A man was robbed and abducted on Sunday night, according to the Fairfax County Police Department.
Police said that three men confronted a man who was meeting someone to sell an item on a website at 10:25 p.m. on Sunday (May 26). The incident took place at 8111 Leesburg Pike.
“They demanded money and drove the victim to several locations to withdraw more cash,” according to the police report.
The police report gave the following descriptions of the suspects:
All three suspects were described as Middle Eastern men in their 20s. The first man was wearing a white T-shirt and had black facial hair. The second man was described as skinny, wearing a black T-shirt, black pants and black hair. The third man was wearing a red hat, green shorts and had black hair.
Image via Google Maps
(Updated at 9:15 a.m.) Fairfax County police arrested a man early this morning, ending an eight-hour-long barricade situation that closed Old Dominion Drive in McLean.
Police responded yesterday (May 28) to a home around 4:30 p.m. in the 6300 block of Old Dominion Drive after a family member reported an assault, the police department tweeted at 7:04 p.m.
“The victim was able to leave the house. 25-year-old Sean Price, of McLean, refused to come out and barricaded himself in the home,” according to a press release.
Police contained the scene while crisis negotiators and tactical officers worked to “peacefully resolve the situation,” the press release said.
Police arrested Price and charged him with assault and violation of a protective order around 12:30 a.m. today (May 29), ending the barricade that closed Old Dominion Drive between Valley Avenue and Kirby Road.
Old Dominion Dr between Valley Ave and Kirby Rd is closed. Please use an alternate route. The media staging area will be at Old Dominion Dr at Kirby Rd but please park in the lot of 6263-B Old Dominion Dr. #FCPDhttps://t.co/TvT4Y3Hwlg
— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) May 28, 2019
Map via Google Maps and image via Twitter
Indie pop band Echosmith is one of the groups set to perform in the 2019 Summer Concert Series outside Tysons Corner Center.
The line-up for the free summer concerts in The Plaza outside the mall was recently revealed today (Tuesday). The concerts featuring iHeartRadio artists all take place on Fridays in June.
The schedule is the following:
- June 7: Tucker Beathard
- June 14: Thompson Square
- June 21: Echosmith
- June 28: Tauren Wells
Best known for their 2013 single “Cool Kids,” Echosmith was started by a quartet of siblings. In March, the band released their newest single, “Favorite Sound.”
Tucker Beathard is a singer-songwriter who released a country album called “Nobody’s Everything” last year and a single this year called “Better Than Me.”
Grammy-nominated Thompson Square is a country duo, whose 2018 comeback album “Masterpiece” album gave fans a glimpse into the married couple’s personal lives.
Tauren Wells, a Grammy-nominated Christian rock and pop artist, recently dropped his “God’s Not Done With You” single in April.
Photo via Twitter
The Weekly Planner is a roundup of interesting events coming up over the next week in the Tysons area.
We’ve scoured the web for events of note in Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield, McLean and Falls Church. Know of any we’ve missed? Tell us!
Tuesday (May 28)
- Ice Cream Solves Everything Run — 6:30-8 p.m. at the Potomac River Running Store (111 W. Maple Avenue) — The Vienna Run Club will run 4-, 5- or 6-mile routes tonight, followed by free ice cream at an ice cream bar and in-store beverages. Runners that try-out Saucony footwear will earn a raffle ticket for a chance to win some giveaways.
Wednesday (May 29)
- Free Yoga in the Park — every Wednesday until Aug. 28 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Strawberry Park (2910 District Avenue) — Spark Yoga will guide free outdoor yoga in the Mosaic District this summer. All levels of yoga experience are welcome.
- “The Lady from Shanghai” — 7 p.m. at the Angelika Film Center (2911 District Avenue) — The last movie in the Film Noir Series at the Angelika Film Center screens tomorrow. The plot is about a seaman who gets implicated in a murder after he starts working on a yacht.
Friday (May 31)
- URBNMarket Mosaic — 3 p.m. at Strawberry Park (2910 District Avenue) — More than 25 local makers and collectors will sell handmade and vintage items at the pop-up market in the Mosaic District.
- “Wine & Wanderlust” — 7-10 p.m. at Hyatt Regency Tysons Corner (7901 Tysons One Place) — The McLean Project for the Arts and Total Wine & More are hosting an evening of wine sampling from more than 100 winemakers. Tickets are $100 per person and include wine-tastings, heavy appetizers and music.
- Paint Nite at Tysons Biergarten — every Friday until October from 7-10 p.m. at Tysons Biergarten (8346 Leesburg Pike) — For two hours and $37 per person, attendees can follow a guide in creating a painting.
Saturday (June 1)
- Lewinsville Center Ribbon-Cutting — 10 a.m.-noon at Lewinsville Center (1613 Great Falls Street) — Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust will help celebrate the opening of the new Lewinsville Center. The intergenerational facility will house the Lewinsville Senior Center, Adult Day Health Care and two child day care centers.
- NoBetterOff Concert — 7-10 p.m. at Art and Frame of Falls Church (205 W. Jefferson Street) — NoBetterOff, an acoustic Americana band made up of five Northern Virginia artists, will perform. Monroe Bay Vineyards will be at the concert with a selection of Virginia wines. Tickets are $10 at the door.
Sunday (June 2)
- Tysons Farmers Market — every Sunday through November from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at 8400 Westpark Drive — The weekly farmers market features local produce, meats, eggs, hot foods, baked goods and more. In addition to food, attendees can enjoy live music, cooking demonstrations and kids events. The market accepts SNAP and matching on all SNAP purchases.
Photo via Facebook
Dominion Energy will have to wait another month at least before it can look at rebuilding its Tysons power station.
Approval of the station was deferred to June 25 at a Board of Supervisors meeting last week, the latest setback for the facility on Tyco Road in northern Tysons.
“The Dominion Power Station in Tysons will be deferred again,” Providence District Supervisor Linda Smyth said. “We are in the midst of some interesting legal discussions about who gets the right to decide what sort of stormwater management they do, which is an interesting discussion.”
Dominion Energy plans to rebuild the station but has faced repeated delays throughout the process as the county works through how Dominion’s designs will impact nearby traffic projects and neighbors.
The staff report on the project notes that the site, which is almost entirely covered with concrete, deviates from the full inch of stormwater infiltration required in the Tysons Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan.
“Opportunities for infiltration on this site are limited as infiltration is not practical within the fenced substation confines,” staff said in the report.
Smyth could not be reached for comment, but Dominion Energy spokesperson Charles Penn said delays to sort out the minutia of power stations are not unusual.
“From a regulatory standpoint, Dominion Energy’s projects almost always involve an intersection of federal, state and local laws and regulations,” Penn said. “In this instance, we are working with the county and certain state agencies to accurately confirm where the regulatory responsibility rests with respect to certain engineering details of the substation that will be reviewed after the special exception process is complete.”
Smyth also noted at the meeting that the June 25 meeting will be jam-packed with public hearings, to which Chairwoman Sharon Bulova advised her colleagues to bring sleeping bags.
A meeting Thursday (May 30) will seek community input on revamping aging bridges at a highway intersection in the heart of Tysons.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) plans to rehabilitate the intersection of Leesburg Pike (Route 7) and Route 123 in Tysons. The project will focus on the northbound and southbound bridges where Route 123 passes over Leesburg Pike. Built more than 50 years ago in 1965, the bridges are beginning to show their age.
This rehabilitation will restore the bridge to a like-new condition and will cost approximately $2.5 million. The project is part of VDOT’s routine “State of Good Repair” program, which keeps infrastructure across the Commonwealth well-maintained and safe.
Fairfax County has bigger plans for the intersection. Fairfax transportation planners hope to one day tear down those bridges and build an efficient, modern “continuous flow intersection” at the junction of the two highways. That design would enable a high capacity of automobile throughput, but would also let the county build an elevated park over the intersection.
As it stands, the highways sever those communities from one another and separate Old Courthouse from the Metro stations, but an elevated park would stitch them together.
If the project proceeds as planned, construction would begin in early 2020 and finish by the end of the year. VDOT did not provide any information about possible traffic impacts.
The public has an opportunity for in-person comment on VDOT’s rehab plan at a public information meeting Thursday from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Freedom Hill Elementary School (1945 Lord Fairfax Road).
People can also provide feedback on the project by emailing Gang Zhang at [email protected].
Vienna: Provide input on Rt 123 over Rt 7 bridge rehabilitation Thu 5/30, 6:30-8:30PM at Freedom Hill ES. A presentation will begin at 7PM. More info: https://t.co/hntL5Ey4ib pic.twitter.com/3zOqUxykSL
— VDOT Northern VA (@VaDOTNOVA) May 24, 2019
Image via Google Maps
Updated 5 p.m. — After a long series of delays, D.C.-based Mediterranean restaurant Agora plans to open its Tysons branch in June.
The restaurant is located on the ground floor of the Nouvelle at 7911 Westpark Drive — part of the Arbor Row development northeast of Tysons Galleria. The 4,000-square-foot eatery will have a custom brick oven, according to a press release.
The split-level interior — which owner Ismail Uslu had previously told Tysons Reporter was part of a design challenge that led to the delays — will include Turkish decor.
The menu will feature short ribs, grilled octopus and other Mediterranean favorites.
Agora is set to be open every day from 11 a.m.-2 a.m.
Different takes on the role of prosecutors in the justice system took center stage in a rare fight for the Democratic endorsement for the commonwealth’s attorney position in Fairfax last week.
While the candidates in the Board of Supervisors chair race that followed were in agreement on most issues, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Katherine Stott — standing in for incumbent Raymond Morrogh who was out with bronchitis — and challenger Steve Descano sniped back and forth constantly last Friday (May 24) at Valo Park (7950 Jones Park Drive).
Descano’s campaign is part of a broader push across Virginia from left-leaning candidates arguing prosecutors should take an active role in things like functionally decriminalizing marijuana and eliminating cash bonds.
“That’s the main driver of this campaign,” Descano said. “Cash bonds turn this into a two-tier system of justice. Cash bail doesn’t do anything but punish people for being poor. What happens when we hold people in jail because they can’t pay means they could lose their jobs or lose their house. It drives up their recidivism rate. We’re paying $225 a day to build more crime down the road. I will instruct my prosecutors, if there’s no risk of safety or flight, get rid of cash bonds.”
But Stott said Descano’s ambitions are driven by naivety.
“[Descano] shows his inexperience with the Virginia state system,” Stott said. “There are legislative code systems that define how cash bail is used and a judicial element. In the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney, we do not ask for a cash bond. Defendant appears before a magistrate, which sets bond. If they are held overnight, they see a judge the next day. We don’t ask for cash bail.”
The fight is similar to a race in neighboring Arlington and an ongoing battle between the Norfolk commonwealth’s attorney and local judges.
The two also clashed over capital punishment and marijuana enforcement — mainly over whether the commonwealth’s attorney’s office should decide an overarching policy or tackle the cases individually. Descano said he would never pursue the death penalty, while Stott said the cases have to be reviewed on an individual basis.
For small amounts of marijuana possession where there is no intention to distribute, Descano said he would move the court to dismiss the cases. Stott said Morrogh supports decriminalization of marijuana but argued it’s not up to the commonwealth’s attorney to decide that.
“Descano’s response is another example of how he crosses out of his lane,” Stott said. “[He says] that he’s a member of the executive branch and doesn’t want to enforce the law from the legislative branch. When you become a commonwealth’s attorney, you take an oath to uphold the laws of the Commonwealth, and that’s a serious oath.”
McLean Student Wins Contest to Study in Spain — “Ethan H., an 11th-grader at BASIS Independent McLean, has won the 2019 Junior Study Abroad Scholarship and will travel to Spain this summer. This national award, valued at more than $3,500, is given each year to 24 students nationally who become eligible by earning high scores on the National Spanish Examination.” [Inside NoVa]
Look Back at Falls Church’s Memorial Day — Missed the City of Falls Church’s parade and festival during the weekend or want to relive it? This article describes what it was like to be there with the young families who joined veterans and active service men and women to honor fallen service members. [WJLA]
Vienna Mom Qualifies For Olympic Trials — Perry Shoemaker, a 48-year-old Vienna resident, is the second-oldest woman to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials.”Shoemaker’s journey to Olympic Trials qualifier started back in about 2011, when the family moved from Pittsburgh to their current home in Vienna… she did most of her runs pushing a jogging stroller and holding a dog on a leash.” [Runner’s World]
Tysons Restaurant Makes OpenTable List — Founding Farmers in Tysons made it onto OpenTable’s 2019 list of 100 best restaurants in America for a “big night out.” [Patch]
Falls Church Crash Injuries Five People — On Saturday, four pedestrians and the driver were taken to a hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries following a crash in a parking lot along Annandale Road in Falls Church. [Twitter]
Tysons Building at Full Capacity — “A new 150,000 square foot lease with an undisclosed company has capped off Rubenstein Partners and Griffith Properties’ lease up program for their jointly-owned building, Centerstone at Tysons. The single transaction brought the newly-renovated building to full occupancy. Rubenstein and Griffith acquired Centerstone at Tysons, located at 1550 Westbranch Dr., in July 2015.” [GlobeSt]
Photo via Founding Farmerres
A lawn mower key reported to the Vienna police as stolen was later found buried in the dirt.
A Vienna resident in the 100 block of Hickory Circle SW reported on Wednesday, May 15, that the key to his lawn mower was stolen between 5:30-7:08 p.m.
“It was located in the dirt underneath plants that were close to the lawnmower,” Juan Vazquez, a spokesman for the Vienna Police Department, told Tysons Reporter.
Photo via Facebook
