Westbard shooting suspect(s) remain at large two weeks later

The suspect(s) in the March 29, 2025 shooting on Westbard Avenue in Bethesda are apparently as wily and resourceful as Harrison Ford in The Fugitive. He/she/they remain just that: fugitives, as the two week mark approaches just after midnight tonight. Physical descriptions of the suspect(s) have still not been released to the public, nor has any surveillance footage from the Bowlero or Westbard Square security cameras near the spot from which the gunfire emanated. The Montgomery County Council and Montgomery County Police Department have not commented publicly on the incident two weeks later, as the community waits for answers.

In this day and age of ubiquitous surveillance, dashcam, and doorbell cameras, it is remarkable that whoever was behind the many shots fired on Westbard could successfully flee and hide out, after committing a violent crime in such a visible location. The outcome of this case will have public safety implications for the Westbard area in the future. If people see that they can come in here and have a gunfight, and evade consequences, word will get out. Maryland gun laws still violate the 2nd Amendment for law-abiding citizens. Yet, as we see, criminals will still be allowed to be armed - and open fire in public spaces - with impunity. As the late Jack Kemp correctly said, "Weakness is provocative."

Montgomery County deploys camera robot at Bethesda Row

Montgomery County has deployed a surveillance camera robot at Bethesda Row ahead of the biggest shopping weekend of the year. The camera has been placed on the plaza outside of Anthropologie & Co. This is a new camera, number 2320783, not just a relocation of the cameras that have been deployed earlier in the Woodmont Triangle across town. The camera joins an already stepped-up police presence around the Bethesda Row development.

Chevy Chase Lake Purple Line construction entrance gate was "destroyed"

The security gate controlling access to the Purple Line light rail construction site at Chevy Chase Lake was "destroyed" by a truck delivering sod to the adjacent Columbia Country Club, according to Purple Line contractors. Concerns have been raised about the missing gate, which has left the light rail infrastructure and construction equipment vulnerable to intruders for several weeks. A new gate is being manufactured, the Purple Line team reports. In the meantime, they feel that the round-the-clock surveillance camera aimed at the entranceway will provide sufficient security.

Purple Line construction access gate has been left open for weeks in Chevy Chase

The access gate to the Purple Line construction site at Chevy Chase Lake has been left open for several weeks, observers report. You can see the missing gate on the ground, behind the orange cones and netting, next to the entrance in the photograph above. This is a major access point to the entire light rail project, which runs from downtown Bethesda to New Carrollton, and a primary access for the section between Bethesda and downtown Silver Spring. 

Trespassers, urbex explorers, equipment thieves, saboteurs, or anyone else could walk right into the Purple Line construction area at this point on Landmark Court, which comes off of Connecticut Avenue by the bridge and Crescent at Chevy Chase apartments. It's a surprising security lapse in the post-9/11 era, given that the light rail line's infrastructure could potentially be accessed and tampered with.

Surveillance camera robot removed from Bethesda park again

The surveillance camera robot in Veterans Park in downtown Bethesda has been removed again. It was previously stationed there from June 1 to August 4, and from August 26 until yesterday. Montgomery County had also recently deployed a second mobile camera unit on nearby Cordell Avenue. If the park camera has been redeployed elsewhere, I haven't run across it yet.

Surveillance camera returns to Veterans Park in Bethesda

The surveillance camera robot that was removed from Veterans Park in Bethesda earlier this month returned yesterday. This is Montgomery County's camera number 2220165, the same unit that was here before. Camera number 2220164 was deployed a few blocks away on Cordell Avenue on Saturday, August 24, and is still there now. While the camera was not in the park, a man recently smashed the front windows of Z-Burger, which faces the park.

Montgomery County deploys surveillance camera on Cordell Avenue in Bethesda

Montgomery County deployed a surveillance camera robot on Cordell Avenue in downtown Bethesda yesterday. It was placed across from Caddies in front of the Brown Building at 4931 Cordell. This camera does have the County seal on the side. We've seen camera numbers 2220165 (Bethesda) and 2220161 (downtown Silver Spring). This is camera number 2220164.

Surveillance camera robot removed from Veterans Park in Bethesda

A security camera robot that has been surveilling Veterans Park at 7898 Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda this summer has been removed. The camera had been stationed there since June 1. Montgomery County, as well as some private businesses like the nearby CVS Pharmacy, have employed the robots as a tool to combat the crime wave that has persisted since 2020. The County has primarily deployed the cameras in the downtowns of Bethesda and Silver Spring.

Robot as seen on June 1

Unmarked surveillance camera robot appears in Veterans Park in Bethesda

A surveillance camera robot was placed at Veterans Park at 7898 Woodmont Avenue in downtown Bethesda yesterday. Unlike most of the others we've seen, it is not marked with a Montgomery County Government logo. The number on the side is similar to other County robocameras, however. A County robot in Silver Spring bore the number 2220161. This camera is No. 2220165, and is keeping watch over the park as a persistent crime wave enters its fourth year in Montgomery County, as well as nationwide.

The Christopher Condominium in Bethesda installs brighter lighting for safety (Photos)

Bethesda, like all of Montgomery County, has been experiencing a surge in crime for the last four years. Over that time, the Montgomery County Council has largely left residents and commercial property owners to fend for themselves against the criminals preying on the community. One approach has been to install brighter lighting around properties, whether they be homes or shopping centers. We've seen this recently at Bethesda Row and at Kenwood Station. The latest is The Christopher Condominium at 4808 Moorland Lane in downtown Bethesda, where brighter lighting has just been added to the entrance staircase on Woodmont Avenue.

Super-bright lights installed at Kenwood Station in Bethesda

A spotlight is being shone on the parking lot at the Kenwood Station shopping center in Bethesda - literally. Ultra-bright light towers have just been installed around the lot of the shopping center, which is anchored by the popular Whole Foods Market grocery store. Photos can't do the intensity level of the lights justice, which may shine into windows of the adjacent homes in Kenwood. 

Like many retail properties, Kenwood Station is responding to the increase in crime in Montgomery County, seeking to improve safety and security. While the shopping center is not known as a crime hot spot, police did fatally shoot a burglar behind the grocery store thirty years ago, in April of 1994. At the time, the store was a Fresh Fields supermarket.

Montgomery County to host meeting on security at houses of worship Feb. 21

Montgomery County officials will host a special meeting regarding security at houses of worship on February 21, 2024, from 7:00 - 9:00 PM. The meeting will be held in Bethesda, at a location to be announced only to those who register. "Attacks on houses of worship continue to occur at an alarming rate," a meeting announcement states. The meeting will feature presentations by representatives from the Montgomery County Police Department, the Fire and Explosives Investigation Unit of the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, and the County's Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. 

Attendees will learn how to "minimize the risk of violent intruders," and what to do in the event of an attack on their house of worship. A menorah was vandalized outside a synagogue in Olney last December, and a suspect desecrated and attempted to burn down two Christian churches - and vandalized a Baptist cemetery - along Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda in July 2022. Meeting registration is open online now.

Photo courtesy Montgomery County

Security camera appears at Norfolk Avenue Streetery in Bethesda

A mobile security camera was placed at the Norfolk Avenue Streetery in Bethesda this weekend. The solar-powered unit is overlooking the block closed to automobile traffic for outdoor dining between St. Elmo and Cordell Avenues. Similar units have been deployed in downtown Silver Spring this year by Montgomery County. Private businesses in Bethesda like CVS Pharmacy have utilized a different type of mobile camera unit, a talking robot, for several years as crime has spiked in the area.

Old Georgetown Road bike lanes continue to confuse drivers in Bethesda (Video)

The confusing layout of the new bike lanes on Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda continues to baffle some drivers, and their vehicular forays into them raise safety issues for cyclists. It's the southbound segment between Tuckerman Lane and Democracy Boulevard that has serious design issues, which seem to tempt some drivers to enter the cycling zone, and - worst of all - allow them to do so. Drivers seeking to turn right onto Rock Spring Drive and Democracy Boulevard are most often the unwitting victims.

Rat-hunting dogs tackle downtown Bethesda's pest problem

A rat-hunting dog with a red
LED collar sniffs around
trash cans on Woodmont Avenue

Rat-hunting dogs are hitting the streets of downtown Bethesda, the latest tactic to confront a persisting pest problem. A team of dogs with human handlers deploys to sniff out the trail of the dastardly fiends, so they can be rounded up. Areas of concentration include landscaping and trash receptacles. The handler will lift a public trash can so the dog can sniff underneath. Dogs wear LED collars.

The handler lifts the trash can,
so the dog can search underneath

The notable increase in rats and roaches scurrying about the streets and alleyways downtown after the 2020 pandemic lockdown seemed to reach a peak last summer. An increase in outdoor dining - including closed streets set up as "Streatery" dining areas, combined with decreased human activity during the nightime hours, seemed to attract more vermin. Other persisting factors in the surge include the collapse of the "nighttime economy," which has turned the downtown area into a dead zone after 9 or 10 PM at night, dog owners who don't pick up their animals' waste, and numerous excavations for construction projects. 

Little Falls Parkway is about to become a very dangerous road in Bethesda

Little Falls Parkway will become a much more dangerous road to travel by the end of this month. The Montgomery Parks department's ongoing changes to the busy public road continue without any public process or input, or legal funding mechanism. Without even providing data results to the public regarding Phase 1, the department has announced it is moving to "Phase 2" of its "pilot project" to reduce the road's capacity by 50%, even as Montgomery County has approved thousands of new housing units in communities on both ends of the parkway.

Beginning Monday, October 17, 2022, the department plans to shift all traffic to one side of the parkway between Dorset Avenue and Arlington Road. That section has been operating for several months as one lane in each direction, through a crude "road diet" created by installing bollards. That diet ironically made the road more dangerous, by creating visual chaos that blocks the view of cyclists and pedestrians crossing the parkway. 

Little Falls Parkway is about to get even more dangerous in "Phase 2." The road will not only have but one lane operating in each direction, but both lanes will be crammed onto the northbound side of the parkway. There will be no median or barrier. This will place drivers in position for a head-on crash. It will also completely shut down the entire parkway if there is a crash or vehicle breakdown. These are two reasons why 2-lane roads are rarely built these days. 

Since the parkway is the sole major vehicular connection between downtown Bethesda and River Road, the dangerous new configuration poses a major threat to safety. Drunk drivers coming from downtown Bethesda at night will now be coming head-on into your lane, thanks to this crazy plan. Of course, placing speed bumps on the lower stretch of the parkway this summer showed that crazy is the County's M.O.

The southbound lanes of the parkway will be closed between Arlington and Dorset. Next spring, the Parks department says it will set up space for "walking and biking" on those lanes, even though there was virtually no one using the road for those purposes when it was entirely closed on weekends during the height of the pandemic. Of course, the pandemic was merely an excuse to implement the department and Montgomery County Council's semi-secret goal of closing the road entirely in the future. The Council even ordered the Planning Board to reverse its initial decision to end the road diet, despite many documented complaints of cut-through traffic in adjacent neighborhoods.

Spring will also bring "games, events, and tables with seating" to the shuttered southbound lanes of the parkway, the construction of which was funded by taxpayers decades ago for automobile use. The Parks department has not announced whether it plans to issue refund checks to County residents for seizing half of their roadway.

The Parks website states that traffic data that "provided the basis for moving to Phase 2...will be shared with the community on the project webpage." That data is nowhere to be found on the project page as of this writing - yet we are moving to Phase 2! No County official with oversight responsibility has objected to this lack of transparency and accountability.

  

Who benefits from this parkway plan? The public never asked for it. It's merely for ideological, political and profit purposes. We'll see the latter come into play when the Washington Episcopal School is someday redeveloped - likely after the Purple Line is extended to Westbard. 

"Games and events" in the southbound lanes will then be replaced either with buildings, or the setback zone for the new buildings, increasing the amount of buildable space for the developer - a developer who may be secretly pulling the strings for this parkway shrinkage right now. When the whole parkway is eventually closed, it may all become buildable space, since the County set the precedent of selling a piece of Little Falls Stream Valley Park to a private developer in 2011.

The cacophony of signs and bollards added to the parkway violates best practices of traffic engineering, which put limits on the number of signs and visual distractions that can be placed along a roadway. That's not surprising, as the changes are being driven by a handful of radical, "War on Cars" transportation deniers within the County Council, Planning Board and Parks department, not traffic engineers. Your elected officials don't care about you. They're implementing their agenda, not yours.

We, the public, are being put at risk, so that radicals and developers can use an expensive piece of taxpayer-funded infrastructure as their toddler tantrum sandbox. Forget the traffic engineers. Where are the adults in the room? 

Bethesda residents awakened by DC Water boil water alert

Many Bethesda residents received a rude awakening just after 2:00 AM this morning, when DC Water issued a boil water alert for several neighborhoods in Northeast Washington. A government alert, of the type that would be used if a tornado or foreign missiles were approaching, was inexplicably sent to cell phones in parts of Maryland as well as the District. Water in Bethesda is provided by the WSSC, not DC Water, and so there is no need for concern about the water supply in Bethesda this morning. There's also no concern if you are in Spring Valley, the Palisades, Chevy Chase or other parts of Northwest Washington.

Beyond the inconvenience of waking people with a false alarm in the middle of the night, the alert gaffe is inevitably going to create confusion. If you are new to Bethesda, for instance, you might assume DC Water is your provider, and be wasting time boiling water this morning. 

For any readers who actually live in Northeast Washington, the affected communities under the boil water advisory are: Edgewood, Brookland, Fort Lincoln, Woodridge, Queens Chapel, Michigan Park and North Michigan Park. Full information from DC Water is available here.

Are those Verizon salespeople going door-to-door in Bethesda fake?

Utility scams by phony utility workers going door-to-door are nothing new. This week, some in the Massachusetts Avenue corridor in Bethesda have reported that people claiming to be Verizon employees are ringing their doorbells. Wearing yellow safety vests, they ask if the homeowner has AT&T or Comcast service, and if they can "check some things." 

Are they really Verizon employees?

Surprisingly, Verizon says they actually are sending salespeople door-to-door, despite an ongoing pandemic. The utility says their sales representatives wear masks, stand 6' away from your door, and go through a daily "health check." If you buy the services they are selling, it will be a "touchless" transaction.

How can you know if they are actually sent from Verizon? They will have a badge with their name, a Verizon logo, and the name of the subcontractor who they actually work for, Verizon says. Verizon representative will also be wearing Verizon logo-apparel, hats and vests.

So look if that yellow vest actually has a Verizon logo, as well as the rest of their outfit. Badges are not exactly confidence-instilling, as anyone could create a fake Verizon badge with little effort. If you have any doubts, don't take any chances.

Police seeking video, tag number of white van following children in Bethesda

Montgomery County police continue to investigate the March 3 incidents in which two adults in a white van followed children in Bethesda. One took place near Wood Acres Elementary School along Cromwell Drive and Springfield Drive. The other near Pyle Middle School along Woodhaven Boulevard.

If you live on or near those streets in those areas, or live near Little Flower School, detectives are asking you to check any doorbell or other outdoor surveillance cameras you may have for footage of the white van and/or the incidents themselves. Witnesses and victims have described the occupants of the white van as an adult male and an adult female. 

If you have any evidence on your camera recordings, or any other information such as the tag number of the van, you are asked to contact Officer Natalie Gwin at Natalie.Gwin [at] montgomerycountymd [dot] gov.

White van following children in Bethesda

Montgomery County police have been notified by parents after their children were followed by strangers as they walked home from two different schools in Bethesda Wednesday afternoon. Families posted their accounts of the frightening incidents on neighborhood listservs yesterday.  

A white delivery van followed a child from a street behind Pyle Middle School around 4:00 PM yesterday, until he reached his home. At 5:15 PM, a white van of similar description began following two children near Wood Acres Elementary School. According to a family member posting online, a man and a woman exited the van, and began walking after the children on foot. When a third child met the others, the man and woman allegedly ran back to the van, got in, and sped away.

In both cases, the children reported that the occupants of the van yelled at them at least once during the pursuit. While the police will undoubtedly be looking for the van, share this with any parents you know, so that they will be aware of this potential danger. If you see suspicious activity or vehicles, report them to the police at 301-279-8000. However, if you see an actively-dangerous situation like those described above, call 911.