Brrr! You might want to add an extra blanket when you go to bed Sunday night. Temperatures overnight will feel like fall, plunging to the low 50s overnight in downtown D.C. and 40s elsewhere.
It’s shaping up to be the coldest night of the season so far — and an early preview of crisp autumn weather, according to 7News First Alert Senior Meteorologist Brian van de Graaff.
“It’s one of the coolest starts to the day since mid-May, with 40s area-wide, including inside the Capital Beltway,” van de Graaff said. “It’ll warm up nicely by the afternoon with a few clouds and seasonable temperatures.”
While temperatures in the D.C. area will stay above freezing, further out, areas west of the Blue Ridge Mountains are under a frost advisory, with the National Weather Service warning that frost could harm tender outdoor plants.
Despite the cool start Monday, temperatures are set to warm up and could hit 80 degrees Monday afternoon, with even warmer weather — nearing 90 — on tap for midweek.
LATEST FORECAST
SUNDAY Mostly sunny, noticeably cooler and refreshing Highs: 69-74 Winds: Northwest 5-10 mph Plan for sunny skies and below-average highs in the low to mid 70s to wrap up the first full weekend of September.
SUNDAY NIGHT: Clear and chilly Lows: 40-52 Winds: Light The skies will be crystal clear tonight, and the winds will be calm. Temperatures will plummet into the low 50s downtown and the 40s elsewhere! This looks to be the coldest night of the season.
MONDAY: Cold start — perfect sunny Highs: 75-80 Winds: West 5-10 mph It’s one of the coolest starts to the day since mid-May, with 40s area-wide, including inside the Capital Beltway. It’ll warm up nicely by the afternoon with a few clouds and seasonable temperatures.
TUESDAY: Sunny Highs: 80-85 Winds: West 5 mph Slightly warmer but otherwise another sunny and seasonable day.
WEDNESDAY: Sunny and warm Highs: 82-87 Winds: South 5 mph Even warmer, but still very pleasant and sunny with low humidity.
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A man who police say stole nearly $8,000 worth of merchandise from two CVS locations in Northwest D.C. in a month-long shoplifting spree this summer has been arrested.
A man who police say stole nearly $8,000 worth of merchandise from two CVS locations in Northwest D.C. during a month-long shoplifting spree this summer has been arrested.
Emmanual Hart, 28, was arrested Sept. 2 and has been charged with two counts of first-degree theft and 19 counts of second-degree theft. He’s also facing attempted robbery charges after police say he confronted a man outside a restaurant last month and tried to steal his scooter.
According to D.C. police, the series of thefts took place between June 28 and July 27, and targeted a CVS near the corner of 14th Street and P Street and another one a few blocks away at the corner of 17th Street and P Street.
Court documents said Hart repeatedly rushed into the two stores and stuffed hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise, such as Lysol, trash bags and paper towels, into bags in only a few seconds and then left the stores without paying.
All told, he made off with merchandise valued at $7,906.06, according to police.
Separate from the shoplifting, Hart is also being charged in relation to an attempted robbery that took place about 12:15 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 17 outside the Shake Shack on 14th Street, according to court documents.
Hart and another man are accused of trying to steal a man’s scooter as he was sitting on it in front of the restaurant. Hart swung what appeared to be a bottle in a black plastic bag at the man with the scooter and began to “physically tussle” over the scooter, but the other man was able to fight the two assailants off, according to the documents.
Hart made his first appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Sept. 3 and was ordered held without bond. He will next go before a judge on Sept. 16.
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Usman Shahid, who was 18 at the time of the crash, was convicted of two counts of involuntary manslaughter in April in the deaths of 14-year-old Ada Gabriela Martinez Nolasco and 15-year-old Leeyan Hanjia Yan, both students at Oakton High School.
Fairfax County police respond to the collision near the intersection of Blake Lane and Five Oaks Road.(WTOP/Kristi King)
Fairfax County police respond to the collision near the intersection of Blake Lane and Five Oaks Road.(WTOP/Kristi King)
Usman Shahid, who was 18 at the time of the crash, was convicted of two counts of involuntary manslaughter in April in the deaths of 14-year-old Ada Gabriela Martinez Nolasco and 15-year-old Leeyan Hanjia Yan, both students at Oakton High School. A third girl was wounded in the crash.
A four-year sentence was recommended by the jury after Shahid’s conviction, but the sentence still had to be finalized by a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge.
Mother speaks: ‘Tears streaming down my face’
The final sentence handed down Friday came after family members shared their grief in victim impact statements.
Yan’s mother, in a voice raspy with emotion, called her daughter her “greatest masterpiece,” who, on the day of the crash, had gotten permission to eat at a nearby IHOP to celebrate the end of the school year.
In a tragic irony, she said she and her husband bought their house near Oakton High School so their daughter could walk to school.
“Every night when I lie in bed, I have tears streaming down my face,” the mother said. “When I wake up, the pain in my heart is unbearable.”
She said she hasn’t seen remorse from Shahid, an Oakton High School graduate. During her statement, she tried to show the judge printouts from his TikTok account, but the judge placed them under seal.
Convicted driver takes ‘full responsibility’
Shortly before the judge delivered the sentence, Shahid stood up and told the judge he took “full responsibility” for his actions, saying he put the community in danger.
Defense attorney Peter Greenspan told the judge that Shahid had no criminal record and worked multiple jobs.
“He did something an 18-year-old with an ego would do, which was to show off a new used car he got a few days before,” Greenspan said. “He has been punished and continues to be punished. He’s going to carry this with him for the rest of his life.”
The crash happened at Blake Lane and Five Oaks Road, not far from Oakton High School, shortly before noon on June 7, 2022.
Prosecutors said Shahid was driving more than double the speed limit — accelerating from 60 mph to 81 mph in a 35 mph zone — when he collided with an SUV that was trying to make a left turn onto Five Oaks Road. Shahid’s vehicle then careened onto the sidewalk, striking and killing the girls and injuring a third student as all three were walking home from school, according to prosecutors.
Victims’ family facing ‘hell on earth,’ lawyer says
Under the law, the judge was not allowed to give Shahid a longer sentence than the four years recommended by the jury — but he could have given him a shorter sentence. The judge did not do so, and also added an additional three years of supervised release after Shahid serves his prison sentence.
Demetry Pikrallidas, who represents one of the girls who was killed and the one who survived, said the families respected the jury’s recommended sentence of four years, but wished it had been longer.
“Is there ever enough time? … We feel it could have been stronger, but we understand that he (Shahid) also had done some decent things in his life that had to be measured,” Pikrallidas told reporters outside the courthouse Friday afternoon. “So there’s no doubt it was a difficult decision for the jury.”
The girl who survived is doing “as well as can be expected, and she’s trying to pick up the pieces and move on with her life,” the lawyer said.
Pikrallidas said the family intends to pursue a lawsuit, but declined to provide specifics.
The aftermath for the victims and their family members has been “catastrophic,” he added.
“There’s no escaping it. There’s nowhere you can go, there’s nowhere you can hide, there’s no one you can talk to, there’s no medicine you can take,” he said. “It’s hell on earth … that’s what they’re living with.”
In a news release, Charles County Circuit Court Judge H. James West said Belk left behind “a tremendous legacy, and the family carries on a tremendous legacy.”
“The crime is a horrific loss of a life — the violence was extreme. The amount of fear and terror that preceded the violence doesn’t exist in most cases,” West said, adding that the murder was “so heinous, I can’t think of a lesser sentence that would be appropriate.”
The Belk family stands beside prosecutors and an investigator in front of the Charles County Circuit Court in La Plata, Maryland, on Aug. 23, 2024. (Courtesy Charles County State’s Attorney’s Office)
Charles County State’s Attorney Tony Covington said the murder caused “generational trauma” because it took 45 years to solve. Covington also said he admires Belk’s family for having “so much grit, determination and grace” throughout the legal process.
“[Belk’s] son grew up without a mother. Her parents had to bury their daughter. Her parents had to lay on their deathbed not knowing who killed their daughter. Her grandchildren never got a chance to meet their grandmother,” Covington said in a news release. “When you victimize someone like this and then murder them, it really doesn’t get more horrific than that.”
Belk’s disappearance and murder
At the time of her death, Belk, who was 28, was living in Suitland, Maryland, and worked at the Department of Agriculture. But, on Aug. 28, 1979, she was reported missing by her boyfriend after she didn’t come home from work.
A day later, Belk’s body was found by a teenager along Route 277 in Charles County. She had a gunshot wound to the side of her head and was unclothed from the waist down, prosecutors said.
Authorities began to investigate her murder immediately, but eventually, as Charles County detectives tried unsuccessfully to find new leads and clues, the case went cold.
DNA’s breakthrough in the case
In recent years that Detective Sgt. John Elliott of the Charles County Sheriff’s Office’s Criminal Investigations Division took another look at the case.
Aided by advancements in forensic science, investigators submitted Belk’s clothing for more advanced DNA testing in 2022.
The effort gathered enough DNA from the suspect to submit it to the FBI’s national DNA database, CODIS.
There was a breakthrough in the case in November 2022 when the sheriff’s office was informed the DNA results came back with a match: Andre Taylor.
Authorities said there is no evidence Belk and Taylor knew each other prior to her murder.
Belk’s family created the Vickie Belk Scholarship Foundation, which awards scholarships in her honor to graduating seniors at Oakland Baptist Church (OBC) in Alexandria, Virginia.
“Through this scholarship, Vickie’s love for education and the youth of OBC continues,” the organization said, adding that the namesake gift has already aided roughly 100 graduates.
WTOP’s Jack Moore contributed to this story.
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Police in Montgomery County, Maryland, say a second suspect in a gold bar scheme that bilked one woman out of nearly $800,000 has been arrested in Chicago, apparently trying to flee the country.
Police in Montgomery County, Maryland, say a second suspect in a gold bar scheme that bilked one woman out of nearly $800,000 has been arrested in Chicago, apparently trying to flee the country.
Neel Patel, 23, of Carol Stream, Illinois, was arrested July 23 at Chicago O’Hare International Airport attempting to board a flight to Dublin, Ireland, police said.
According to police, Patel is one of two men who posed as FBI agents and picked up the gold bars from the woman, who had been told she was giving them to the authorities for safekeeping.
In a news release Wednesday, police said Patel had been extradited back to Maryland on Tuesday and was being held at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit, awaiting a bond hearing.
News of the arrest comes as the county has seen a proliferation of gold bar scams, in which often elderly residents are scammed into converting large sums of money into gold bars and then handing them over to fraudsters.
In this case, police said the victim went to police in March saying she had been contacted by a man who identified himself as being with the Office of the Inspector General with the Federal Trade Commission. He told her she was the victim of identity theft, which had led to a federal investigation involving drugs and money laundering.
The woman was directed to transfer all assets into gold bars, which were supposedly going to be picked up by an FBI agent to take to the U.S. Treasury Department.
The woman complied with the demands and handed off two separate deliveries of gold bars to the fake FBI agents, worth a combined $789,000.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy told WTOP earlier this month there have been at least 17 victims of these types of scams in the county who have lost millions of dollars in total.
Police told WTOP last month the scams often target older adults, who are apparently seen as choice targets because they often have a lot of money in retirement savings.
Gold is also difficult for police to track.
“Once you have the gold, if you end up melting it and turning it into different pieces of jewelry, we would never the know the difference,” said Detective Sean Petty, of the Montgomery County Police Department’s financial crimes division.
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A 21-year-old Maryland woman was shot and killed in a Southeast D.C. park Saturday afternoon, according to D.C. police, who are now offering a reward for information.
A 21-year-old Maryland woman was shot and killed in a Southeast D.C. park Saturday afternoon, according to D.C. police, who are now offering a reward for information.
The woman was identified as Ambria Farmer, of District Heights, Maryland.
Police were called to Fort Dupont Park off Minnesota Avenue in Southeast D.C. at about 2:30 p.m. Saturday after someone reported an unconscious person, according to a news release.
Officers found Farmer’s body in the park area. She had a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Anyone who has information is urged to call police at 202-727-9099 or text a tip to the department’s tip line at 50411.
A $25,000 reward is being offered to anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest and conviction.
Below is a map showing the location of the park where the shooting happened:
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Police identified her as 35-year-old Sarah Noah, of Southeast D.C. She was struck by the limb, which fell from a tree in Garfield Park just before 7:30 a.m., and became pinned underneath it.
Three different witnesses told D.C. police they heard “multiple loud pops/cracks” before the limb fell, sending people in the park running for cover, according to a police report.
Officers who were called to the park tried to move the limb off the woman, but it was too heavy. D.C. Fire and EMS had to use chain saws to break apart the limb before it could be removed from on top of the woman.
On Wednesday, officials with the D.C. Department of Transportation, which maintains the trees in the park, called the incident “shocking and tragic.”
A DDOT official said the 100-year-old tree was recently inspected and rated “good” — essentially second place on a five-point scale from “excellent” to “dead.”
“This is essentially an unforeseeable event,” said Earl Eutsler, associate director for the urban forestry division at DDOT. “The tree has been professionally inspected, proactively maintained, and the tree gave no indication — no outward indication — that this was even a remote possibility.”
What DC can do ‘so that we don’t have incidents like this’ again
Charles Boston is an ISA certified arborist and director of the Community and Urban Forestry Alliance. While visiting what’s left of the Garfield Park tree, he reflected on the North American Tree Climbing Championship in Garfield Park in October.
He said before the competition, there was an inspection done on the tree to make sure it was safe for climbing. However, he said this could have been prevented if more frequent maintenance was done on the tree to see how neglected the roots are.
CLICK TO ENLARGE: Rotten tree roots. (Courtesy Charles Boston)
“All trees, to be honest with you, should have a mulch ring around them,” said Boston. “Mulch does two things in particular: one, like on days like now when it’s hot, they provide moisture. So if the tree was watered, let’s say last week, it will still be moist because of that layer of mulch, and it has to be mulched properly.”
Boston said this tree, if maintained properly, could have been alive for another 100 years. He suggested the city do less planting and focus on how to maintain the trees they already have.
“One of the problems is the Urban Forestry administration cannot manage all of the trees in the District of Columbia, it needs to go back to each agency managing their trees; just like DPR has a park ranger, you should have an arborist,” said Boston. “All these programs that DPR has, you should have a junior arborists program. So now you have more eyes and you have more hands in your parks. So that we don’t have incidents like this from happening.”
Boston also shared a letter he sent to D.C. Council member Charles Allen in December warning him that many trees in all of the wards are in bad condition.
“When time permits, I would hope to speak with you or the Committee on Environment about ways to increase tree care, management, and maintenance,” wrote Boston. “In addition, street tree plantings are not being performed properly. As a result, there’s been a large number of premature and preventable tree mortalities over the past decade.”
Following Noah’s death, people who live in Capitol Hill wrote a letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser, Council member Charles Allen and Ward 6 ANC Commissioner Frank Avery. Neighbors said, for years, and even as recent as April, they contacted officials to prune the tree that lost its limb.
“After this morning’s tragic event, concerns raised for several years, including a letter dated April 7th, 2024 from 50 neighbors highlighting the urgent need to fix several maintenance issues, and several 311 requests for tree pruning that received delayed responses, also consisting of a request that urged pruning on the tree that lost a limb today,” the letter wrote.
Neighbors are calling on officials to allocate funds to improve maintenance, meet with the community and conduct a report on how drought conditions and heat could have contributed to the limb loss.
Council member Allen said he met with the community about this issue in the spring and plans to continue to do so.
“Climate change is impacting our community every single day and in ways we both can see and perhaps not see,” said Allen. “I need to let the urban foresters do their job and be able to examine this tree to help really identify what the cause of that fall was. But in terms of people’s concerns around the impacts of climate, increased heat and what that does to our trees and our tree canopy, I think those are very real concerns.”
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A dump truck with its truck bed raised slammed into an overhead road sign on Interstate 95 in Fairfax County Thursday afternoon, sending a shower of debris onto the roadway before fleeing the scene, Virginia State Police said.
The dump truck sought by police was caught on traffic cameras. (Courtesy Virginia State Police)
A dump truck with its truck bed raised slammed into an overhead road sign on Interstate 95 in Fairfax County on Thursday afternoon, sending a shower of debris onto the roadway before fleeing the scene, Virginia State Police said.
The incident led to major delays as crews inspected for damage and prepared to make repairs.
State police are now asking for the public’s help in finding the dump truck driver.
It happened shortly after 12:15 p.m. The dump truck, heading north on I-95 in the left lane, struck the overhead sign near the 168-mile marker, just south of Route 289/Franconia-Springfield Parkway, state police said.
There was “‘significant damage” to the sign and the three right travel lanes were left littered with a large amount of debris, according to state police.
Crews were working to repair the overhead sign and its support structure.
The dump truck sought by police was caught on traffic cameras. However, the video resolution is not sharp enough to identify the license plate number, state police said.
Anyone who has information is asked to call Virginia State Police at 804-750-8798 or email questions@vsp.virginia.gov.
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The off-duty D.C. police officer wounded after his vehicle was shot at while he was on his way to work earlier this week suffered “lacerations to his eyes and forehead from glass shards,” according to court documents.
Police say a vehicle involved in a shooting that injured a D.C. police officer crashed in Prince George’s County. (Courtesy 7News)
Police say a vehicle involved in a shooting that injured a D.C. police officer crashed in Prince George’s County. (Courtesy 7News)
The off-duty D.C. police officer wounded after his vehicle was shot at while he was on his way to work earlier this week suffered “lacerations to his eyes and forehead from glass shards,” according to court documents filed in D.C. Superior Court on Friday.
The new details on the officer’s injuries come as one of the two men suspected in the shooting made his first court appearance in D.C.
Walker, who was extradited to D.C., is charged with assault with a deadly weapon and fleeing a law enforcement officer. In his first appearance, he was ordered held without bond. The other suspect in the shooting, 21-year-old Rasheed Thorne, has not yet been extradited and remains in Prince George’s County.
Officer recorded erratic driving on his cellphone
The officer who was wounded, a D.C. police captain with 18 years on the force, was taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. He has not been publicly identified. Police initially told reporters the officer had been shot, but at a news conference later that day said they were still trying to determine whether he actually suffered a gunshot wound or was hurt by shattered glass.
The officer was driving in his personal vehicle, a black SUV, on his way to work at the Fourth District police station in Northwest D.C. on Monday afternoon, when he noticed a blue car behind him driving erratically, according to an account of the shooting described in court documents.
The officer said the blue car pulled to his right and then abruptly sped up to cut in front of him multiple times. At one point, when the other car had overtaken him, the officer pulled out his cellphone to start recording, according to the documents.
The shooting occurred around 12:10 p.m. when the blue car pulled into an alley and one person jumped out of the passenger side and fired multiple shots at the officer’s SUV, which was still on the street.
The officer was able to drive to the nearby Fourth District police station for help and was also able to provide a partial license plate that was used to locate and track the suspects’ vehicle. Authorities said a license plate reader on Bladensburg Road in Northeast D.C. then logged the blue Honda heading southbound about 20 minutes later, according to the documents.
Docs: Gun thrown from fleeing car
Aided by a police helicopter, officers pursued the vehicle into Prince George’s County, where, on Landover Road near Kent Town Place, officers saw one of the occupants throwing something from the window before the car crashed and rolled over on its side in the middle of the roadway.
Walker and Thorne were both taken into custody. Police said they later found a tan-colored 9 mm Springfield Hellcat semiautomatic handgun along the side of the road.
In video captured by WTOP’s John Domen, police were seen appearing to recover the gun less than 100 yards from the crash.
Both Walker and Thorne are also charged with firearms offenses in Prince George’s County. Court documents filed in District Court there indicate that both men are prohibited from having guns because of previous gun convictions.
Walker was convicted of gun possession in December 2021 and March 2022, according to online court records.
Thorne, who still remains in Prince George’s County, was convicted of attempting to carry a pistol without a license in D.C. in September.
In court documents in D.C., Walker is identified as the driver of the blue Honda. However, in the documents filed in Prince George’s County, authorities identified Thorne as the driver and Walker as the front-seat passenger.
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The polls in Maryland open in Maryland at 7 a.m. Tuesday as voters are set to weigh in on a slew of important primary contests across the state.
The polls in Maryland open at 7 a.m. Tuesday as voters are set to weigh in on a slew of important primary contests across the state.
Among the races voters will decide in are a closely watched Senate primary that has divided Democrats; the likely political return of a popular Republican officeholder; and crowded House contests, including one in the state’s most competitive congressional district.
Heading into primary day, nearly 640,000 Marylanders had requested mail-in ballots for the primary, according to data from the Maryland State Board of Elections. That’s the highest number aside from 2020, when most of the election was conducted via mail-in ballot because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What’s on the ballot?
Voters on Tuesday are selecting the Democratic and Republicans nominees for Senate who will square off in the general election in the fall.
On the Democratic side, a total of 10 candidates are vying for the seat left open by the retirement of longtime Sen. Ben Cardin.
The race dividing Democrats
David Trone and Angela Alsobrooks, the two leading Democratic 2024 candidates for Maryland’s open U.S. Senate seat. (Courtesy David Trone for Maryland and Angela Alsobrooks for Maryland via Canva)
The leading contenders are three-term Congressman David Trone, who represents the 6th District in the U.S. House, and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.
Trone, the co-owner of Total Wine & More, has poured more than $50 million of his own money into his Senate bid.
On the campaign trail, he has pointed to his record of bipartisanship, securing federal funding for Maryland in the House and his ability to win elections in purple territory. In his 2022 run for a third term in the recently redistricted congressional district, Trone won by nearly 10 points over his GOP challenger.
He has criticized Alsobrooks for taking contributions from oil companies and other special interests.
Alsobrooks has made preserving abortion rights a key part of her campaign and has emphasized her experience as a two-term county executive securing the FBI headquarters in Greenbelt, Maryland, and other economic development projects as evidence.
Alsobrooks has been endorsed by some of the top Democratic officeholders in Maryland, including Gov. Wes Moore and heavyweight representatives Steny Hoyer and Jamie Raskin.
Alsobrooks would be the first Black woman elected to the Senate from Maryland — and only the third in the U.S. — if she were to win in the fall.
Throughout the campaign, polls had given Trone the edge over Alsobrooks. However, more recently, there were signs the race was tightening, with Alsobrooks taking a slim lead over Trone — although still within the margin of error — in one poll.
There are eight other Democrats on the ballot. They are: Michael W. Cobb, Sr., Marcellus Crews, Brian E. Frydenborg, Scottie J. Griffin, Robert K. Houton, Joseph Perez, Steven H. Seuferer and Andrew J. Wildman.
Central to the bitterly contested contest between Alsobrooks and Trone is a key question: Who can beat former Gov. Larry Hogan in the fall and help make sure the U.S. Senate remains in Democratic hands?
Hogan’s return?
Larry Hogan speaks at a news conference, Jan. 11, 2022, in Annapolis, Maryland. (AP Photo/Brian Witte, File)
Hogan, who served two terms as governor and left the governor’s mansion with sky-high popularity ratings, jolted the race when he announced he was throwing his hat in the ring as a Republican candidate for the open Senate seat.
Hogan has promised to take on “dysfunction in Washington” and partisan gridlock, talking up his bipartisan bona fides on the campaign trail. However, his reputation as one of the most vocal Republican critics of former President Donald Trump, could hurt him in a GOP primary.
Hogan faces six other Republican candidates. They are Moe H. Barakat, Chris Chaffee, Robin Ficker, Lorie R. Friend, John A. Myrick and Laban Y. Seyoum.
Maryland hasn’t elected a Republican senator since 1980.
Crowded House races
Primary contests for all eight of Maryland’s U.S. House seats are on the ballot — and a handful of them have drawn a very crowded roster of candidates.
The sprawling 6th District includes part of Montgomery County as well as all of Allegany, Frederick, Garrett and Washington counties.
The seat is currently in Democratic hands, and there are several Democrats vying to replace Trone, who’s giving up the Senate to make his Senate bid.
To many political observers, if the race has a front-runner it’s April McClain Delaney, a former U.S. Commerce Department official and the wife of former Rep. John Delaney, who held the seat for three terms.
She’s spent more than a half-million dollars on her race and received heavy-hitting endorsements from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
One of her strongest rivals is Maryland State Del. Joe Vogel, 27, who’s running to be the second “Generation Z” lawmaker on Capitol Hill and has emphasized progressive priorities on the campaign trail, such as gun control and climate change.
Others candidates seeking the Democratic nomination include state Del. Lesley Lopez of Montgomery County, Hagerstown Mayor Tekesha Martinez and Montgomery County Council member Laurie-Anne Sayles.
On the Republican side, there are seven candidates contending for the nomination. Among those running are former Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox, who lost to Moore in a landslide in 2022, and former state Del. Neil Parrott, who has twice run for the seat in the past.
Across the state, there are other — even more crowded — congressional primaries.
In the 3rd District, which includes Howard County, parts of Anne Arundel County and a small part of Carroll County, there are a whopping 22 Democrats running for the nomination to succeed retiring Rep. John Sarbanes.
Among those running are State Sens. Sarah Elfreth and Clarence Lam and former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Presidential contest, too
At the top of the ticket, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are both on the ballot. Both have already been crowned their respective parties’ presumptive nominees, so Maryland’s primaries aren’t expected to have much of an impact.
However, on the Democratic side, the ballots include an “uncommitted” option, which some Democrats around the country have used to demonstrate their displeasure with Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
On the Republican side, Trump’s closest rival former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, remains on the ballot. Last week, Haley got almost 22% of the vote in Indiana’s presidential primary.
When will we know results?
Once the polls close at 8 p.m., boards of elections will begin processing those votes that came in during the early voting period and on Election Day. Those will pop up in the first rounds of results.
Maryland has seen a boom in mail-in ballots, and while the state law has changed so boards of elections don’t have to wait until after Election Day to ready those ballots for tabulation, it can still take time.
Maryland State Sen. Cheryl Kagan, who worked to pass a number of elections laws, said those mail-in ballots must go through a series of steps before they can be readied for counting.
“They have to be batched, the envelope has to be opened after it is deemed to be legal with the signature on the outer envelope,” and then the ballot can be scanned, but not counted — that will be done once the polls close.
“At no point, until the polls close, will anyone have the information as to the vote totals,” Kagan said.
If the outer envelope is not signed by the voter, the mail-in ballot has to be “cured,” and in that case, the voter is contacted so they can provide a valid signature and the ballot can then be processed.
If voters opted to send their ballots back by mail, the ballot must be postmarked by May 14. To allow those mailed ballots to arrive at elections boards, the last date for receipt of those sent by mail is 10 days after the election.
In races where insurmountable leads are established early, there could be victory speeches — or concession speeches — within hours of the polls closing. But in races that are razor thin, the wait could stretch for days and could depend on provisional ballots and those mail-in ballots that arrive just under the wire.
And finally, the vote results must be certified, which will happen after May 24, the last day for tabulating all valid ballots.
WTOP’s Kate Ryan, Mitchell Miller and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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A $25,000 reward is being offered and police are pleading for tips from the public after a D.C. teen was gunned down in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
Prince George’s Police Chief Malik Aziz addresses the media on Wednesday, Aug. 22. (WTOP/Michelle Basch)
Prince George’s Police Chief Malik Aziz addresses the media on Wednesday, Aug. 22. (WTOP/Michelle Basch)
A $25,000 reward is being offered and police are pleading for tips from the public after a D.C. teen was gunned down in Prince George’s County, Maryland, earlier this month.
De’Marco Bradford, 16, was found shot and wounded along with another man in the 1000 block of Kennebec Street in Oxon Hill at about 9:55 p.m. on April 22, according to Prince George’s County police.
Both were rushed to the hospital where Bradford died several days later. The man’s injuries are not considered life-threatening, police said.
Detectives are still working to determine a motive and to identify a suspect or suspects.
“Right now, we’re literally at ground zero in this investigation,” Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz told WTOP.
When asked whether the shooting was random or targeted or whether police are looking for more than one shooter, Aziz said police are only now getting to the point of being able to interview the only witness who they know of at this point.
“Our homicide detectives, they are used to doing a lot with a little and all they need is a little so we’re looking for any small piece of information,” Aziz said. “We’re asking people, please come forward, because this could have been your son.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Prince George’s Crime Solvers online. Tipsters, who can remain anonymous, can also call 1-866-411-8477 and refer to case number 24-0023153.
Regarding a rise in violent crime involving young people in the county, Aziz said, “We’re going through some kind of cycle that is negative that I’m hoping that we can get out of it.”
A man accused of gunning down a Kentucky teacher, who was visiting D.C. for a seminar last summer, has been indicted on first-degree murder charges.
Emerson’s killing followed a strange early morning robbery attempt, on July 5, 2023, which was caught on surveillance cameras, prosecutors said. (Court documents)
Emerson’s killing followed a strange early morning robbery attempt, on July 5, 2023, which was caught on surveillance cameras, prosecutors said. (Court documents)
A man accused of gunning down a Kentucky teacher who was visiting D.C. for a seminar last summer has been indicted on first-degree murder charges.
The indictment was filed in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday.
In addition to first-degree felony murder charges, Macedo was indicted on several other counts, including attempting to commit a robbery while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and unlawful possession of a firearm, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of D.C.
Emerson’s killing followed a strange early morning robbery attempt, on July 5, 2023, which was caught on surveillance cameras, prosecutors said. The encounter between the two men began when Emerson emerged from the Brookland-CUA Metro station at about 7:30 a.m. that morning and Macedo apparently asked for him money, according to court documents.
Cameras then captured Emerson walking with his hands raised in what court documents described as a “don’t shoot manner,” as Macedo followed him for the next 30 minutes, from the Metro station to a bench on the campus of the university.
Moments before he was shot, prosecutors said Emerson attempted to send a plea for help to a family member on Snapchat, alerting them that he was being robbed at gunpoint: “Help. Bring ribbed. At cub point.”
Emerson died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Macedo was on probation in three different cases at the time of the shooting, including a violent crime and a gun possession case, according to court documents. When police searched a Northeast residence where Macedo was living at the time, they found a tampered GPS ankle monitor that had been “cut up,” according to documents.
Macedo is set to be arraigned Friday.
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A flood watch for most of the broader D.C. region goes into effect at 2 a.m. Saturday and lasts until 2 p.m., the National Weather Service said.
Drenching downpours late Friday night into Saturday afternoon will bring flood risks this weekend.
A flood watch for most of the broader D.C. region goes into effect at 2 a.m. Saturday and lasts until 2 p.m., the National Weather Service said.
The rain is expected to spread over most of the D.C. area by about 10 p.m., according to 7News First Alert meteorologist Eileen Whelan.
Rain is expected to intensify in the overnight hours, bringing the threat of localized flooding.
The weather service said rainfall of between 1.5 to 2.5 inches is expected from late Friday night to Saturday afternoon.
Sun to start with increasing clouds this afternoon & rain arriving from the south this evening. Moderate to heavy rain is expected at times through Sat. AM. Rain amounts of 1.50-2.50″ expected along & east of the Blue Ridge. Rain exits late Saturday. #MDwx#VAwx#WVwx#DCwxpic.twitter.com/fw574P9OwX
— NWS Baltimore-Washington (@NWS_BaltWash) March 22, 2024
“The bulk of the rain is expected to fall overnight Friday into early Saturday morning within roughly a six hour window,” the weather service said. “This may result in flooding of urban and poor drainage areas, as well as on smaller streams.”
After the rain ends, expect some gusty winds to stick around, according to the 7News forecast.
Full 7News First Alert weekend forecast
FRIDAY: Partly cloudy, breezy Highs: 52-58 degrees Winds: Southeast 5-15 mph, gusts to 20 mph Freezing temperatures are expected to start the day with wake-up temperatures in the upper 20s to low 30s. It will be seasonable by the afternoon with highs in the 50s. Clouds will increase late in the day ahead of our next weather maker. Wet weather will overspread the DMV tonight (after 9 p.m. for most).
FRIDAY NIGHT: Showers, areas of rain Lows: 40s Winds: Southeast 10-20 mph A flood watch will begins at 2 a.m. Rain intensity will increase overnight with the potential for localized flooding.
SATURDAY: FLOOD WATCH 2AM-2PM Moderate to heavy rain Highs: 50s Winds: Northeast 10-20 mph, gusts to 30 mph Areas of moderate to heavy rain during the morning will taper to showers during the afternoon. Rainfall totals are trending between 1 to 3 inches, with the heaviest rain falling east and along the I-95 corridor. A flood watch has been posted for all areas inside the beltway and surrounding counties. Localized flooding is possible. Northwesterly will increase during the afternoon with windy conditions expected at night. Wind gusts over 30 mph are likely after 7 p.m.
SUNDAY: Mostly sunny, blustery Highs: Around 55 degrees Winds: North 10-20 mph, gusts to 35 mph You’ll wake up to wind chills in the 20s Sunday morning. Sunday will be blustery and brighter with sunshine and highs in the mid 50s. Northwesterly winds will gust over 30 mph during the first half of the day. The wind will decrease during the afternoon
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