Crime & Safety

Police Doing 'Whatever it Takes' to Find Wong's Killer

After one week, killer remains at large

Almost one week after the death of 52-year-old Tommy Wong, his killer remains at large.

Wong was killed Friday afternoon during an armed robbery of his Columbia Pike jewelry store.

Investigators describe the suspect as a man in his mid-50s, about 5 foot, 7 inches tall with a medium build. He was wearing a bright yellow traffic vest at the time of the attack.

Find out what's happening in Clarendon-Courthouse-Rosslynwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Detectives on the Arlington County Police Department's eight-man homicide/robbery unit are leading an intense investigation and doing "whatever it takes" to apprehend the man, police Sgt. Rick Rodriguez said.

The department is putting every resource behind the case, Rodriguez said following .

Find out what's happening in Clarendon-Courthouse-Rosslynwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In Arlington County, homicides have become rare. Late last month, what investigators are calling a murder-suicide happened in South Arlington. Three days later, Wong was killed at his store, Capital Jewelers.

The killings ended a zero-homicide streak that lasted more than two years.

Detectives and officers are working long hours looking for leads, which includes examining hours of outside video surveillance footage from businesses all along the Pike in the vicinity of where Wong was killed.

Capital Jewelers is on Columbia Pike between Walter Reed Drive and Glebe Road. At 4 p.m. on a Friday, , it's a busy area — particularly with a popular Thai restaurant next door to the jewelry store.

Maybe the killer got in a cab. Maybe he used a credit card. Maybe he used a cell phone.

Every angle is being examined and re-examined, said Rodriguez, who has been on the local police force for 24 years.

"You keep going forward until there's nothing left — and then you still don't give up," he said.

"It may not bring back the family member, but we owe the family our unlimited resources, because that's what the family would want. And it's the right thing to do."

Local investigators are reaching out to their counterparts in Fairfax County, Alexandria, Washington, and Prince George's and Montgomery counties in Maryland.

Specifically, Arlington police are working with the Metropolitan Police Department is related to the crime on Columbia Pike. In the Washington robbery, the culprit also wore a yellow reflective vest.

Internally, Arlington has committed officers to this case down to the patrol level.

"The guys working these beats, this becomes their goal," Rodriguez said. "Everybody is chipping in to bring closure to this and to bring the person responsible to justice."

Police are asking anyone with information about the incident or the identity of the suspect to contact Detective Richard Conigliaro at 703-228-4193 or investigations@arlingtonva.us.

More on Patch:


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

More from Clarendon-Courthouse-Rosslyn