joining their voices to create a
special kind of prayer.
“We can be up there and look
out and people have tears in
their eyes,” Terrell said. When
she sings at c hurch, she feels the
Holy Spirit running through
her body.
But with health officials say-
ing “normal times” won’t r eturn
for a long time — if ever —
thanks to the novel coronavirus,
Terrell flipped on Facebook Live
on her grandson’s laptop. Like
many people, concern about
covid-19, the disease caused by
the virus, is keeping her at
home.
“Good morning everyone,”
she types to the 77 p eople online
at the start of the 10 a.m. Mass.
Usually chatty and vivacious,
Terrell online is mostly silent.
She says little else during the
SEE CHOIR ON C7BY MICHELLE BOORSTEINC
allie Terrell dresses up
just once a week now —
for church. It was Sun-
day morning and ser-
vices were starting, so Terrell
made her way in her ruffly blue
blouse, hoop earrings and done-
up short hair to the dining room
table, where she logged on to
her laptop and began another
Sabbath in her strange new
religious world.
Scouted by a Motown pro-
ducer as a teen, the stylish
71-year-old has always loved to
sing, but nowhere as steadily
and deeply as in St. Joseph
Catholic Church’s gospel choir
in Alexandria. In normal times,
she would be standing there
with them, all in their white
robes, on the maroon carpet at
the front of the barnlike church,KLMNO
METRO
SUNDAY, AUGUST 2 , 2020. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/REGIONAL EZ RE C
JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON
A look back at the
amazing life of the
namesake of Dupont
Circle’s Hillyer Place. C3LOCAL OPINIONS
The memory of Robert F.
Kennedy in Washington
deserves more than a
football stadium. C4OBITUARIES
Irene Pollin, 96, was a
longtime co-owner of the
Washington Wizards,79 ° 88 ° 94 ° 86 ° Capitals and Mystics. C8
8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.High today at
approx. 4 p.m.94
°
Precip: 25%
Wind: SSW
8-16 mphA D.C. teacher used his stimulus check to throw youths a line
A day after
Carmen Garner
drove across the
Washington
region to visit five
boys at their
homes, he is still
thinking of the
walk to one
child’s front door.
Outside of the rising sixth
grader’s apartment building, a
memorial marked the spotwhere a man was recently
murdered. A s Garner passed it,
he was reminded how some
children can’t play outside even
when there isn't a pandemic.
“I was almost in tears walking
by that thing,” he says. He knows
what it’s like to spend summers
stuck indoors as a child, staring
at screens to avoid looking at the
same walls. “I used to live in the
’hood and I never went outside.
People get shot out there. Peopleget killed out there. They get
arrested out there.”
Nope, as he saw it, nothing
good happened out there — with
one exception.
“I wouldn’t go outside, unless
it was to go fishing,” he says of
the trips he would take with his
cousin’s boyfriend, a man he
credits with saving his life. “I
remember every time I went
fishing as a kid. Every single
time.”When the D.C. public school
teacher received his economic
stimulus check, he could have
chosen to do anything with it:
pay down his mortgage, spend it
on his family, put it toward his
10-year-old son’s college fund.
He used it to create a nonprofit
that allows him to take children
from the region’s struggling
neighborhoods fishing.
“I said, ‘Why not spend the
stimulus money on somethingthat’s going to benefit kids, and
benefit our community?’ ” he
says. “ I was that kid on the step
waiting for someone to come
pick me up. Now, that’s what I’m
going to be doing. I’m going to
be picking these kids up.”
In the past few months,
millions of people across the
country have participated in the
protests that grew from George
Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis
SEE VARGAS ON C7Theresa
VargasBY ERIN COXWhen Maryland G ov. Larry Ho-
gan announced an all-of-the-
above strategy to conduct “a nor-
mal” election in November, he cast
it as a decision to maximize voter
access during the coronavirus
pandemic.
A massive backlash ensued.
Over the past three weeks, the
custodians of hundreds of tradi-
tional polling precincts have said
they will refuse to host voters, or
conditioned participating on the
government paying to deep-clean
and sanitize their churches or
community centers.
Thousands of veteran election
judges have dropped out, many of
them retirees whose age or health
conditions put them at h igh risk of
deadly complications if they con-
tract the coronavirus.
“I will not volunteer for an un-
necessary suicide mission,” said
Rebecca Wilson, 67, a chief elec-
tion judge from Prince George’s
County who has been a poll work-
er for 18 years.
As of Friday, even after 1,000
state workers took Hogan up on
the offer of two days paid leave in
exchange for staffing the polls in
November, roughly a third of
SEE ELECTION ON C6Hogan’s
election
plan sparks
a revolt
p-the-violence cookout on the
Fourth of July; a woman declared
dead even as her body remains
missing; a 13-year-old walking to
play basketball with his friends; a
71-year-old protecting her grand-
daughter.
Newsham blames the availabil-
ity of guns and contends that the
consequences for having or using
illegal firearms are not severe
enough to deter potential offend-
SEE GUN VIOLENCE ON C6in mid-July, a month earlier than
in 2019.
There are no simple explana-
tions. In c ourt papers, police attri-
bute some of the killings to feuds
between neighborhood crews, do-
mestic violence and disputes
among people who know each
other. Some victims were unin-
tended targets of gunfire on the
streets.
Among those slain were an
1 1-year-old boy at a sto-struggle to stave off the coronavi-
rus pandemic.
“I think it’s disturbing to all of
us to be over 100 homicides at t his
point in the year,” D.C. Police
Chief Peter Newsham said after
the District reached the 100 markTwo were shot in July, a particu-
larly deadly month, with an aver-
age of more than a killing a day.
T he focus on gun violence
comes as the District and several
other large American cities ex-
perience a rise in violence as theyBY PETER HERMANNA beloved school bus driver
who enjoyed making friends with
children from different cultures.
A young woman following her
mother into a career in the culi-
nary arts. A man killed nine days
after his father died of cancer.
These are three victims of the
gun violence that is fueling a ris-
ing homicide count in the District
for the third consecutive year.A look at 3 vital lives lost to D.C.’s gun violence
ONE MAN SLAIN DAYS AFTER FATHER’S D EATH
City passes 100 homicides a month earlier than in 2019
Harmonizing from home
Unable to congregate, a Virginia church choir’s members are reduced to live-streamed services
PHOTOS BY KATHERINE FREY/THE WASHINGTON POSTFROM TOP: Callie Terrell, a choir member at St. Joseph Catholic Church in
Alexandria, follows along during a live-streamed Mass last month. She has a
photo of the choir from the ’90s nearby and usually sings along — quietly.New cases in region
Through 5 p.m. Saturday, 2,011
new coronavirus cases were
reported in the District, Maryland
and Virginia, bringing the total
cases to 192,371.
D.C. MD.VA.
+79+1,019+ 913
12,205 89,365 90,801Coronavirus-related deaths
As of 5 p.m. Saturday:
D.C. MD.* VA.
+0 +13 +41
585 3,506 2,215* Includes probable covid-19 deathsCoronavirus: Maryland has tested
10% of each of its jurisdictions. C3BY HANNAH NATANSONMontgomery County health of-
ficials have ordered private
schools in the county to teach
students online-only this fall, a
move that sparked immediate
blowback online — including
from Maryland’s governor — and
follows a nationwide shift by pub-
lic schools toward virtual learn-
ing.
The county’s health officer, Tra-
vis Gayles, announced the deci-
sion late Friday evening, writing
that it would take effect immedi-
ately and continue through at
least Oct. 1. He cited climbing
novel coronavirus cases nation-
wide, in Maryland and in the
county. Gayles is one of the first
health officials in the United
States to require that private
schools shutter this fall.
Violating the order would
count as a misdemeanor, accord-
ing to a county news release.
Those who break the rule could
face up to one y ear in prison, a fine
of $5,0 00 or both.
SEE SCHOOLS ON C5Private
schools in
Montgomery
to go virtual
County will teach
online-only classes
through at least Oct. 1