The Washington Post - 20.10.2019

ers union, last month. She grew louder, her

voice rising with each word: “From this day

forward, we commit that not one more

school, not one more hospital, not one more

post office, not one more grocery store —

should close o n our w atch!”

Dignitaries from across West Virginia

— and union leaders from across the

co untry — had arrived at the end of this

block to celebrate the construction of

Renaissance Village, a mixed-use com-

plex that officials hope will spark a revi-

talization of this dying town. And more

than that, they’re pinning their hopes on

it attracting more teachers to the McDow-

ell County school system, whose ills are

exacerbated by a revolving door of novice

SEE WELCH ON C7

The ceremony had the feel of a church

service.

Standing at the end of a block lined

mostly with empty storefronts, officials

wielded a crackly PA system, their voices

carrying over the din of coal trucks that

rumbled through the town. They stood in

the shadow of a half-constructed building

whose workers paused to take in the spec-

tacle.

“That is our belief: that small towns can

thrive again, that all children regardless of

demography or geography can thrive,” s aid

Randi Weingarten, president of the Ameri-

can Federation of Te achers, a national teach-

BY MORIAH BALINGIT

IN WELCH, W.VA.

KLMNO

METRO

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/REGIONAL EZ RE C

JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON

Remembering soprano

Lillian Evanti, who drew

international fame and

fought racism at home. C3

LOCAL OPINIONS

“A Child’s Room” at the

NRA’s National Firearms

Museum is a grotesque

and shameless tableau. C4

OBITUARIES

New Yorker cartoonist

Dana Fr adon skewered

plutocrats, hucksters,

56 ° 58 ° 59 ° 57 ° politicians and media. C8

8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.

High today at

approx. 2 p.m.

59

°

Precip: 70%

Wind: NE

8-16 mph

BY ERIN COX,

RACHEL CHASON

AND SCOTT CLEMENT

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s

popularity has dipped from re-

cord-high territory, but residents

still overwhelmingly approve of

his performance — so much so

they favored him over a well-es-

tablished Democratic senator in

a hypothetical matchup, a Wash-

ington Post-University of Mary-

land poll finds.

Nearly a year into his second

term, 64 percent of Maryland

adults give the Republican gov-

ernor a positive approval rating,

down from a high of 71 percent

last year. Even with the decrease,

Hogan’s approval remains better

than the high-water mark for any

of his three predecessors.

In a state where Democrats

outnumber Republicans 2 to 1,

Hogan — who is term-limited —

continues to draw support from

a broad coalition, including 8 in

10 registered Republicans, about

7 in 10 independents and 6 in 10

Democrats.

The strength of his political

capital is borne out in a hypo-

thetical 20 22 matchup against

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.),

the poll finds.

Were they running against

each other in a U.S. Senate race

held today, Hogan would hold a

lead over Van Hollen, who was

elected to the Senate in 2016.

The poll, conducted by The

SEE POLL ON C5

BY IAN DUNCAN

christiansburg, va. — Retir-

ees Susie and Paul Sensmeier

stood outside of their front door

Friday, watching as a small drone

zipped over their neighborhood

and headed for their rambler.

The aircraft — operated by

Wing, an offshoot of Google’s

parent company — approached

with a high-pitched whine, hov-

ered in the clear sky above their

front lawn and gently lowered a

FedEx box containing a new puffy

vest for Susie.

Across the street, a senior Fed-

Ex executive looked on. He’d

brought his children to watch, he

said, history being made.

Drones have delivered medical

samples and burritos in the Unit-

ed States before, but Friday’s

deliveries were a milestone for a

burgeoning industry. T he compa-

nies involved in the drop at the

Sensmeiers’ home and others to

families nearby were the first to

make commercial deliveries to

homes.

“I love new things,” Susie Sens-

meier, 81, said after the drone had

departed for Wing’s base in a

nearby business park. “New tech-

nology. A new vest. New experi-

ences. You don’t get a lot of those

at my age.”

Established delivery compa-

nies and start-ups alike have

SEE DRONES ON C2

BY PETER HERMANN

After a groundskeeper work-

ing for the D.C. government was

robbed and fatally shot while on

his lunch break last week, his

father drove m ore t han 200 miles

from North Carolina to identify

and claim the body.

His wife of 46 years died while

he was in the District.

Morris K. Williams Sr. has

returned to Henderson, N.C., to

bury his son, w ho d ied i n the Oct.

10 attack at Potomac Gardens,

and his wife, who died Oct. 11 of

complications from a stroke.

The deaths 200 miles and a

day apart of Marcus Williams,

36, and his mother, Janet Louise

Perry Williams, 62, forced a dou-

ble funeral that had been sched-

uled for Saturday at Fork Chapel

Missionary Baptist Church, out-

side Henderson, a rural town

along Interstate 85 less than an

hour’s drive from the state capi-

tal.

“It’s hard to understand,” said

Paul Crews Jr., part-owner of

Davis-Royster Funeral Service,

which is taking care of arrange-

ments. Crews knew Marcus Wil-

liams in high school; his aunt

knows the elder Williams.

“We’ve done double funerals

before, but they’re usually both

natural causes,” Crews said. “One

of these d eaths w as quite sudden.

It’s a lot different.... We’ve had

people calling from all over, old

classmates, old friends.”

The elder Williams, 64, who

works at a factory assembling

truck parts, spent the past week

making arrangements. He said

his wife had suffered a stroke

several years ago, recently be-

came seriously ill and was in

hospice care. He had to tear

himself away from her bedside

after his son was killed and then

turn around and drive back to

North Carolina when he learned

she had died.

Marcus Williams was shot

about 12:40 p.m. at the Potomac

Gardens public housing complex

near Capitol Hill. He worked for

the D.C. Housing Authority and

police s aid he was a ssaulted a s he

ate lunch while sitting in his car,

parked in the 1200 block of

I Street SE.

Surveillance video made pub-

lic by police shows that Williams

was in the passenger seat and

had the door open into the street

when a man approached and

pointed a gun at him with two

outstretched arms. Williams got

out, with his right arm up, and

the two appear to scuffle. Wil-

SEE WILLIAMS ON C6

CAROLYN VAN HOUTEN/THE WASHINGTON POST

A store of stories

Visitors explore the newly renovated historic Seneca Store

during a special event in Montgomery County. Story, C5

Poll: Hogan

has support

for possible

Senate bid

Drones

set out for

deliveries

in Va. town

Double tragedy for D.C. man’s family

Slain groundskeeper’s

mother dies a day later

of stroke complications

FedEx, Walgreens join

Wing for nation’s first

commercial drop-offs

GOVERNOR POPULAR

ACROSS PARTY LINES

Van Hollen trails in

hypothetical ’22 matchup

Slaying of

caregiver

is felt far

beyond D.C.

Three minutes.

That’s how long

Lekelefac Fonge

was supposed to

be gone.

His cousin

Beatrand Fally

Bezezuh had

given Fonge a ride

that day because his car had

broken down at the end of his

shift as a caretaker and he

needed to get his client, Devon

Miler, home.

Bezezuh says he picked the

two up in Lanham, Md., and

drove them to the rowhouse in

Northeast Washington where

Miler lived.

“How was your day today?” he

recalls Miler asking during the

drive.

“It was good,” he told him.

“How was your day?”

To an outsider, that exchange

might seem nothing more than a

simple conversation. To Bezezuh,

it was a testament to Fonge.

When the 27-year-old home

health aide first started working

with the 24-year-old with

autism, Miler was mostly

nonverbal, Bezezuh says. But the

two practiced pronouncing

phrases such as “Good morning”

and “See you tomorrow,” and

Fonge took Miler with him to

friends’ birthday parties and

baby showers to socialize.

“Everybody in the family,

everyone knew Devon,” Bezezuh

says. “He treated his client as a

blood brother. They would eat off

the same plate.”

When they got to Miler’s

rowhouse that day, Fonge told

his cousin he just needed to walk

Miler inside. He asked him to

wait in the car.

“I’ll be back in three minutes,”

Bezezuh recalls him saying.

Bezezuh says he was still

waiting when a vehicle pulled in

front of his. He saw two men

dressed in black step out, walk

toward the house and, when the

front door opened, go inside. A

short while later, he says, he

noticed a woman who was

walking her dog start running.

He lowered his window, and

that’s when he heard the last

gunshot.

When he walked inside the

rowhouse, he saw what D.C.

police would later describe:

Fonge and Miler had both been

fatally shot.

Police later arrested Davon

Peyton, 27, of Alexandria and

charged him with first-degree

murder while armed. According

to witness statements in an

arrest warrant, Peyton and his

brother went to the house on

Oct. 9 so the latter could pay

back money he owed for candy

SEE VARGAS ON C6

Theresa

Vargas

Janet

Williams

Marcus

Williams

rebuilding THE village

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL S. WILLIAMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST

TOP: Kaylee Stanley, 8 , eats a snack at her home in Welch, W.Va. She attends

Welch Elementary School, where nearly 70 percent of students come from low-

income families. ABOVE: Officials gather to celebrate a development that they

hope will solve one of the problems faced by McDowell County: a lack of teachers.