Man brandishes a rifle on condo balcony
[Updated 12:15 a.m., Aug.3] Fairfax County Police are investigating a brandishing incident at 3245 Rio Drive at the Barcroft Hills condo in the Seven Corners/Bailey’s Crossroads area.
A man was seen on an apartment balcony armed with a rifle and shouting threats.
At one point, the police department tweeted they believe the man is alone inside the apartment. Police locked down Barcroft Hills and a Lafayette Park condo building at 6147 Leesburg Pike, calling for residents to stay indoors. The incident has been going on for hours, since the afternoon of Aug. 2, as police attempted to negotiate with the man.
“The cops are not allowing anyone in or out,” a nearby resident reports. “They have a big area cordoned off. It’s a pretty big police/EMS response with SWAT and heavily armed cops looking like soldiers.” He said there are at least 20 police cars, plus fire trucks and ambulances.
The Barcroft Hills condo management sent an email to residents this evening stating the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors are being evacuated.
Due to the lockdown, the resident has been shut out of his third-floor home for hours while his wife and 2-month-old baby haven’t been able to leave.
Shortly after midnight, the FCPD tweeted: “The man barricaded in the Rio Dr. apartment has been safely taken into custody.” Residents are now being allowed back into the building.
In other crime news, there was an officer-involved shooting Aug. 2 in Seven Corners, the FCPD tweeted Tuesday night. Detectives were conducting an investigation near Arlington Boulevard and Patrick Henry Drive and were attempting to arrest a suspect in a vehicle when an officer shot the man. He was taken to the hospital for injuries not considered life-threatening.
Police reported an armed carjacking near Juniper Lane and Leesburg Pike in Seven Corners on Aug. 1. Two Black men wearing masks and dark clothing displayed a firearm and hijacked a 2004 dark blue Mercedes. The victim was not injured.
Those incidents took place where the homeless shelter with the Tesla charger is going.
Stop it.
It’s a statement of fact. Look at a map. 2 of the 3 incidents took place within 100 yards, and literally right next to where the new shelter is going on P Henry. P Henry and Juniper intersect at the same place on hwy 7. Juniper connects via short service road. The standoff took place less than a mile away next to the high school.
A quick note to the commenter(s) who claim that bringing mass transit to the Route 7 corridor (including Seven Corners) will bring more violent crime to the area.
Your wrong. More mass transit and more investment in the Route 7 corridor will bring more resources, including more private security and law enforcement resources to keep the area safe.
Except you’re wrong. I’ve witnessed it myself for decades in other locales. Here is one of countless studies linking crime with rapid transit.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352146517304362
Daniel, with all due respect, I’m not going to accept a study on crime which focuses only on San Francisco as the final word on whether mass transit leads to increased crime or attracts criminal activity.
There are many reasons I take this position.
Certainly mass transit tends to both encourage and lead to increased density, and the increased density may result in a higher number of crimes than would have occurred if the density did not increase.
Please tell me this. Is there any evidence which suggests the rollout of the Washington Metro’s Silver Line has increased crime in Falls Church, Tysons, and the other areas in which the Silver Line now operates?
And, if crime is expected to skyrocket where phrase 2 of the Silver Line is about ready to open, why was (especially before the COVID pandemic) and even now the property near these Silver Line stations significantly increasing in price?
Are you claiming that otherwise sane individuals are clamoring to pay too dollar to live in locations where crime is expected to rapidly increase in the very near future?
How about the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)? Do you have studies that report on the explosion of crime which occurred on Long Island when the LIRR was opened.
While I don’t have first hand knowledge, I watch the movies and read the news, and my understanding is the vast majority of organized criminals have access to cars; and like many Americans they find their cars useful in conducting their poorly chosen profession.
>I don’t know what I’m talking about but I feel like I’m right.
Major crimes on the LIRR are up 71% through March, compared with the first three months of last year. LIRR crimes also were up 7% in 2021, compared with 2020. The rise in crime has coincided with an increase in ridership from the pandemic-related lows of 2020.
https://thecrimereport.org/2022/02/21/cities-focus-on-rise-in-transit-crime/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/25/us/public-transit-crime.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/new-york-subway-shooting-transit-crime-death-spiral/629554/
Using Cleveland data, this paper analyzed the effects of the HealthLine bus on crime rate in the surrounding areas. This is an important issue for cities. If adding extra public transit encourages crime, then that will deter new people and businesses from coming to the area; however, public transit provides reliable transportation for a large amount of people to travel to work and businesses. Using a fixed-effect model and a pooled OLS, evidence from the models shows that the bus increased the mean property crime rate in the area by approximately 2.8% and 1.4%. Both results from the different methods support the view that public transit increases property crime in surrounding neighborhoods.
https://collected.jcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=jep
Oops! No answer. I tend to agree with you, even without digging into the research. There are quiet a few people doing crime who don’t have cars, often, they are homeless. So, cars or no vas. But so, Living close to a highway ramp allows some to get out of the area in a few second. Many years ago, I lived off Duke close to the 395 ramp. Something went on in the area, and an Officer said that anytime you live close to a highway access point or close to a main street that is lengthy and países through, thw area is attractive to transient people and crime. But also, in my opinion all of our area is mixed with strip malls and all the major stores and eateries. It looks like ice cream to a thief. He may not want to risk burglary in a crowded area, but people comíng out of the stores with bags or just purses are prime target.
Daniel and Yvonne, again with all due respect, you are totally missing the point.
Daniel is citing relatively recent data from cities (San Francisco, NYC, Portland, Los Angeles) that elected prosecutors who adopted criminal justice policies which the data indicates leads to increases in violent crime.
The mass transit itself did not lead to increases in violent crime, the so-called “soft on crime” policies did. In fact, one of the articles Daniel cites reports that crime on public transit in Boston has recently been reduced – it’s not always and inevitably in one direction.
So yes, when a jurisdiction decides to adopt policies which tend to increase the number of random violent crimes it is not surprising more crime occurs where it is easy to gain access to potential victims.
The solution to reducing the number of violent crimes is not to prevent the establishment of mass transit and development, it is to elect prosecutors who prosecute violent criminals and either incarcerate the criminals or otherwise deter them from committing violent crimes in that jurisdiction.
Face facts. Not everyone can afford to live in Great Falls. Areas within the Beltway are going to be developed and will have mass transit.
Sure, I understand there are people spending more than a million dollars for homes in the Sleepy Hollow area who do not want mass transit coming near their homes because it will bring in the so-called “riffraff.”
I say that feeling is based on ignorance.
Arlington County through the Metrorail, Metrobus and the county’s own bus system has terrific mass transit which has helped increase the county’s property values while the county remains a low crime jurisdiction.
To be blunt, NIMBYs are going to NIMBY, but mass transit and development will either come to Seven Corners and Bailey’s Crossroads or else they will continue to be passed by as they have been for many decades.
“Blind pit bull don’t let go”
-Ghetto proverb
“I can explain it to you… but I can’t understand it for you”
-A professor from years past
What is the latest on this case? I live near the building where it happened and have heard that the man was a tenant who got evicted the day before and has a prior felony conviction(s).
Oh he would be a good candidate for the Patrick Henry homeless shelter. Right down the street, as you know.