Gunshot at Virginia mall sets off police chase
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Version 0 of 1. A man enraged by a delay caused by a person struggling to use a credit card while leaving a garage at Pentagon City Mall on Friday fired a gunshot into the air, leading to a police chase into the District, Arlington County authorities said. One of two men in the car threw a gun out the window during the chase, according to police, who said they found the weapon near the George Washington Memorial Parkway at Interstate 395. The men were arrested at the Third Street tunnel near Massachusetts Avenue NW. Their names were not immediately released. Police said no one was injured in the shooting in Virginia, which occurred about 3:10 p.m. at the parking garage near the exit on 15th Street. Lt. Kip Malcolm with Arlington police said the driver of a car at the gate of the mall garage seemed to have trouble getting his credit card to work and got out of his vehicle to ask the driver behind him to back up. — Peter Hermann and Matt Zapotosky The father of a 19-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University freshman, whose body was found Thursday behind a strip of bars and restaurants in Adams Morgan, said Friday that the family believes his death was an accident. Paul Michael McGuinness Jr., who lived in Reston, was out with friends and disappeared about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday from a bar in the 2400 block of 18th Street NW. His body was found in a stairwell in the same block. He had been home from school on Christmas break. [Body found behind bars in Adams Morgan is 19-year-old from Reston] Relatives who filed a missing-person report have said they think McGuinness went out the back door of a bar and either fell or collapsed. The teenager’s father, Paul Michael McGuinness Sr., said Friday that friends searching for his son found the body about noon Thursday. D.C. police confirmed his identity but have not said how they think McGuinness died. Autopsy results were pending Friday. — Peter Hermann and Clarence Williams A District man whose hoaxes last year led him to an appearance on MTV’s “Catfish: The TV Show” pleaded guilty Friday to making a false threat against the Metro transit system, the U.S. attorney’s office in the District announced. Jerez Nehemiah Stone-Coleman, 20, a.k.a. Kidd Cole, is to be sentenced on one count of making threats involving explosive materials. A plea deal with prosecutors, subject to court approval, calls for a sentence of up to 27 months in prison, the office of U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips said. Prosecutors said Stone-Coleman made more than 300 calls to 911 between December 2014 and May. In one instance, he warned that he and others would seize a Metro bus and kill hostages unless paid a $15 million ransom, police said. Stone-Coleman gained notice for being a con man posing as hip-hop artist Kidd Cole. — Spencer S. Hsu A Maryland commission will review school construction policies in the state and offer recommendations to the General Assembly next year on addressing the needs of Maryland’s 24 school districts. State Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) announced Friday the formation of the panel, the 21st Century School Commission, which will be headed by Martin Knott, president of Knott Mechanical. The state conducted a similar review in 2004, which found that the schools needed $3.85 billion to be brought up to “minimum standards.” Over the past decade, the state has provided $3.7 billion to school districts for school construction, officials said. — Ovetta Wiggins Three people were shot Friday morning at the Kentland Community Center in the Landover area, authorities said. All three were being treated at a hospital but conditions were not known, Maryland-National Capital Park Police said. — Martin Weil |