A 21-year-old man died in the hospital yesterday (Monday) in the wake of a shooting that occurred in Vienna last week.
The Vienna Police Department said in a news release issued just after noon today that the individual, who has not been publicly identified, “succumbed to his injuries.”
Police officers were dispatched to the 100 block of Patrick Street SE in the early morning last Thursday (June 10), the department said last week. A man inside an apartment had a gunshot wound to the head, and he was transported to a hospital.
“Detectives are actively pursuing leads in this ongoing investigation,” the VPD says.
The department says that anyone with information that could help the investigation should call 703-255-6366.
Caffe Amouri Resumes Indoor Service — Vienna’s Caffe Amouri welcomed patrons back inside yesterday (Monday) for the first time in 16 months. The coffee shop will maintain some COVID-19 health rules, including a 30-minute seating limit and continued mask-wearing for staff with a request that customers keep using them as well. [Patch]
Capital One Hall Announces Opening Weekend Performer — The country band Little Big Town will perform two shows during the opening weekend of Capital One Hall in Tysons, the venue announced yesterday. Tickets for the shows on Oct. 2 and 3 will go on sale at 10 a.m. this Friday (June 18). [Capital One Hall/Twitter]
FCPS Hires Cybersecurity Director — Fairfax County Public Schools has a director of cybersecurity for the first time, with Vijai Rao, who previously worked for Metro, joining the school district on June 1. The position was created after a ransomware attack in September compromised personal information of students and staff. [Providence District School Board newsletter]
Tysons Company Holds Sports Equipment Drive — PenFed Credit Union, which is headquartered in Tysons, collected $3,000 worth of sports equipment with a drive led by employees and their families on June 9. The equipment will be distributed to at-risk youth in the D.C. region by local police, and the company also donated $15,000 to the Washington D.C. Police Foundation. [PenFed]
The Fairfax Health District has officially surpassed the halfway mark for COVID-19 vaccinations.
According to the Fairfax County Health Department’s data dashboard, 50.9% of all Fairfax Health District residents have now received both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That amounts to 602,101 residents, including 63.1% of all people 18 and older.
713,791 people living in the district, which includes Fairfax County and the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, have gotten at least one vaccine dose. That is 72.7% of adults and 60.3% of the total population.
The county announced on Friday (June 11) that its vaccine clinic at the Fairfax County Government Center is now accepting walk-ins from noon to 4 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays, and from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
The clinic will be closed this Friday (June 18), since county employees will have the day off in observance of Juneteenth. However, it will be open on Saturday, which will mark the 156th anniversary of the day when the last enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned that the Civil War had ended.
Walk-in appointments are also available at the Tysons Corner Center mass vaccination site, which is now open until 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That state-run clinic will close on June 26.
The Tysons Community Vaccination Center and county health department clinics appointments can be scheduled through the Vaccine Administration Management System. People can find appointments at other locations, including grocery stores, pharmacies, and private health care providers, through vaccines.gov.
Meanwhile, the number of new COVID-19 infections coming in has slowed to the point where the Fairfax Health District actually has fewer total cases now than it did when Tysons Reporter provided an update last Monday (June 7), according to Virginia Department of Health data.
That doesn’t mean no new cases have been reported, as six cases were recorded on Thursday (June 10).
However, 20 cases have been subtracted over the past week, including six today (Monday), which the county health department has said happens when there are duplicates or cases that actually occurred in another district.
As a result, Fairfax County is now averaging -2.9 cases per day for the past seven days.
As of today, 78,013 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the district compared to 78,034 cases a week ago. One more person has died from the disease transmitted by the novel coronavirus, and 10 more people have been hospitalized, bringing the totals up to 1,134 deaths and 4,131 hospitalizations.
Community members have an additional month to share their thoughts on a proposal to add a dog park, amphitheater, and other amenities to McLean Central Park at 1468 Dolley Madison Boulevard.
Fairfax County Park Authority staff told Tysons Reporter on Thursday (June 10) that the deadline for the public to comment on the concept development plan has been pushed back from June 25 to July 30 in response to the amount of feedback that has come in since the plan was unveiled on May 24.
The project webpage has now been updated to reflect the date change. Comments can be sent by email to [email protected] or [email protected].
“As a planner, there’s no better input than from the people that actually use the park every day,” FCPA Project Manager Adam Wynn said. “That information is so valuable, and that’s really the reason we held this meeting, to get a gauge on all the time that’s passed from the 2013 master plan to now.”
The suggested elimination of a tennis court to make room for a dog park has drawn a particularly strong reaction, as local tennis players say the three existing courts are barely enough to accommodate demand amid surging interest in tennis and pickleball.
Chris Parel says he has been utilizing the McLean Central Park tennis courts regularly throughout his 30-plus years of living in McLean. Now retired, he plays with a group called the McLean All Weather Tennis Club.
“Our observation is that, certainly in the times when we are playing, it’s much harder to get a court,” he said. “There are more people waiting to get onto the courts.”
According to Parel, the McLean Central Park courts are especially sought-after, because they are wind-protected and the only ones in the area with lighting, enabling nighttime play. Meanwhile, some courts, like those at Lewinsville Park, are in need of maintenance.
“Love dogs, love the idea of a dog park, would like to see one at the McLean Central Park, but not to be pitted against a service, a facility in the tennis and pickleball courts that are established and that have a record of increasing use, if anything, in a McLean context, where court availability has actually been reduced,” Parel said.
FCPA Public Information Officer Judith Pedersen confirms that the Lewinsville courts need repairs, but there are no plans for a renovation, at least not within the next three years.
“We know that they need repairs, but they’re not the worst in the county,” she said. “Most courts need some type of renovation in McLean, and really, throughout the county, so it is a priority, but we have to sort of do the ones that are the worst first.”
She says the park authority has also observed an uptick in tennis court usage, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the county’s park facilities in general “are really operating at maximum capacity.”
The McLean Central Park project team emphasizes that the plan presented last month was a concept intended to gauge how the community’s interest in various amenities has changed since the master plan was adopted eight years ago.
A dog park was incorporated in that plan, but the tennis courts site is the only place one could be built without interfering with the park’s floodplain or the resource protection area, according to FCPA Project Management Branch Manager Paul Shirey.
“We got a lot of strong input that folks really want to keep the tennis courts there, so I think we’ve heard that loud and clear,” Shirey said.
While the tennis advocates have been especially vocal, Pedersen says feedback has run the gamut, from people who just want to see the trails or bridges renovated to excitement about an amphitheater, which is something of interest to the McLean Community Center.
The longer public comment period gives county staff more time to meet with community groups, such as the McLean Citizens Association, which approved a letter on June 2 seeking an extension.
Because of the extended comment period, staff won’t start refining the concept plan until August. The project design is expected to be finalized in early 2022 with construction starting that fall. It is being funded with $2.2 million from a parks bond approved in November.
“We put things out there for discussion based on our input from the past and what we see out there in practice, and this is exactly what we want to happen,” Pedersen said. “We want people to say, ‘oh, no, that’s a terrible idea,’ or ‘oh yes, that’s fantastic and we really need it.’ So, that’s what’s going on, that discussion.”
Westbound I-66 to Close Overnight Starting Tomorrow — “Work at the Interstate 66 and Capital Beltway interchange will require a full I-66 closure in the westbound direction over several upcoming days. The Virginia Department of Transportation said westbound I-66 will be closed at I-495 nightly from Tuesday, June 15 to Saturday, June 19. Closure hours are 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. nightly and until 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.” [Patch]
Vienna Reaffirms Commitment to Library Parking Project — “Vienna officials still can back out of an agreement with Fairfax County to build a new Patrick Henry Library with a parking structure, but now the town financially has something to lose. Vienna Town Council members on June 7 reconfirmed the town’s participation in the agreement and agreed to support the project’s design phase.” [Sun Gazette]
Falls Church Chamber of Commerce Supports Amendment — “The board of directors of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce formally signed off on a letter to the Fairfax County Planning Commission in advance of its meeting next Tuesday. The letter, sent over the signature of Falls Church Executive Director Sally Cole, expressed the Chamber’s strong support for an amendment to the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan to permit mixed use development at WMATA’s West Falls Church Metro station site.” [Falls Church News-Press]
McLean Home of Retired Football Quarterback for Sale — “In April, the veteran quarterback Alex Smith announced his retirement from the NFL. Now Smith is leaving the Washington, DC, metro behind. He’s listed his gorgeous mansion in McLean, VA, for $6.7 million.” [Sun Sentinel]
The weekend is almost here. Before you head out to the mall or hit the hay for some much-needed sleep, let’s revisit recent news from the Tysons area that you might’ve missed.
These were the most-read stories on Tysons Reporter this week:
- Pet of the Week: Annie
- Man dies in fatal car crash on I-495, Virginia State Police reports
- NEW: Tysons’ new Capital One Hall gets first confirmed performer
- McLean Italian restaurant relocates after 20 years
- McLean company has high hopes for Fairfax Peak indoor snow slope project
Ideas for stories we should cover can be sent to [email protected] or submitted as an anonymous tip. Photos of scenes from around the community are welcome too, with credit always given to the photographer.
You can find previous rundowns of top stories on the site.
Abrar Omeish doesn’t regret taking a stand on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, but if she could go back, she might have expressed her opinion a little differently.
The at-large Fairfax County School Board member sparked a heated local debate about one of the most contentious subjects in global politics last month when she recognized Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that concludes a month of fasting, with a tweet decrying Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as “apartheid and colonization.”
As the board’s only Muslim member and the first Muslim woman elected to a school board anywhere in Virginia, Omeish says she felt a responsibility to speak up about the escalating violence that, at that time, had killed 10 people in Israel, including two children, and 192 people in Gaza, including 58 children.
Her May 13 tweet was part of the larger #EidwithPalestine hashtag that went emerged after Israeli security forces stormed the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem amid tensions over Palestinians being evicted from the city’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
“The idea was [Muslims] celebrate [Eid], but it’s bittersweet because we can celebrate while mourning and knowing that our Holy Land is being disrespected and people are being killed in their efforts to defend it,” Omeish told Tysons Reporter. “…Being, like you said, the only Muslim voice, I felt tremendous pressure, and it’s not like I didn’t anticipate, you know, backlash.”
That backlash came from expected sources, given the school board’s decidedly Democratic makeup, as the Fairfax County Republican Committee chair called for Omeish’s resignation or removal and endorsed a parent-led campaign to recall her and other school board members that originally stemmed from frustrations with pandemic-related school closures in the fall.
However, the tweet also drew criticism from some colleagues and allies.
Hunter Mill District School Board Representative Melanie Meren said in a tweet on May 14 that she was “aghast” and “appalled,” calling Omeish’s sentiments alienating to members of the community, including herself, and a setback to Fairfax County Public Schools’ equity-related efforts.
“Rebuilding of relationships will need to happen,” Meren said.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington nixed plans to honor Omeish for supporting the recognition of additional religious holidays in the FCPS calendar. Four other school board members were still honored at the advocacy group’s annual membership meeting on May 20.
“The language Ms. Omeish used in this Tweet is deeply offensive and inflammatory to all who support Israel,” JCRC President Ronald Paul and Executive Director Ron Halber said in a joint statement on the decision. “It is irresponsible of her to use her public platform to publicly advance controversial political views that target and marginalize Jewish students and their families and divide our community.”
The letter went on to say that conversations about why JCRC found Omeish’s comment offensive were unproductive as she “continued to stoke the flames of division and acrimony” by not removing the tweet or taking “affirmative steps to try to stem the vitriolic, hateful rhetoric on social media triggered by her remarks.”
For her part, Omeish says JCRC’s statement was “a complete mischaracterization” of how she approached their interactions, saying that she “got yelled at on the phone aggressively” and has “been threatened by JCRC multiple times” about her stance on Israel.
“They told me, like, if you don’t take this down, we will post a statement about you and it’s not going to be pretty,” she said. “They would say things like that to me, and for me, I’m like, look, I respectfully reject the threat. I’m not going to change my position because you’re scaring me.”
Halber and JCRC Associate Director Guila Franklin Siegel disputed Omeish’s characterization of their interactions in a statement to Tysons Reporter:
“We took no pleasure in having to rescind Ms. Omeish’s award. But there is no place for the divisive and offensive language she used in her May 13th Tweet or for her insulting insinuations about the JCRC. We never have and never would threaten anyone. Ms. Omeish stands out among the thousands of elected officials and interfaith leaders from every background who have successfully partnered with the JCRC in nearly a century of community-building. We hope Ms. Omeish undertakes the hard work necessary to understand how her hurtful language impacted members of the Jewish community, including our children in FCPS schools. For the benefit of the entire FCPS community, we hope to be able to work with Ms. Omeish in the future to pursue unity, equity, and mutual respect in Fairfax County.”
Omeish got another opportunity to engage with Jewish leaders, as she promised in a follow-up tweet, at a roundtable convened on May 23. Read More
The rain just keeps coming.
While a Flash Flood Warning issued yesterday (Thursday) for the D.C. region, including Fairfax County, was canceled ahead of schedule at 7:15 p.m., the National Weather Service has extended the Flash Flood Watch that was set to end at midnight through today (Friday).
Issued at 3:03 a.m., the new alert will be in effect through this evening, as showers and thunderstorms are expected to bring two to four additional inches of rain to the area.
Here is the full alert:
…FLASH FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING…
The National Weather Service in Sterling Virginia has expanded the
* Flash Flood Watch to include portions of Virginia and West Virginia, including the following areas: in Virginia, Clarke, Eastern Loudoun, Fairfax, Frederick VA, Page, Shenandoah, Warren and Western Loudoun. In West Virginia, Berkeley, Eastern Grant, Eastern Mineral, Eastern Pendleton, Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson, Western Grant, Western Mineral and Western Pendleton.
* Through this evening
* Additional showers and thunderstorms capable of producing heavy rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 additional inches are expected to re-develop early this morning and persist into this afternoon.
* More heavy rainfall may cause additional flash flooding.
“A Flash Flood Watch means that conditions may develop that lead to Flash Flooding,” the NWS says. “Flash Flooding is a very dangerous situation. You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action should Flash Flood Warnings be issued.”
The threat for flash flooding persists in the Mid Atlantic again today.
Each year, more deaths occur due to flooding than from any other thunderstorm related hazard – and half of those are the result of a vehicle being driven into floodwaters. #TurnAroundDontDrown https://t.co/ffxF3YDP4y
— National Weather Service (@NWS) June 11, 2021
Two People Displaced by Vienna Townhouse Fire — A townhouse fire in Vienna that closed part of Church Street for about two hours on Wednesday (June 9) displaced two people and resulted in about $148,750 in damages. Investigators say the fire was accidental, started in a wall between a bedroom closet and second-floor bathroom by an “open flame device (torch) that ignited nearby combustibles.” [FCFRD]
Police Hold Town Hall on Vehicle Pursuit Policy — Community members raised concerns about drunk driving and car thefts at a town hall that the Fairfax County Police Department held yesterday (Thursday) to discuss proposed revisions to its policy for vehicle pursuits. Among other changes, the new policy eliminates traffic violations, misdemeanors, and non-violent felonies as situations that can justify a pursuit. [WTOP]
School Bus Crashes in Annandale — A school bus and car collided at the intersection of Gallows Road and Surrey Lane in Annandale yesterday afternoon. The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department said “several” kids on the bus were transported to hospital “as a pre-caution for a check-up” and the car driver was transported with non-life-threatening injuries. [FCFRD/Twitter]
Classroom Modular Coming to Kilmer MS — Kilmer Middle School will get 10 new classroom spaces with the construction on a modular facility that will also have a staff workroom and restrooms. The Fairfax County School Board is scheduled to award a contract for the project on June 17 with on-site work expected to begin in July and finish by the end of this calendar year. [Hunter Mill District School Board Community Update]
The Flash Flood Watch that took effect at noon today (Thursday) has now been upgraded to a Flash Flood Warning for Fairfax County.
The National Weather Service says an additional one to two inches of rain could fall in the affected areas, including Vienna, Falls Church, and Pimmit Hills, until 8:15 p.m.
Here is the full alert, which was issued at 5:05 p.m.:
* Flash Flood Warning for…
Central Fairfax County in northern Virginia…
Southeastern Loudoun County in northern Virginia…
The Western City of Alexandria in northern Virginia…
The City of Fairfax in northern Virginia…
The City of Falls Church in northern Virginia…* Until 815 PM EDT.
* At 505 PM EDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 1 and 3 inches of rain have fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly.
HAZARD…Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms producing flash flooding.
SOURCE…Doppler radar.
IMPACT…Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses.
The NWS advises against traveling, noting that the majority of flood deaths occur in vehicles.
“A Flash Flood Warning means that flooding is imminent or occurring,” the NWS said. “If you are in the warned area move to higher ground immediately. Residents living along streams and creeks should take immediate precautions to protect life and property.”
