Today, though, I'm convinced that I really need to move:
The Arlington homicide -- the fourth in the county this year -- was reported just after midnight, in the Pentagon Row area. The slain man was found on the sidewalk outside the Cost Plus World Market home furnishings store, at 1301 South Joyce Street, police spokesman Matt Martin said.
The only businesses open in the neighborhood at the time of the shooting were several bars, including the Sinè Irish Pub, on the same block as the World Market, and the Champps Americana sports bar a block away, Martin said. The market's plate glass window was shattered during the incident.
Investigators interviewed several witnesses, Martin said, but believe there are others who left without talking to police. "We really need to talk to those people," Martin said. He asked anyone with information about the shooting to call homicide detectives at 703-228-4152, or to use the police department's anonymous tip line, 703-228-4242.
Thanks to my neighbor Joe for alerting me to this on his blog.
Update: There have been cops and sirens and flashing lights around here all evening. Most disturbingly, I returned home this evening to find this memo from the management company:
6 comments:
There's no more information? A suspected burglery? Random shooting? Local gang activity? :-p
I'm with Joe. It's pretty isolated. I doubt you could get much safer of a neighborhood in Arlington than Pentagon Row.
Joe and Justin: It's just creepy that it's right downstairs. Stuff like that always freaks me out.
Debby: The only local gang I can think of is us. And the only shooting we do is shooting our mouths off.
I live in River House and watched the whole scene unfold from my window after being woken up by a police chopper and sirens.
I have lived in the Pentagon City area for four years and agree that it feels very safe. However, you have a lot of crime in the mall since it is off of the metro and there is also some latino gang activity in the Arlandria area.
I dunno, I figure that there is no truly safe area inside the beltway and won't lose too much sleep if they can determine that this was a gang on gang thing or other targeted assault. That's a lot less scary to me than some random act of violence against a stranger on the street.
Anonymous, I have also lived in the area for 4 years -- 6 if you count the 2 I lived in Crystal City. I think the area is generally safe, too, but the amount of crime seems to be increasing. I also agree that if it was just random violence, it's a lot scarier.
On the other hand, I often leave work pretty late, and don't really think twice about my safety while walking around by myself after most of the retail establishments are closed.
Despite what it may feel like, the crime rate dropped in Arlington County every year from 2001 through 2005. Although there were five times as many homicides in 2005 as there were in 2004... 5 compared to 1.
And I'd still say Pentagon City is one of the safest areas inside the beltway, since there are so many people generally around. And I wouldn't be scared even if it were random violence. The chances of getting randomly murdered in Pentagon City are still much smaller than the chance of getting killed in a car crash.
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