Police: No Homicides in Arlington For Two Years
Last reported homicide was March 14, 2010.
Arlington County has gone two consecutive years without a homicide for the first time since the police department was formed in 1940, according to a news release.
“Reaching this mark is only possible through a combination of effective policing, excellent medical care, successful prosecution and cooperating communities; all of which we have experienced in Arlington County the past two years,” Arlington Police Chief Doug Scott said in a statement.
The last homicide in Arlington County happened on March 14, 2010.
That night, 20-year-old Cain Guevara-Estrada of Arlington was found on the sidewalk in the 2800 block of North Pershing Drive, according to a Washington Post account at the time. The victim suffered stab wounds to his upper body, according to police.
The next day, Arlington resident Anner Rouben Hernandez-Estrada, 20, was arrested and charged with murder, according to police. He later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to spend 25 years in jail, said Theo Stamos, commonwealth's attorney for Arlington County and the city of Falls Church.
Last weekend, a man in his late 20s was shot in the Buckingham community during what police have called an attempted armed robbery. Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck has said that man is expected to make a full recovery.
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Don
12:29 pm on Thursday, March 15, 2012
There is an epidemic of armed robberies occurring in Arlington, for every one that appears in the media two others don't.
Jason Spencer
3:19 am on Saturday, March 17, 2012
I have had several emails about armed robberies occurring in Arlington -- particularly in the Rosslyn area -- that I've not been able to get any information about from the police.
Unfortunately in Virginia, police reports are not public record.
Hopefully, one day the state Legislature will make police incident reports public records, like they are in many other states -- including both the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, Kentucky and (I think) Maryland. And that's just off the top of my head. The blatant disregard for transparency here is hard to believe -- but until people cry out that it's wrong, it's just a few of us clamoring for change.
Jason Spencer
3:19 am on Saturday, March 17, 2012
By the way -- Just because police incident reports are considered protected from the state Freedom of Information Act, local jurisdictions -- like the Arlington County Police Department -- are free to waive that protection and release records for the public benefit. I've heard there's been internal discussion about doing so in neighboring Virginia jurisdictions, but so far, that hasn't happened.