A 20-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly burglarizing two Latino restaurants in Mount Vernon earlier this month, Fairfax County police announced last week.

Police say surveillance footage showed the man, a resident of the county’s “Alexandria area,” breaking into Mezcalero Restaurant three times and Mana Pupuseria once from Nov. 13-18.

The Fairfax County Police Department had been investigating the burglaries since the first one at Mezcalero was reported on Nov. 13.

The man was arrested on Nov. 19 after officers in the Mount Vernon Police District responded to the Walmart at 7910 Richmond Highway for a larceny report.

“[He] was wearing clothing that matched images seen on surveillance footage from the four previous reported burglaries,” the police department said in its news release. “Through investigation, detectives determined Flores was responsible for the four commercial burglaries.”

According to the FCPD, videos showed the suspect using a brick to destroy the windows of the two restaurants. He stole merchandise and property, but the amounts are still being determined as part of the police investigation, the public affairs bureau told FFXnow.

The man has been charged with four counts each of burglary and destruction of property, vehicle tampering and petit larceny. The burglary charges are felonies, while the others are misdemeanors.

The Fairfax County General District  Court confirmed that the man is being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Jan. 4.

Residents of a mobile home community off Route 1 held a rally Tuesday (Nov. 15) to voice concerns that new ownership could push out current residents.

At a gathering with representatives of community organizers Tenants and Workers United, residents from Engleside Mobile Home Park and Ray’s Mobile Home Colony shared concerns that a recent purchase of the property could lead to rent hikes and evictions.

Marianela Reynado explained that the Engleside property was sold to $24.2 million to Pacific Current Partners despite efforts by residents and a nonprofit to raise funds to purchase the property and keep it affordable.

The sale was finalized Tuesday, according to TWU. Pacific Current Partners could not be reached for comment.

Residents organized in 2020 to oppose a plan that added density to the site. The building owners at the time said there were no plans to redevelop the lot in the near future. The recent sale, however, has raised doubts about those assurances.

According to TWU, residents were notified this September that the owners at the time, Ahora Company LC and Rapido Company LC, had gotten offer from Pacific Current Partners and intended to sell the mobile home parks just two months later.

“I’ve lived in this community for 14 years,” Saul Hernandez said. “It’s a good space, a place for our children. It’s a safe place, a calm place, and knowing that this is a place where there could be an increase in our rents… it’s a place we don’t want that to happen.”

Larisa Zehr, an attorney from Legal Aid Justice Center, told attendees at the rally that there are only eight mobile home parks in Fairfax County, meaning there are increasingly few places in the area available to mobile homeowners.

“Mobile home parks fill an important gap in available affordable housing,” Zehr said. “They’re relatively affordable without subsidy and an asset, as residents have said today, which is very different than an apartment complex where the rent goes to a landlord and the tenant has nothing.”

Another one of the county’s mobile housing communities, Harmony Place in Hybla Valley, was sold to a developer in December, even though residents offered $1.5 million more to take ownership, according to DCist.

A manufactured housing task force created by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors last year delivered a report in September with recommendations for how to preserve the county’s 1,750 “mobile” housing units and ensure they remain affordable.

The county has adopted the term manufactured homes, rather than mobile homes, which it says is misleading.

“Unlike traditional homeownership in which the property and the home is owned by a single entity, manufactured homes are typically owned by the occupant who rents the land from a separate entity,” Fairfax County Housing and Community Development said. “In most cases, the homes are not mobile.”

A 29-year-old man from Mount Vernon could face life in prison after pleading guilty to transporting a teen for sexual purposes, the Department of Justice announced yesterday.

Apipat Vutipawat pleaded guilty last Thursday (Nov. 10) in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania to charges that, from May 29, 2020 through June 2, 2020, he transported an unidentified minor from Virginia to Pennsylvania “with the purpose of engaging in any illicit sexual conduct,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

According to the Observer-Reporter, Vutipawat was arrested on May 14, 2020 in Pennsylvania’s Richhill Township after police found him in a vehicle with a 14-year-old girl who said he was her boyfriend. He had allegedly met the girl through a dating app and faced multiple local assault charges.

Vutipawat pleaded guilty to aggravated indecent assault in Washington County Court and was sentenced to over three years in prison on Jan. 14, according to court records.

Vutipawat was indicted on three federal charges in March 2021, including traveling with the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct, transportation with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and obstruction of justice.

With his guilty plea, he faces a total sentence between at least 10 years and life in prison, a fine of up to $750,000, or both, according to the DOJ.

A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for 11 a.m. on March 16, 2023.

“Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed is based upon the seriousness of the offenses and the prior criminal history of the defendant,” the DOJ news release said. “Pending sentencing, Vutipawat remains detained.”

The department says the case was part of its national Project Safe Childhood initiative, which started in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. The Fairfax County Police Department joined the investigation with federal, state and local law enforcement in Pennsylvania.

While the onset of winter usually heralds the end of farmers markets, Fairfax County announced last week that three markets around the county will brave the chill to continue into December.

“The Fairfax County Farmers Markets have extended the season at three popular market locations,” the Fairfax County Park Authority said in a release. “The Reston Farmers Market will remain open until Dec. 3, 2022; the Burke Farmers Market is open until Dec. 17, 2022; and the McCutcheon/Mt. Vernon Farmers Market will be open until Dec. 21, 2022.”

Along with the extended season, some of the markets will be getting a handful of new vendors and new wintery items typically not available in the other seasons.

“Our farmers and producers will continue to bring an abundance of winter squash, greens, apples, potatoes, fresh-baked breads, locally raised meats, and unique prepared foods,” the release said. “Extended season vendors will bring new products, such as macaroons, bagels, kombucha, Moroccan sauces and more. Be sure to visit Burke, Reston and McCutcheon/Mt. Vernon to support your favorite vendors through the season, and to welcome our new vendors.”

The farmers markets with extended hours are:

• Burke (5671 Roberts Parkway): April 16-Dec. 17, from 8 a.m. to noon
• Reston (1609-A Washington Plaza): April 30-Dec. 3, from 8 a.m. to noon
• McCutcheon/Mount Vernon (2501 Sherwood Hall Lane): April 20-Dec. 21, from 8 a.m. to noon

Customers and vendors had requested a continuation into December for the Mount Vernon market — typically the last one to close just before Thanksgiving, according to Park Authority spokesperson Judith Pedersen.

The Burke and Reston markets were also chosen for extensions, because they’re held on Saturdays, are the park authority’s largest, and “have vendors with enough products and product mix to sustain a vibrant market,” Pedersen told FFXnow.

“Unfortunately, the weather is too unpredictable to extend through the winter,” she said. “However, all vendors from the other markets are invited to participate in the extended season at these markets if they have product to sell.”

(Updated at 1:30 p.m.) Fairfax County police have charged two teens in connection to yesterday’s stabbing at Mount Vernon High School.

A male teen was stabbed in a bathroom “following an altercation with another student,” drawing a police response to the school on Old Mount Vernon Road at 1:17 p.m., the Fairfax County Police Department said in an email.

The student who got stabbed was transported to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening. Two other teens — both male — “fled the school but were quickly identified and taken into custody by officers,” the FCPD said.

No other injuries have been reported, and police say there was no threat at the school after the teens fled, though a shelter-in-place order was “briefly” issued.

“One juvenile was charged with malicious wounding,” the police department told FFXnow this morning. “The other juvenile was charged with trespassing and principal in the second degree of malicious wounding. Both were taken to juvenile intake.”

The teen charged with trespassing is not a student at Mount Vernon High School, police confirmed.

The FCPD didn’t say what weapon was used, but a local scanner watcher indicated that it was a pocket knife.

Fairfax County Public Schools directed all questions to the police when asked about the stabbing incident.

Photo via Google Maps

(Updated at 11:45 a.m. on 10/14/2022) The Richmond Highway corridor’s first parklet and southern food restaurant Della J’s are both getting grand openings at Mount Vernon Plaza next week.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for 11 a.m. on next Wednesday (Oct. 19) to unveil a new 3,200-square-foot parklet in the shopping center at 7694 Richmond Highway, adjacent to Moe’s Southwest Grill.

Mount Vernon Plaza is owned by Federal Realty, which also owns a number of other developments in Northern Virginia and across the country.

The new parklet is being touted as the first such amenity in the Richmond Highway corridor and will feature a trellis, porch swing benches, cafe seating, landscaping, and green space. Construction on the space began in May and finished about five months later.

The parklet was developed in partnership with the nonprofit Southeast Fairfax Development Corporation (SFDC), whose mission is to develop and support projects that help economic growth along Richmond Highway.

“We were excited to work with Federal Realty for the first parklet project on the Richmond Highway Corridor,” SFDC Executive Director Evan Kaufman said in the press release. “The team at Federal Realty immediately realized the value of this project, not only to their businesses at the Mount Vernon Plaza but to the general community in the area. We look forward to working with more visionary property owners to help develop parklets and community spaces up and down the Corridor.”

Kaufman told FFXnow that space like this is hard to find in the corridor and the addition of this parklet helps with the “liveability” of the community. There have already been talks of movie nights, public art, and other events in the space, he said.

“These types of projects…brings identity, character, and livability to the corridor that’s sometimes been lacking,” Kaufman explained.

The collaboration with Federal Realty could be a model for public-private partnerships at other developments along the corridor, he said. In fact, SFDC is already in talks with other Richmond Highway shopping centers about creating their own parklets.

Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, who is expected to be at the ribbon-cutting, also believes the parklet is a crucial amenity.

“The parklet will be a valuable amenity that will stimulate local growth, and attract visitors from across our region,” Lusk said in the press release. “Federal Realty’s investment is a clear commitment to making the Richmond Highway Area a destination defined by mixed-use and transit-oriented development.”

Della J’s is cooking again

Also officially opening its doors at Mount Vernon Plaza on Oct. 19 is Della J’s Delectables, the popular family-owned southern comfort food restaurant that started in Springfield before deciding to relocate to a larger space.

Now located right off Richmond Highway in a former Ruby Tuesday’s, the restaurant actually had its soft opening about a month ago, employees told FFXnow, but the full grand opening is next week.

Della J’s is owned by Alexandria natives Jerry and Lydia Young and serves up southern cuisine, like chicken biscuits, sweet potato pie, grits, fried fish, and barbeque meats. The new location is envisioned as a bit more “upscale,” with plans to eventually host live jazz music a couple of times a week.

Jerry Young grew up right behind what was then called T.C. Williams High School, and his dad was a member of the nearby historic Bethlehem Baptist Church in Gum Springs. Its current pastor, Reverend Dr. Darrell Keith White, is a regular at Della J’s.

Named after Jerry’s mom, the restaurant serves a number of the recipies that he helped her cook when he was a kid. Though she died at 68, cooking and booking remind Jerry of her.

“Cooking is a huge stress reliever for me,” he told FFXnow in June. “I have this ability to just open the cookbook up, look at a recipe, and pretty much nail it the first or second time.”

Fairfax County’s inventory of pickleball facilities has expanded with the arrival of 10 courts dedicated to the increasingly popular sport.

Newly renovated courts at Lewinsville Park in McLean and George Washington Park in Mount Vernon will officially open on Saturday, Oct. 15, the Fairfax County Park Authority announced yesterday (Thursday).

The festivities will start at 9 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting at GW Park (8426 Old Mt. Vernon Road) led by Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck. Park officials and local pickleball advocates will also make remarks, and there will be time for photos and “light refreshments,” according to the news release.

The park authority began demolition work on the GW courts this spring, one of five court renovation or maintenance projects planned for this year.

The park’s four tennis courts have been converted into six courts dedicated to pickleball and two courts that can be used by both sports. The $202,306 renovation also added new surfacing, fencing and nets.

Lewinsville Park (1659 Chain Bridge Road) will get its ribbon-cutting at 4 p.m. Expected speakers include FCPA Executive Director Jai Cole, Board Member Tim Hackman and Fairfax County Advocates for Pickleball, the release says.

Costing $650,000, the Lewinsville project resurfaced and added new fencing for all six of the park’s courts, but only one was turned into dedicated pickleball courts, a downsizing from the park authority’s original plans to repurpose two or three of the facilities.

Tennis players had argued that the county doesn’t have enough courts for their sport to cede or share that many with their pickleball-playing counterparts, a conflict that has emerged as a top challenge to the county’s efforts to add more pickleball facilities.

“The improvements align with recommendations in the recently completed Pickleball Study and are an effort to introduce a greater variety of court sports to accommodate the diverse users across the county,” the FCPA said of the Lewinsville and GW renovations. “Interest in pickleball locally and countywide is growing quickly, and the introduction of pickleball at these locations will address the need for additional facilities for this emerging sport.”

This summer, the park authority celebrated the launch of the Wakefield Park Pickleball and Tennis Complex in Annandale, a $410,000 renovation project that installed two pickleball courts and accessibility improvements.

Fairfax County police are searching for a 43-year-old man from Mount Vernon who they say is a suspect in a fatal shooting on Sunday (Oct. 2).

Detectives believe Kyjuan Omar Braxton Trott shot Brandon Wims, 31, of Maryland multiple times after approaching the vehicle where Wims and two other people were sitting at the Old Mill Gardens apartment complex in Mount Vernon, the Fairfax County Police Department said today (Thursday).

Trott was seen leaving the area in a silver Nissan Sentra registered in Maryland as 2ET4005, according to police.

Police responded to the 5800 block of St Gregorys Lane at 7 a.m. after receiving a report of gunshots in the area. At the same time, Wims was driven to Inova Mount Vernon Hospital before being transferred to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he ultimately died.

The other two occupants of the vehicle were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.

As reported earlier this week, the FCPD says its detectives believe Trott and Wims were acquainted with each other, but the exact nature of their relationship remains under investigation.

Trott is now wanted by the FCPD, which has obtained warrants for second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, felon in possession of a firearm, and felon in possession of ammunition.

“Detectives are asking anyone with information to Trott’s whereabouts to call 703-246-7800,” the police department says. “If you see Trott, please call 911 immediately.”

More on how to contact the FCPD:

Tips can also be submitted anonymously through Crime Solvers by phone – 1-866-411-TIPS (866-411-8477) and by web — Click HERE. Download the ‘P3 Tips’ App and follow the steps to “Fairfax Co Crime Solvers.” Anonymous tipsters are eligible for cash rewards of $100 to $1,000 dollars. Please leave contact information if you wish for a detective to follow up with you.

The Fairfax County Police Department is conducting an administrative review of a traffic stop on Richmond Highway this past weekend, video from which was posted on social media.

The woman who posted the viral video to Instagram on Saturday (Oct. 1) said she was on her way to Walmart to pick up food for her kids, who were in the car, when a police cruiser hit her vehicle “head on going 60 to 70 mph.”

“I’m sitting at the light, and he comes and hits me from the front, claiming that I was in a high-speed chase,” the woman said in the video. “I’ve been in the hospital, having my…baby.”

The car that the woman was driving had been reported in connection to a felony in Arlington, according to a FCPD statement posted Sunday night, and the occupants were listed as potentially “armed and dangerous.”

In her post, the woman says the officers pointed a gun at her and told her to put her hands outside the car window, “screaming that I could become a threat if I moved.” She and the kids were put in the back of a police vehicle, while police searched the car and verified her account.

The video shows the woman telling police that they “have the wrong person” and should call Inova Alexandria Hospital to verify that she was recently there. After an officer opens the back door of a police cruiser to let the kids out, the woman walks to a Fairfax County Fire and Rescue ambulance and says she’s going to sue.

“Excuse my mouth, but stuff got me out of character today,” she said, acknowledging the profanity used throughout the encounter.

FCPD said Sunday that patrol officers had stopped a vehicle in the Mount Vernon area around 3:30 p.m. the previous day, but police say the officer who hit the woman’s car was traveling under 10 mph at the time of the collision.

The video shows a dimple on the car’s front bumper and a dent on the driver’s door. An FCPD spokesperson told FFXnow that the dent “was not from us,” according to a police supervisor, noting that the police cruiser had no damage.

Officers stopped the car because it matched a silver Nissan Altima that Arlington County had entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, according to FCPD.

“Officers verified the alert as a felony vehicle with occupants listed as armed and dangerous, traveling in the area of Richmond Hwy and South Kings Hwy,” the FCPD said.

According to the Arlington County Police Department, the vehicle had been entered into the NCIC after someone driving it fled from an attempted traffic stop near Crystal City for an expired registration.

From ACPD:

At the intersection of Richmond Highway and 33rd Street S., the officer attempted a traffic stop by activating their emergency equipment. The driver of the vehicle fled, ran two red lights, and exited Arlington County. The officer entered the vehicle into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) for felony eluding with a request that the occupants be identified if the vehicle was stopped by law enforcement. The registered owner of the vehicle was determined to have multiple weapons offenses and was listed as possibly armed and dangerous. The investigation into the eluding is ongoing.

The FCPD spokesperson said that an officer pulled up in front of the car to box it in, and police instructed the driver to get out of the car while at gunpoint, describing that as standard procedure for a “felony traffic stop.”

Police confirmed that the woman had been in the hospital at the time of the crime and none of the passengers, including another woman and two children, had been involved in the Arlington incident. However, they also found that the woman didn’t own the car, so it was towed, the spokesperson said.

“Somebody else had access to that car while she was in the hospital, so she wasn’t involved with any of this,” police said. “But the car was listed as a felony vehicle with dangerous people inside, so our officers stopped the car, as they should, and made sure that the dangerous people weren’t inside the car.”

FFXnow contacted the woman but was unable to get comment by publication time. She told NBC 4 that it was a “very traumatic situation” and she wants an apology from FCPD, asking why police didn’t use their lights and sirens to simply pull her over.

Fairfax County police are investigating a fatal shooting after someone allegedly fired multiple gunshots into a car parked in the Mount Vernon area yesterday morning (Sunday), killing one of the occupants.

Officers were called to the Old Mill Gardens apartment complex at Jeff Todd Way and St. Gregory’s Lane shortly before 7 a.m. after receiving a report of gunshots in the area, Fairfax County Police Department Lt. Dan Spital said at a media briefing.

According to police, the shooting followed “an altercation” between three occupants of a car in the apartment parking lot and an individual who approached the vehicle on foot.

“At some point, the individual outside of the car fired multiple rounds inside that vehicle,” Spital said. “At least one person was struck, and that is our victim.”

Still in the same car, an acquaintance drove the victim, a man, to Inova Mount Vernon Hospital, where he was admitted with gunshot wounds to the upper body, police say. According to Spital, doctors determined that the man needed to be transferred to Inova’s Fairfax hospital, where he ultimately died.

The victim has succumbed to his injuries. Detectives from our Major Crimes Bureau and Crime Scene Section are responding to assume the investigation. https://t.co/OUoja7Lb93

— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) October 2, 2022

Police believe the suspect and victim knew each other but are “still trying to determine the extent of that relationship,” Spital said. The suspect is likely a man, possibly the driver of a silver Nissan Maxima with Maryland tags seen “fleeing” the area, the FCPD says.

Police didn’t have any identifying information about the suspect beyond the description of the car seen leaving the area. However, the shooting is being investigated as a murder, according to Spital, who noted that “several rounds” were fired.

“It’s disturbing for this community, [on] a Sunday morning. I mean, it’s a time for families,” Spital said. “…The investigation has just gotten started, so our detectives, although they may not be on the scene here, are going to be working around the clock until they find the assailant.”