The Washington Post - 13.03.2020

(lu) #1

B4 eZ re the washington post.friday, march 13 , 2020


BY DAN MORSE

Two men in their 20s were
indicted on rape counts in mont-
gomery County on Thursday in-
volving girls ages 14 and 11.
The suspects, ryan michael
Johnson, of Gaithersburg, and
Jonathan Coreas-Salamanca, of
Silver Spring, knew the alleged
victims, according to court re-
cords for each of the separate
cases. Both are being held in the
montgomery County Correction-
al facility without pretrial re-
lease.
Johnson, 23, is accused of
biting, slapping and choking a
14-year-old girl as he forced her
to perform sex acts, according to
court records. He was indicted
on 11 counts, including first-de-
gree rape and first-degree as-
sault.
His case dates to last summer,
police alleged in court records,
when a friend of the alleged
victim gave her Johnson’s phone
number and social media infor-
mation. The girl and Johnson
began communicating via online
messages that “were sexual in
nature,” a police affidavit states.
on Aug. 1, the teenager would
later tell detectives, she walked
outside from her mother’s apart-
ment in Gaithersburg. She said
she saw Johnson exit a black car
and walk toward her, according
to charging documents.
At some point, the two got into
the back seat of Johnson’s car. He
is accused of climbing on top of
the girl, biting her neck and
attacking her.
“She stated that she believed
suspect Johnson had his cell-
phone in his other hand and was
recording the act,” the police
affidavit says.
Two days later, on Aug. 3, the
girl was at her father’s residence,
where she told him what hap-
pened. He called police, accord-
ing to court records.


Detectives spoke with the girl
on Aug. 13. They also examined
records of Johnson’s Snapchat
account, according to the affida-
vit.
The court records do not ex-
plain why Johnson was not ar-
rested for another five months.
He had recently worked as a
kennel technician at a veterinary
hospital at the time of his arrest,
according to the records.
Coreas-Salamanca, 20, was a
student at montgomery Blair
High School in Silver Spring at
the time of his arrest last month.
He was indicted Thursday on
eight counts, including second-
degree rape and third-degree sex
offense. He is an unlawfully pres-
ent Salvadoran national, accord-
ing to Immigration and Customs
Enforcement officials, who have
lodged a detainer against him at
the montgomery County jail.
montgomery detectives built
their case against him early this
year by examining a cellphone
that belonged to an 11-year-old
girl, according to court records.
over a series of facebook mes-
sages, police allege, Coreas-Sala-
manca and the girl had d iscussed
sexual activity. The records also
do not explain the delay before
charges were filed.
The age of victims and sus-
pects can play a role in maryland
sex assault laws. A person can be
charged with second-degree
rape, for example, if the victim is
younger than 14 and the suspect
is four years older than the
victim, according to maryland
criminal attorneys.
online court records do not
list an attorney for Johnson. An
attorney for Coreas-Salamanca
couldn’t be reached for com-
ment.
[email protected]

Maryland


Two men charged with


raping girls ages 11, 14


montgomery county Police
Johnson, 23, left, and coreas-
salamanca, 20, were charged.

Authorities say suspects
communicated with
alleged victims online

BY DAN MORSE

A montgomery County police
tactical officer fatally shot a
21-year-old man i n Potomac early
Thursday morning while execut-
ing a “high-risk” search warrant
related to a firearms investiga-
tion, police officials said.
The slain man was identified
as Duncan Socrates Lemp, of the
12200 block of St. James road.
Police did not say whether he
was armed and did not explain
why he was shot.
About 4:30 a.m., members of
the police department’s Special
operations Division Ta ctical
Unit were serving the warrant in
that block when the shooting
occurred. The warrant was relat-
ed to “firearms offenses,” police
said in a news release.
“The facts and circumstances
of the encounter are still being
investigated by detectives from
the major Crimes Division,” po-
lice said in a statement. “The
involved officer has been placed
on administrative leave per stan-
dard protocol and will be identi-
fied at a later date.”
family for Lemp could not be
immediately reached.
[email protected]

Maryland

Potomac


man killed


in police


shooting


stocking up on groceries and pre-
paring to stay home for days and
possibly weeks, others insisted on
sticking to their usual routines,
albeit with caution as they waited
for government leaders to signal
that they have command over
what some fear is a potential
catastrophe.
“I’m old, I’ve had a good life
and I may die but I’ll be damned if
I’m going to throw away what life
I have to live,” said Jan Chastain,
81, of Silver Spring, as she walked
through Union Station, a surgical
mask that she had just procured
from a medical facility over her
face.
“I will take precautions,”
Chastain said, “but I’m not going
to stop myself from going out.”
Just after noon, Union Sta-
tion’s cavernous halls were de-
void of their lunchtime bustle
and snaking lines of travelers
heading out of town. “It’s dead,”
said a red Cap luggage handler,
declining to give her name, as she
sat and waited for a request for
help.
Cheryl Vestal, 65, was not look-
ing forward to the possibility of
exposing herself to germs as she
boarded a train back to New
Haven, Conn., after visiting her
grandson in Virginia. But she had
sanitary wipes in her bag and
planned to clean all surfaces she
could possibly touch.
“The rest is whatever — if
you’re going to get sick, you’re
going to get sick,” she said. “It’s
going to happen somewhere. It
could be my neighborhood, it
could be your neighborhood.
There’s not a lot anyone can do
about it.”
Announcements that pillars of
American life — public schools,
synagogues and churches, the
NCAA basketball tournament
and major League Baseball —
were shutting down only added
to the growing sense of unease.
What seemed surreal a couple of
days ago — a family walking
through Adams morgan, every-
one in surgical masks — now
seemed routine.
At the U.S. Capitol, guided
tours were halted Thursday after-
noon, including one that Shane
Carsrud, 40, a banker visiting
from Illinois, and his family were
supposed to attend. The Carsruds

local virus from B1

planned to race through the Li-
brary of Congress and National
Archives before those buildings
were closed to tourists, then drive
back to Illinois “before they close
down the borders,” he said.
He added that he was joking,
then chuckled. But who knows?
“We’ve never seen anything
like this,” he said.
A few blocks away, To dd
Washam, 37, a policy analyst,
sipped a coffee at an outdoor cafe
and said he was washing his
hands like everyone else and wip-
ing down the counters and door
handles at his house in Alexan-
dria.
But some precautions “seem
excessive,” Washam said, listing
the cancellation of parades and
sports tournaments as examples.
“What I feel anxious about is the
stock market and travel restric-
tions. I’d go on a cruise today. I
wouldn’t take my kids, of course,
but I’d go w ith my w ife. Why not?”
The sense of foreboding was
also common among owners of
restaurants, bars and other small
businesses, including Laurie Gill-
man, 53, whose East City Book-
shop on Pennsylvania Avenue SE
had a sign outside that read:
“Stockpiling!? We’ve got books
for that!”
In case her patrons are too
afraid to leave home, Gillman has
started a delivery service, an in-
novation she said is necessary to
make up for the thousands of
dollars in revenue she is losing
from canceled readings and other

book-related events.
“We’re just looking at every-
thing and trying not to panic,”
Gillman said. “It’s just all uncer-
tain.”
on H Street, To ny Tomelden,
the owner of the Pug, a popular
bar, planned to remain open
Thursday night even though a
nearby school had canceled a
fundraiser. Business has been
steady, he said, though he’s not
confident that will last.
“It’s scary, man,” Tomelden
said. “I don’t know if I’m being
irresponsible staying open, but if
I don’t stay open I don’t pay the
bills. my bartenders aren’t mak-
ing much money if we’re closed.”
By early afternoon Thursday,
michelle Poteaux, a co-owner of
Bastille, a french bistro that has
been operating for 14 years in
Alexandria, said she had served
only 15 patrons — down from her
usual 40.
“It’s all about the fear of the
unknown, people are really
scared,” she said of the decline,
adding that she has instructed
her hosts and servers to “welcome
guests but don’t be over-welcom-
ing.”
“Don’t shake hands,” she said.
“But if you do go w ash your hands
right away.”
Supermarkets and wholesalers
were having no trouble attracting
customers.
At a Costco in Northeast, a
woman shopping for toilet paper
bought two packages of 30 rolls —
normally just over $20 — because

she said she had seen similar
offerings online for more than
double that price.
At a Giant supermarket on
rockville Pike in montgomery
County, Christopher Shea, 37, a
stay-at-home dad, said he had
deleted his facebook and Twitter
accounts from his phone to shield
himself from virus anxiety.
“I couldn’t take it,” he said, as
he loaded his car with nearly
$400 in meals for his family.
He worried about how his chil-
dren would feel being limited to
their own backyard with school
being canceled. “School is the one
motivating thing that gets them
dressed and gets them out,” he
said, adding that the alternative
— going to school — is worrisome.
“There are so many kids, so close
together.”
At the Giant on o Street NW,
Ashesh Prasana, 33, a World Bank
economist, said he was taking the
crisis in stride until Thursday
morning when he took his sister
to Washington medStar Hospital
after she injured her finger.
In the emergency room, he
became alarmed when he said he
saw men and women in surgical
masks, coughing.
“It struck me that I might be
exposed,” he said as he leaned on
his cart that he was filling with
rice, bread and cans of beans. “I
don’t want to have to go out
anymore. If we have to stay in-
doors, who knows how long that
could be for?”
An aisle over, Zelda Litwin, 84,
was stocking up on green tea and
Dr Pepper for no other reason
than that it felt like a prudent step
to take.
“I’m not anxious,” she said.
“But I’m careful.”
Her friend, michael Jordan, 64,
a retired tow truck driver, waved
off any suggestion that he should
fret.
“Why should I worry?” he
asked. “There’s n othing we can do
about it. If it gets you, it gets you,
right?”
Across the region, routine ry-
thyms were disrupted.
At a church in the Kalorama
neighborhood of Northwest
Washington, a regularly sched-
uled pickup game of basketball
was short six players, forcing
those who showed up to huff-and-
puff their way through a full-
court matchup of four-on-four.
No one admitted to worrying
about skin-on-skin contact.
“I don’t know enough about
the virus, to be honest,” said
Bryan Weaver, 50, among those
who played.
on North Carolina Avenue SE,
the sign outside Christopher Her-
man’s house reads, “Please Don’t
feed the fears.”
As he stood on his stoop, Her-
man, a retired policy analyst, said
he put the sign up after President
Trump took office. But he said it
seems particularly relevant now,
as he tries to adjust to a future
that seems so uncertain.
“Who knows where all this
going,” he said before disappear-
ing back inside his house.
[email protected]

Donna st. george and Joe heim
contributed to this report.

‘It’s all about the fear of the unknown’


salwan georges/the washington Post
Hand sanitizer stands have become more abundant in public
places; this one is near the office of rep. James E. clyburn (D-s.c.).

N0

189

Arts & Style

Alan Alda: At 84 and suffering from Parkinson’s, the
legendary actor has an active social media presence,
is busier than ever and looking ahead to what’s next.

Travel

Destination Palm Springs: For over a century, the
desert resort town has been a favorite playground
for Hollywood celebrities and moguls. Today, thanks
to a collection of cultural attractions and events, it’s
emerging as a popular destination for non-celebrities,
too.

Business

Sick over pay in Silicon Valley: As coronavirus
spreads, white-collar contractors working for
Facebook, Google and other tech giants are unsure if
they’ll receive the same benefits the companies extend
to their full-time employees.

Sunday Coupons:

Save nearly $240 with coupons in the Post
Marketplace package of this Sunday’s Post!

Some stories may not run due to breaking news.

The Magazine

Discovering
home

A photographer


captures the


ever-shifting


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homeland.


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