The City of Falls Church Police Department is seeking the public’s help to identify one of the suspects in the recent armed robbery in West End Plaza.
The police department released two photos of the main suspect. “The suspect appears to be a black male, about 30 to 40 years old, about 6′ tall, medium build, with a shaved head, beard and mustache,” according to police.
Police said the robbery on Thursday, June 20, involved four men.
Anyone with information is asked to call the City of Falls Church Police at 703-248-5053.
Photos courtesy City of Falls Church
As the summer heat wave continues to sizzle this week, locals may be looking for a glass or a pint or a mug of beer.
Here are some breweries and distilleries around the Tysons area for when you want to buy local while wetting your whistle.
- Sweetwater Tavern (3066 Gate House Plaza): One of the three Sweetwater Tavern microbreweries is located in Merrifield. Visitors can find hand-crafted brews and lunch and dinner menus.
- Settle Down Easy Brewing Co. (2822 Fallfax Drive): This Falls Church Nano brewery, which brews beers from IPAs to kolschs, has a taco stand inside and indoor and outdoor seating.
- Audacious Aleworks Brewery and Taproom (110 E. Fairfax Street): Near downtown Falls Church, the small craft brewery specializes in small batch ales, and the taproom has up to 20 beers on tap at any given time along with free popcorn and board games.
- Caboose Brewing Company (Merrifield and Vienna): The 15-barrel-brewhouse is behind both Caboose Commons in Merrifield (2918 Eskridge Road) and Caboose Tavern in Vienna (520 Mill Street NE). Caboose Commons includes a coffeehouse and beer garden behind the Mosaic District, while Caboose Tavern is a brewpub off of the Washington & Old Dominion Trail.
- Mad Fox Brewing Company (444 W. Broad Street): Inspired by Euro gastro brews, Mad Fox Brewing in Falls Church has a brewery and restaurant.
- Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant (7861 Tysons Corner Center): Located in Tysons Corner Center, the Gordon Biersch restaurant brews its beers on site and even offers a view of its brewing facilities and brewery tours.
While not a brewery, the Tysons Biergarten (8346 Leesburg Pike) has more than 100 American craft beers and live music until 2 a.m. daily.
If beer isn’t your thing, the Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Suite A) produces several small-batch spirits including vodkas, gins, rums and whiskeys. In addition to the distillery, there’s a restaurant that serves up Italian fare and a bar.
The Fairfax County Police Department is seeking the public’s help to identify two men allegedly involved in theft and fraud in Falls Church.
“Officers are asking for the public’s help identifying two men suspected of stealing purses from parked cars in cemeteries in the Falls Church area of the county while victims attended burial services and visited grave sites,” according to a press release from FCPD today (Thursday).
Police said the suspects used credit cards from the purses at Target and Walmart multiple times.
People with information or who recognize the suspects can contact Officer P. King at the McLean District Police Station at 703-556-7750 or submit an anonymous tip.
Photos via FCPD
City of Falls Church residents can now have chinchillas, hedgehogs, turtles, hermit crabs and tortoises as pets.
The City Council approved adding the five animals to its list of allowed pets on Monday (June 24) — about five months after Fairfax County legalized pet hedgehogs, chinchillas and hermit crabs.
After a robust discussion last week — focused mainly around hedgehogs — about health and safety concerns, several of the councilmembers, including two who admitted to owning hermit crabs illegally, expressed support for the change.
Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals that require space, exercise and room temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure they do not start hibernating, according to the Hedgehog Welfare Society. Along with cats, dogs, frogs, hamsters and many other animals, hedgehogs can spread salmonella, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Before voting on Monday night, Mayor David Tarter and several councilmembers praised student activist Isabel D., a junior at George Mason High School, for her civic engagement and efforts pushing for the city to legalize hedgehogs as pets.
The motion passed 5-2, with the mayor and Councilmember Dan Sze voting no.
Photo by Hans-Olof Andersson on Unsplash
Fairfax County police are looking for the three men in connection with an armed robbery at a pawn shop in Falls Church.
Police said that the men entered the Top Pawn Shop (2806 Graham Road), displayed a handgun and stole jewelry.
The incident occurred around 1 p.m. on Monday (June 24).
“The suspects are described as Hispanic men in their late teens or early 20s,” according to the police report.
Image via Google Maps
“Battle of the Brews” Voting — Several Tysons-area breweries are featured in a beer bracket to determine the best brewery in Northern Virginia. Voting for the second round begins today. [Northern Virginia Magazine]
Metro Study Looking for Infrastructure Solutions — “Metro is launching is a two-year study of the Blue, Orange and Silver Line in order to find long-term options to meet future regional needs.” [Reston Now]
Falls Church Student Shares Story — “Junior Niharika Singhvi has attended Falls Church City Public Schools since 2006. In April of 2018, her parents’ work visas expired, and she was forced to return to India. Four months later, she arrived back at George Mason High School.” [Falls Church News-Press]
Local Restaurants Make Washington Post List — Fahrenheit Asian and Amoo’s in McLean made the “The 25 best casual restaurants in the D.C. area” list. [Washington Post]
Tysons Bartender Included in Photography Pop-Up — Shakara Ellison, a bartender at the Founding Farmers in Tysons Corner, was included in a photography project highlighting bartenders of color. [Washington City Paper]
MicroStrategy Sold Domain Name for Millions — “Tysons-based MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) has struck a deal to sell the “Voice.com” domain name to a blockchain-based company for $30 million in cash — and that could be just the beginning of a domain name selloff at the business intelligence software firm.” [Washington Business Journal]
Little Library Memorializes Falls Church Kids — Lemon Road Elementary School opened a little library to remember three Falls Church kids who were killed in a collision with an alleged drunk driver. [NBC4]
Photo courtesy Caboose Brewing Company
City of Falls Church Police are looking for the four men who robbed someone at West End Plaza early Thursday (June 20) morning.
Police responded to the incident around 12:15 a.m. at 1057 W. Broad Street.
“The victim stated that approximately five minutes prior, a black male with a beard, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt entered the business space, pointed a handgun at the victim, and demanded cash,” according to the press release.
Police said the male robber then joined three more men in the parking lot, and they ran westbound on the W&OD Trail toward Fairfax County.
The victim was unharmed, according to the press release.
Anyone with information is asked to call 703-248-5053 (TTY 711).
Image via Google Maps
Chinchillas, hedgehogs, turtles, hermit crabs and tortoises are one step closer to legalized pet status in the City of Falls Church.
The city is considering adding the animals to the list of allowed pets about five months after Fairfax County legalized pet hedgehogs, chinchillas and hermit crabs.
Similar to debate on the county level earlier this year, a Falls Church City Council meeting last Monday (June 10) focused mostly on the hedgehogs.
Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals that require space, exercise and room temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure they do not start hibernating, according to the Hedgehog Welfare Society. Along with cats, dogs, frogs, hamsters and many other animals, hedgehogs can spread salmonella, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Isabel D., a junior at George Mason High School and one of several students to testify in support of legalizing the animals, told the City Council that Arlington and Fairfax counties went through an extensive review process before deciding to allow more exotic animals as pets.
“I think you already know that many of our residents have these pets currently,” she said. “That is not because people want to disobey the law. It is because, unless they actually read the city code, they would have no way of suspecting that a pet like a turtle or a hedgehog or hermit crab would be outlawed in our city. They are cute and just as harmless as the pets that are allowed.”
Currently, the city allows dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, ferrets, birds, goldfish and aquarium fish, nonpoisonous snakes, rabbits, mice and rats as pets.
Councilmembers Phil Duncan and Ross Litkenhous both fessed up to unwittingly owning hermit crabs illegally.
While Duncan said that his current ownership of two hermit crabs is a conflict of interest, he said that residents might have anxiety about bringing illegal pets to the vet, possibly jeopardizing the health of the pet and human.
“The city attorney said I can vote on this because I have no financial interest, I’m not a trader,” Duncan said. In response to the audience laughing, he added, “I’m serious about this. This is the kind of stuff you stay up at night worrying about. This can and will be used against you in a campaign, I can tell you.”
Meanwhile, Litkenhous said, “I didn’t know you can’t have hermit crabs. We’ve probably violated that law three to four times over at my house.”
While sharing why he is “fully in support of this resolution,” Litkenhous tackled concerns about health and safety often surrounding the hedgehog pet debate.
“I have birthed live cows with my bare hands before, and I can tell you I have never once in my life ever gotten sick or known anyone who has gotten sick by handling these types of animals,” he said.
In response to concerns that exotic animals legalized as pets face more monetization and abuse, Litkenhous said all kinds of animals are at some type of risk.
Ultimately, he argued that animals shouldn’t be banned as pets for good owners who would treat them humanely.
Councilmember David Snyder also expressed support for continuing consideration of the proposed change.
“The existing law allows the keeping of rats, but [not] hedgehogs and chinchillas — really?” Snyder questioned. While Rebecca Keenan, the animal warden for the city’s police department, responded that rats are allowed since snake owners often feed them live rats, Snyder said that “a lot” of residents want the City Council to legalize the exotic animals as pets.
The City of Falls Church’s aging library will begin its makeover in a few months.
After nearly two years of planning, construction to expand and renovate Mary Riley Styles Public Library (120 N. Virginia Avenue) is set to start in September.
“The building is aged and its systems are outdated, having been constructed in 1957 and expanded in 1968 and 1992,” according to the city’s website, adding that the library needs more space to meet the needs of its growing number of registered borrowers.
Planning for the project began in 2017. Most recently, Falls Church’s City Council received updated designs for the project in January.
The two-story expansion will add roughly 6,600 square feet to the side of the library facing N. Virginia Avenue and create a new entrance on the corner of Park and N. Virginia avenues.
Once the work is complete, the library will become ADA compliant, have more meeting space and offer additional programming.
The project also plans to make the Local History Room more prominent by moving it from the lower level to the upper level and to nearly triple the size of the kids’ area.
While construction is underway, the library will temporarily relocate near the Thomas Jefferson Elementary School (601 S. Oak Street).
Construction is expected to last through December 2020.
Images via City of Falls Church
The City of Falls Church’s free summer concert series will return this week.
Now in its 27th year, the annual City of Falls Church Concerts in the Park series highlights local musicians with a show every Thursday this summer at 7 p.m. in Cherry Hill Park (312 Park Avenue).
The lineup this year:
- June 20: Falls Church Concert Band, playing concert music
- June 27: Mountain Fish, a Southern rock and country group
- July 4: to be determined
- July 11: Korybantes, playing ’80s, ’90s and modern rock hits
- July 18: Soul Stew, a Motown band
- July 25: Big Tow, an alternative and blues band
- Aug. 1: Big Howdy, a progressive bluegrass band
Attendees are encouraged to bring a blanket and a picnic dinner. If it starts to rain, the concert will get moved to the Falls Church Community Center (223 Little Falls Street).
The performer for the Fourth of July concert, which will take place at George Mason High School (7124 Leesburg Pike), has not been named yet.
Image via City of Falls Church
