UPDATE - 7:17 PM: Montgomery County police have confirmed that there were two victims in the shooting. Both had non-life-threatening injuries, but one had to be transported to a local hospital for treatment. Police also confirmed that no suspects are in custody at this time.
Montgomery County and Maryland-National Capital Park police responded to a report of a shooting in the 5300 block of Westbard Avenue in Bethesda early this morning. The shooting took place near the intersection of Westbard Avenue and Zenith Overlook, in the vicinity of the Bowlero bowling alley, shortly after 12:00 AM. According to @DCNewsLive on X, an adult female victim was grazed in the face by a bullet, and the alleged shooter fled the scene in a red Honda Accord. Police radio communications referred to a "rifle."
The crime scene quickly expanded in size as the morning went on. Officers combing the area around the bowling alley noticed there was also evidence in the street, and ordered Westbard Avenue closed to traffic. Police appeared to recover several shell casings from the road in front of the Westwood Tower property next to the bowling alley. There is no word yet from Montgomery County police on the condition of the victim, or on this incident in general, as of this writing. The suspect(s) presumably remain at large.
The crime scene quickly expanded in size as the morning went on. Officers combing the area around the bowling alley noticed there was also evidence in the street, and ordered Westbard Avenue closed to traffic. Police appeared to recover several shell casings from the road in front of the Westwood Tower property next to the bowling alley. There is no word yet from Montgomery County police on the condition of the victim, or on this incident in general, as of this writing. The suspect(s) presumably remain at large.
59 comments:
It's time to wake up to what's really going on.
Live near there and my wife and I head the shots. It was at least 20-30 shots. Sounded like a combination pistol and louder rifle, but who knows.
Absolutely unbelievable what's happening. What is this turning into, East Baltimore? Will the county leaders and all those who supported the defunding and otherwise demoralizing our brave law enforcement apologize? I'll wait. Here's a tip. More gun control laws and restriction does nothing.
Sounded like two full magazines emptied from a fully automatic rifle. I live right there and heard clearly.
7:45: The public needs to know what happened here. It looked like a lot of shell casings being recovered. Somebody was robbed on the same block just a few days ago.
Lol
7:45 - Totally unacceptable as you no doubt agree being a neighbor in what I'm sure is a very nice unit or home. It's amazing to me that no grassroots outrage gets directed towards something like this. And yet, today in our area, there are hundreds of Tesla protests. Boggles the mind.
Robert - Correct. And who is sure to raise holy heck? The developers who are spending millions on reimagining that decades old shopping center.
8:24 - what's laugh out loud funny about a middle of the night gun battle in one of the most educated and affluent areas in the entire country. Please tell us.
What's really going on besides the essy availability of weapons? Are you too cowardly to put your name on a dog-whistle?
Totally agree with you Robert...the neighborhood needs to step it up on getting answers and demanding more safety, especially with all that construction going on.
You appear deeply ignorant of both East Baltimore and MoCo's own crime rate from the 80s and 90s.
What’s going on?
You’re aware that the story you’re commenting on describes a large police response, right?
Keep voting Democrat. It’s working.
8::55 sure it's the weapons! Why didn't MADD go against cars then? It's the user, and I bet not a single Bethesdan was the shooter. Figure it out.
855. I'm doing all I can to try to avoid using the word "moron.'
Better put in a Red Phone call to Conald or Drunk Sec. Pete. Bring on the troops.
The sudden cases of verbal diarrhea induced just hours after the crime. Let the law enforcement work the case before screaming the sky is falling.
Sure as hell beats the millions, and millions of cases of buyers remorse now infecting the nation.
SCA, there’s more to worry about than planting trees and cut through traffic. This is the 2nd serious crime that has occurred at or near Bowlero within the past week.
@Robert Dyer: can you link to the report of that robbery? I didn't see anything about that.
Fully automatic? My god people are so dumb. Good think you’re anonymous
Only in Bethesda...smh.
" two full magazines emptied from a fully automatic rifle." I would it hard to believe a legal full auto weapon was used. They are hard to get and very expensive, starting around $10k, maybe even more by now. I would say the shooter rigged a gun of his to make it auto. Last time I checked there are laws about that kind of thing.
Gladys Kravitz finally got her revenge on the Stevenses.
West Bardimore. #TheMire
12:08: Here is the link to the robbery story:
https://robertdyer.blogspot.com/2025/03/strong-arm-robbery-on-westbard-avenue.html
In a not entirely unrelated development, Montgomery County Police Department announced this week it will be switching ALL its radios to fully encrypted operations, 24/7. This is set to take effect in 60 to 90 days. With such an arrangement, most of the report Robert provided here --number of casings, weapons involved, area of crime scene, police agencies involved, suspect's vehicle description-- would be unavailable to the public unless an eyewitness supplied those details. In a press release, MCPD described the move as a,
"best practice. . . to protect potential victims and witnesses, while also enhancing officer safety. Encryption has been a national best practice for police communications since 2016. . . [the] move to full encryption will allow us to better protect victims and witnesses of criminal activity by ensuring the confidentiality of private information. This includes protecting the personal information of some of our residents with health challenges. . . Encrypted radio traffic will not only help protect potential victims and witnesses, but it will also help ensure operational, tactical, and investigative integrity for our officers. MCPD moving to encrypted radio traffic will protect its radio transmissions and remove the ability for criminals to intercept transmissions, allowing them to get detailed information on police tactics and investigative activity. There are numerous free scanner Apps available where anyone can listen to MCPD radio traffic in real time on a smartphone. The department has confirmed instances of criminal elements actively listening to department unencrypted radio channels. The department also believes that encryption will deter criminal acts such as placing SWAT’ing calls at homes of elected officials, appointed officials, business executives, and other high-profile residents in Montgomery County. These calls jeopardize the safety of responding officers and innocent/unaware residents."
Which is a solid-waste transfer station-sized load of rubbish. Sensitive victim/witness information is currently transmitted to officer's MDTs, mobile data terminal computers in the patrol vehicles, not broadcast over the air. The canard about "ensure operational, tactical, and investigative integrity" is laughable, since channels for the PD's Emergency Response Team, the detectives, internal affairs, plainclothes units, and the like already operate on encrypted channels. How is it encryption will reduce the number of bomb threats or "SWATing" events? Presumably, the intent of those is to inconvenience the victim(s) and to tie up police resources. **Surprise!!** Police will still need to respond to such calls with the same level of equipment and personnel whether the calls are broadcast in the clear or if they're scrambled. So, zero savings there.
What **is** compromised, and gravely so, is the public's right to know what's going on in their community. In the very near future, MCPD will be able to act in secret and with impunity, releasing only what details they choose or keeping an event altogether unreported unless an official public records request is made. Baltimore City, where deadly crime really is a daily concern, recently switched to encryption, and they felt it reasonable & proper to simply delay by 15 minutes the public’s access to PD radio traffic, giving officers sufficient lead time to be safe in the performance of their duties, while also recognizing the public’s legitimate interest in and access to information about crime and safety in their communities. For MCPD to not at least offer this 15 minute-delated is an outrageous repudiation of the public’s right to be informed of events that affect their safety and welfare. Presumably, it’s not just the police who need to be keep safe, but the public. Encrypting radios serves the former at the expense of the latter.
A crime committed by hoodlems who do not appear to live here. We should at least thank our lucky stars that Regency Centers didn’t trade more density in exchange for more affordable housing (which the County wanted), but there’s not really much more anyone can do about something like this where the guns and people probably came from DC or elsewhere in the County. The MCPD got there fast and will do their job. Support the police.
"Encrypting radios serves the latter at the expense of the former." Whoops, my bad. Got myself so twisted in frustration about the coming switchover that I inverted that last former-latter bit. My apologies.
Has JAC never been to Baltimore or has JAC never been to Westbard? How is he so afraid of both? Does no one let him out of mom's basement?
None of us live in a Red state for obvious reasons.
4:17: I've been to both. Baltimore has some very dangerous areas, and sometimes even the "tourist" areas fail to escape the lawlessness. 201 people were murdered there last year. The city still has a lot going for it, and could be restored quickly with the right leadership.
Thanks for the War & Peace length novel informing me that I won't be able to lurk online listening in on the on-line scanner Broadcastify©!
4:17 - Silly comment offering nothing.
Yes. Doesn’t seem JAC has lived away from Bethesda in years.
You snowflakes have it too easy.
https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/virginia/arlington-county/watch-pentagon-city-mall-closed-after-fights-break-out/
Gotta laugh at the TDS patients, (11:17/4:19), as they have no one to blame but themselves as their chosen leaders provide exactly what they voted for.
Meanwhile on planet earth, blue states are projected to lose a bunch of house seats while certain red states will gain those seats. Keep on projecting whatever outrage of the day The View has inspired because it is working, just not the way you think it is.
@12:24 The problem is that any laws passed don't really mean anything to people who don't follow the law. Combine that with no-cash bail AND the sanctuary shield for even illegal felons favored by liberal politicians and here we are.
@6:04, your comment is paradoxical, coming as it does in a thread discussing police activity in Bethesda. Clearly, you find reporting about the topic sufficiently compelling and of interest to you to have read Robert's post, which offers a wealth of information that would not be available in a timely fashion were police radio broadcasts made inaccessible via encryption. Yet you dismiss my comments, which address --too specifically and apparently at a length too taxing for what one must assume is an attention span better suited for bumper sticker aphorisms-- a county police plan that will illuminate the single route by which specific, particular, detailed information, used in reports like the one Robert has written in this post, will be obtainable by the public in a timely fashion. If you click on these types of posts, about crime in the area, you should be concerned at what is about to happen when the police can no longer be monitored. Rather than being a low-information voter casually denigrating those who monitor police radio transmissions to keep aware of goings-on and to report the news, consider the consequences of no longer being able to find out what your police are doing. It is nearly 24 hours following the shooting described in this post and the MCPD press release web page has zero information on what happened last night. https://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/mcgportalapps/Press_List_Pol.aspx?id=47
That such a news vacuum does not alarm you is even more disturbing than your [implied] fatigue at reading a four-paragraph blog comment.
PS: Broadcastify is garbage. Unication G5 and Open MHz.
I didn't understand much of what you wrote because some of it was way off base, but I actually heard the original dispatch call and listened to the Westbard "situation" live but not detailed on 2D Broadcastify.
https://wjla.com/news/local/downtown-silver-spring-dakari-thomas-getro-banamina-stabbing-murder-crime-police
" We are not going to lose Silver Spring [Only Bethesda.]
6:54 - Your comment offers nothing to the conversation. You're commenting on a comment or not the topic. Please stick to the post by Robert. Anything else is juvenile.
They should rename the location: Zenith Overlook-Out!
JAC, you represent sanity, common sense, and worse yet, DJT to the mush heads. Don't take it personally.
7:53 - Amen! No, just have to call out the absurd and silly comments. Agree or disagree but keep it substantive.
@3:04, then you weren’t paying attention, either to my post or to the other night’s radio transmissions. The writing is self-explanatory and warrants no simplification to accommodate your lackadaisical comprehension. As for the radio monitoring, I am delighted you caught the Broadcastify app when 2D MCPD channel was up and functional, as, often, it is not.
All the details cited @3:02 were originally made known from radio traffic at the shooting incident. You can verify that by checking OpenMHz, which, at least for the moment, allows listeners to not only hear live traffic but to pull up any past day and time and listen to the archived transmissions, as well. I do not know whether or not that archive will vanish when MCPD encrypts, but it is an invaluable resource for getting specifics. For example: rather than relying on anodyne press releases from county police —e.g. “at [xx:xx] hours an assault was reported in the 4900 block of Elm Street”— a check of the radio traffic would have revealed the assailant was not some teenage tough beating up a citizen, but a middle-aged woman who spat on a man during a parking dispute. That call actually happened. In the rundown of notable events police made public for the day, they gave no details other than blandly offering “assault” and the hundred block address where the event took place. However, because there was public access [via OpenMHz] to the radio archives, a listener was able to find the actual radio call, which provided information offering critical details: the assault was an unmoored woman who lost out on a parking spot, not a veteran crimer out for an afternoon of ultra-violence along the target-rich streets of Bethesda. Once pd radios are encrypted you lose the ability to learn such distinctions or to know anything at all about law enforcement goings-on beyond precisely what police choose to tell you. You may pay astronomical taxes to live here, but it is the police who will dictate what you’re entitled to know about crime/violence in your community.
Bowlero rents its space from Regency Centers. In addition to the shootings inside and near Bowlero, there have been car break-ins in the common area parking structure serving the Giant and other retailers at Regency’s Westbard Square. Regency Centers manages Westbard Square.
Contact Regency Centers to ask them to improve security at Westbard Square and to address the situation at Bowlero. You can start with Andrew Kabat (703-442-4310, andrewkabat@regencycenters.com) who has been handling leasing at Westbard Square and should be able to refer you to the correct personnel at Regency.
You mean insanity, senselessness, and dictatorial rule. Take it where the sun don't shine.
omg! I was there less than an hour earlier ...
Go in Bowlero during one of their 'themed' events, is less about bowling than just a raucous party. They'd be much better for all if in SS or PG County.
That was an old fashioned fist fight. No firearms involved. You are comparing apples and oranges.
The common parking area design is an ideal place for carjackings, muggings and other violent crimes.
Nearby Springfield self serving SCA Board sold out the neighborhood to limit traffic on their own streets - Ridgefield and Old Westbard. Then they got into an ugly feud among themselves. Now powerless with no members. They gave away any concessions on density, security, traffic calming in the rest of the neighborhood, green space, and safety. Now doing nothing.
@2:10 - English must be a second language for you.
Bowlero "leases" space not rents.
Can we please just shut down Bowlero and build a nice family friendly restaurant with a patio? At a minimum just close it by 9pm. It's mostly families anyways, nothing good happens in sleepy 20816 past 9
10:27 - That's been a bowling alley for 40 years at least. I was actually just there and it's pretty nice inside. But bowling in Bethesda in 2025? Yeah, maybe it's time to put something else there.
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