The Washington Post - 29.08.2019

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METRO

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/REGIONAL EZ SU B

JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON

“No doors, no roof and a

95-horsepower V8”: When

your private ride is a

vintage fire engine. B3

VIRGINIA

A fourth attacker is

sentenced in the parking

garage beating of a black

man in Charlottesville. B4

OBITUARIES

Dawda Jawara led Gambia

to independence, serving

five terms as president

68 ° 79 ° 84 ° 77 ° before a 1994 coup. B6

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

High today at approx. 4 p.m.

84

°

Precip: 0% Wind: WNW 7-14 mph

BY LYNH BUI

AND JUSTIN JOUVENAL

A man high on PCP who or- dered an Uber pool ride fatally shot the driver and another passenger in “an extremely disturb- ing” double homicide, police said. Aaron Lanier Wilson Jr., 42, of Oxon Hill has been charged with first- and second-degree murder in the slaying of two men who previously had never met their alleged killer, according to Prince George’s County police. Wilson had called for a ride on

the app Tuesday evening, head- ing to his home on Indian Head Highway, said Felipe Ordono, captain of the police department’s c riminal investigations di- vision. Driver Beaudouin Tc hakounte, 46, picked Wilson up in the Oxon Hill area with passenger Casey Xavier Robinson, 32,

already in the silver Mercedes- Benz, Ordono said. “During the ride, something went wrong,” Ordono said. Within moments of being picked up, Wilson opened fire, killing Tc hakounte a nd Robinson about 9:45 p.m. before fleeing, police said. The shooting left the families of the dead devastated. Carole Tchatchoua, the mother of Tc hakounte’s four children, said the children went to the driveway to look for his car when they woke up Wednesday morn- SEE SHOOTING ON B4

Man charged in ride-hailing slayings

BY PETER HERMANN,

KEITH L. ALEXANDER

AND CLARENCE WILLIAMS

Margery Magill was on her reg- ular rounds walking dogs for resi- dents in Park View, her latest charge a tiny yellow pit-bull mix. She was headed back to an apartment building on Irving Street NW when she was killed Tuesday night by a man police believe was a stranger. For no reason authorities can immediately discern, a man re- peatedly stabbed the 27-year-old Magill about 8:45 p.m. and then

ran, t he District’s police chief s aid. Her screams of “Oh, no!” and “Help me!” alarmed a couple winding down a quiet night at home. They rushed outside and found the dog, sitting by itself, howling, its leash l oose. Then they saw Magill lying on her back, bloodied, her eyeglasses on the

sidewalk. Christopher Alan Chambers said he tried to revive her and then got help from a neighbor more skilled in CPR. Magill died a short time later at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, less than a third of a mile from where she was attacked in the 400 block o f Irving Street NW. Police said they arrested Eliyas Aregahegne, 24, later that night inside an apartment on Columbia Road NW and charged him Wednesday with first-degree murder w hile a rmed. Two law enforce- SEE STABBING ON B4

Park View killing appears random

Police say shooter killed Uber driver, passenger in Md. after hiring pickup

Man arrested in stabbing of dog walker, 27, didn’t know her, police say

BY FENIT NIRAPPIL

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) on Wednesday expressed con- fidence in the city agency that failed to act on reports of “life safety violations” at a rowhouse months before a fire tore through the building on Aug. 18 and killed two tenants, including a 9-year- old boy. Asked whether she was satis- fied with her government’s han- dling of the matter, she replied “no” but showed support for the official who runs the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Af- fairs (DCRA), which was respon- sible for investigating the building. “I think Director [Ernest] Chrappah has already put in some better management prac- tices so that the employees and communications among our agencies have backstops and checks,” Bowser told reporters after a groundbreaking for a development project. The fire that killed Fitsum Kebede, 40, and Yafet Solomon, 9, broke out in a two-story rowhouse in Brightwood Park that appeared to be an unlicensed rooming house, where tenants described a building partitioned into a dozen tiny rooms with shared bathrooms and kitchens. Firefighters encountered bars on exterior doors and windows and an interior door and metal gate blocking a hallway. Officials said there were no working smoke detectors. Most of the tenants were Ethiopian. City officials disclosed Tuesday that a D.C. police officer in March warned both the fire department and the DCRA that the building appeared to have numerous fire code violations and posed serious threats to life safety. Police had visited the building to resolve a dispute between the landlord and a tenant. Bowser said the officer “did exactly what he was supposed to do, not only acknowledge a bad situation but try to track it down until it was resolved.” But the issues were not resolved. The fire department did not act on the report because officials there assumed it was the respon- sibility of the DCRA, which en- forces the building code, D.C. City Administrator Rashad M. Young said this week. After five emails from the police officer, a DCRA investigator visited the house at 708 Kennedy St. NW two months later, in May. The inspector made three visits but could not gain entry, Young said. The inspector sent a letter to the owner and left a card but took no further action, he said. Chrappah said that in cases where investigators encounter such roadblocks, his agency can seek warrants to enter the prem- SEE FIRE ON B5

D.C. mayor

stands by

city agency

after blaze

BY FREDRICK KUNKLE

A top official in Virginia Beach has resigned following criticism of the city’s response to a mass shooting in its municipal offices. David L. Hansen, who oversaw day-to-day affairs as city manager, stepped down almost three months to the day after a city employee opened fire on col- leagues, killing 12. The gunman was then fatally shot by police. Hansen, in a letter to the city’s mayor, said his resignation was effective Wednesday. I n a separate email to city officials, Hansen called for unity as the city contin- ues to deal with the aftermath, including a criminal investigation by law enforcement and a separate investigation by an outside firm hired by the City Council. “Our most recent tragedy will take all our energy, strength and patience so we can walk the long path of recovery ahead,” Hansen said in his email. “You define your destiny. You determine your work environment. You are account- able for your own actions. I don’t believe in pointing fingers, I believe in rolling up our sleeves and figuring out how to solve our challenges. I encourage you to do SEE VIRGINIA BEACH ON B5

Va. Beach

top o∞cial

quits amid

criticism

BY JUSTIN WM. MOYER

An organization that promotes development in a fast-gentrifying District neighborhood is defend- ing a letter critical of homeless encampments that some advo- cates called insensitive. NoMa Business Improvement District President Robin-Eve Jas- per wrote in the public letter that “conditions are worsening” for pe- destrians who use underpasses beneath railroad tracks that bi- sect the neighborhood. The letter notes increasing reports of ha- rassment and aggressive panhan- dling by those living in the encampments. “Used and bloody hypodermic needles and other drug parapher- nalia, rotting food, trash, broken glass, public nudity, prostitution, sales of illegal drugs, and human urine and feces are encountered by those whose routes take them by the encampments and pervade the s pace in which e ncamped i ndi- viduals are living,” Jasper w rote. The NoMa Business Improve- ment District, created by the D.C. Council in 2007, is funded by grants and a tax assessment on properties in a 35-block area roughly west and north of Union Station. Railroad tracks cut through t he eastern part o f NoMa, creating underpasses in the neigh- SEE HOMELESS ON B2

Criticism of

homeless

camps

stirs outcry

In a photo taken on his first birthday, Whitaker Weinburger sits in a h igh chair, his bare c hest streaked with chocolate f rom a cupcake that his o lder sister h olds up to his mouth. “He was still eating then,” h is mother, Erin Weinburger, recalls. She refers to that moment as “before the beginning.” Weeks after that picture w as snapped, she took the 1-year-old f or a blood test to find out whether he shared his older sister’s t ree nut allergy. S oon after came a nighttime call f rom Whitaker’s pediatrician,

asking whether he was bleeding, because his results s eemed o ff. He wasn’t, so the family scheduled a follow-up appointment. Two days later, before t hey could get to that a ppointment, Whitaker stopped moving and h is parents rushed him to Children’s National Medical Center in Washington. There, he received a blood transfusion, and doctors eventually discovered what was wrong. They diagnosed Stage 4 neuroblastoma after detecting cancer on his adrenal gland. “It was awful,” Erin recalls of that day. S he was a lone when she found out. She works as a nanny, a nd her husband, Seth Weinburger, is a judicial assistant for a federal judge.

That d ay, he was out o f town officiating a t a family wedding, s o she waited to tell him. “It was awful,” she says again before s ettling o n a different word. “It was terrifying.” Don’t w orry. T his is not a story about loss, at l east not entirely. The Weinburger family has l ost plenty — sleep, work and t he ability to comfortably dismiss a stomachache as just a stomachache. This column is a bout what the last three years have b een like for them. It’s a bout looking closely a t what Whitaker has gone through to better understand what we are seeing when photos of him pop u p on our social SEE VARGAS ON B2

Theresa

Vargas

FAMILY PHOTO

‘Incredible surprise’

awaits this survivor

Whitaker Weinburger, who loves the Transformer Bumblebee, has battled cancer his whole life. When he turns 4 , he’ll find his neighborhood filled with yellow cars, crossing guards in costumes and scores of people cheering.

Workers stopped trying to inspect house where deadly fire later occurred