortable with her record.

“I think to suggest that vacant and blighted buildings are a part, are a problem specific to the district is quite wrong,” she told the I-Team at a recent Department of Buildings event.

“I have a long history of working on vacant and blighted property in the District,” she added.

But the I-Team found if Bowser has her way, there will be fewer inspectors to catch these homes.

Her budget proposes cutting inspectors from 10 to eight.

The Department of Buildings says don’t worry, they don’t need more. A spokesman said, “The mayor’s proposal to eliminate unfilled inspector positions has no impact. D.C. has one of the highest number of inspectors per capita with 14 vacant building inspectors and supervisors and an additional on demand pool of 34 contractors.”

Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, shot by Steve Jones and Jeff Piper, and edited by Steve Jones.

But when the family arrived to Brownie’s Beach in Bayfront Park – a stamp-size beach in Calvert County – they were surprised to be greeted with a sign stating non-residents weren’t allowed to enter. In June 2020, the Chesapeake Beach Town Council voted to close the beach to out-of-towners because of the public health emergency. The following year, they voted to allow the county’s first responders, too.

Hodge said while he found the policy unusual, it wasn’t until the town voted this year to extend the restrictions to 2025 that he became upset.

“I was immediately a bit skeptical as to the actual motivation behind it” in 2020, Hodge said. “It turns out, three years later, some of my suspicions were supported by some of the statements that were recently made by the lawmakers in town.”

In a March meeting, after a councilman raised concerns from businesses about prohibiting their guests or other tourists on the beach, Mayor Pat Mahoney countered by saying, “I’ll be the voice of the south side now. Quote-unquote: We don’t want them people down here.”

Hodge wasn’t the only one concerned by the comments.

“The way that he said it, it is definitely perceived as a discriminatory term,” said longtime Chesapeake Beach resident Denise Plater.

Plater, who is Black, said she doesn’t know if the mayor was referring to a specific demographic, but she knows it didn’t sit well with many of her friends and family. Census data shows Chesapeake Beach is more than 80% white, with African Americans making up less than 10% of its residents. Plus, she said, many of the town’s tourists come from predominantly Black areas.

“I’m not quite sure if [local leaders] fully understand or if they actually have the knowledge to understand how it’s perceived to the people in the community, especially the people in the Black and brown community,” she said.

The local teacher said while she supported the restrictions at the start of the pandemic, she doesn’t now.

“I have family who live in D.C., Prince George’s County, St. Mary’s County and Charles. And when those family members come to visit, I don’t want them to feel like they can’t go down to the beach without having me with them,” she said.

The I-Team made multiple attempts to ask Mahoney about those comments, but he did not respond.

In a statement to The Southern Maryland News, however, he said that by “them people,” he meant “tourists” and “fossil hunters.”

Chesapeake Beach Councilman Greg Morris defended his colleague to News4, telling the I-Team he believes the mayor’s comments have been taken out of context.

“I don’t feel that the mayor had any kind of malice or intent with that,” Morris said. “He was speaking for us, too, to a limited extent, and it was in the context of limiting folks at Bayfront Park and limiting it to municipal taxpayers.”

Morris echoed some of the concerns local residents who told News4 in past years, tourists would crowd the narrow residential streets by the beach and cause parking problems. Plus, at less than a half-acre wide, Brownie’s Beach is small and ecologically fragile and located next to dangerous cliffs that have collapsed in the past.

Tourists are also able to drive just a short distance to other, larger beaches in the area, many noted, where they can pay for access.

“Decisions that are made here at this town hall are open to reevaluation from time to time, as all policies should be, which include previous policies that have allowed thousands of out-of-town visitors to mob our small beach over there,” Morris said.

Mary Lanham, whose family has owned the local Rod ‘N’ Reel Resort for generations, worries the policy isn’t just harming businesses, but sending a troubling message.

“I feel like it’s the mentality that, once people come to town, they want to shut the gate and keep everybody else out,” Lanham said. “And I want to work with leadership that the message is ‘we’re open for business.’ We want people to come to this town. We want to show them the town that we love so much.”

Legal experts told the I-Team they aren’t familiar with case law challenging this exact issue in Maryland but said in other states people have sued over towns restricting access to public spaces and won.

In 2001, for instance, the Connecticut Supreme Court sided with a man who sued the Town of Greenwich for closing a beach to non-residents, ruling the public has a constitutional right to exercise free speech in such a space.

Andrew Kahrl, a University of Virginia professor who has studied the history of segregation and exclusion along the country’s shorelines, said, “The battles and fights over beach access are about beaches, but they’re about more than beaches. They’re about public rights to public space.”

At the start of the pandemic, Kahrl wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times predicting beach towns would use the public health emergency to close or restrict access to its shores.

“It’s sadly ironic because, I mean, beaches and these types of public spaces should be places to bring people together. And I think that’s something that, sadly, in the history of shorelines, has often been the opposite,” he said.

When the I-Team asked the town about the extension to 2025, the town administrator provided town code charging officials with maintaining “public parks, gardens, playgrounds, and other recreational facilities and programs to promote the health, welfare, and enjoyment of the inhabitants of the town.”

To that, Kahrl said, “Think about the implications of this … Are we looking at a world where you have to sort of present your local tax receipt or some sort of proof of residency to walk through a public park, or to walk down sidewalks?”

The town’s website states the beach is monitored and “guests found to be on site will be required to provide a government issued photo ID confirming their resident status.” It also states “any violators will be trespassing.”

The town administrator told the I-Team the town has only issued one trespassing violation since the start of the restrictions.

This story was reported by Tracee Wilkins, produced by Katie Leslie and shot and edited by Jeff Piper.