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WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 , 2022. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/LOCAL EZ RE B

JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON

The founder of Checkbook

magazine retires after

decades of dishing out

D.C.-area ratings. B3

VIRGINIA

An 18-year-old is fatally

stabbed during a brawl

outside an Alexandria

shopping center. B5

OBITUARIES

Activist and writer Hazel

Henderson spent decades

pushing for environmental

60 ° 65 ° 68 ° 65 ° and social change. B6

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

High today at

approx. 3 p.m.

68

°

Precip: 20%

Wind: E

7-14 mph

BY MARISSA J. LANG

AND JUSTIN WM. MOYER

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser first ran for

office in 2014 on an ambitious homeless-

ness platform: She vowed to eliminate it

from the District in 10 years.

Eight years later, as Bowser (D) seeks a

third term, homelessness in D.C. is at its

lowest in recent history, driven down

largely by significant strides in address-

ing family homelessness. But among indi-

viduals and unaccompanied youths, the

problem has proved harder to rein in.

Many single adults in the system say

they do not receive adequate support

from caseworkers or city agencies to

navigate the complex web of services that

D.C. seeks to provide. Often, Washingto-

nians who experience homelessness re-

quire more than just housing help — they

might need medical care, mental health

services or employment assistance,

among other things.

Sprawling homeless encampments,

which city officials say multiplied during

the pandemic, dot the District. On Mon-

day, police said, a man was fatally shot at a

small encampment at Thomas Circle

along one of the District’s main down-

town thoroughfares — an incident that

has fanned concerns about rising violent

crime and the impact of encampments on

their housed neighbors. Meanwhile,

housing affordability programs meant to

stave off eviction and keep residents in

their homes have sunset as the city rolls

back pandemic emergency measures.

That has left hundreds of families uncer-

tain how they will be able to continue to

afford rent in a rapidly gentrifying city.

Bowser said in an interview that her

initial goals of ending homelessness — for

families, veterans and, eventually, every-

SEE HOMELESSNESS ON B4

In D.C., headway on homelessness

Bowser has overseen

strides, but high cost of

housing impedes goals

I used to shop at

Home Depot. It

was my go-to

store for DIY

projects. Turned a

hollow door and

two sawhorses

into a desk. Put

up shelves. Made

a birdhouse. My feelings of

satisfaction with a job done well

enough extended to the

hardware store. It was a fun

place just to roam the isles.

Then, on Monday, I learned

that Home Depot had donated

thousands of dollars to the

political campaign of Rep. Elise

Stefanik (N.Y.). She’s one of the

Republicans whose campaign

advertisements have echoed the

white-supremacist “great

replacement” conspiracy theory.

The wacky notion — that a

scheme is afoot in this country

to replace White people with

people of color — allegedly

inspired a white supremacist to

kill 10 people at a supermarket

in a predominantly Black

neighborhood in Buffalo.

And inspired another white

supremacist to kill 23 people in

a predominantly Hispanic area

in El Paso.

SEE MILLOY ON B3

Support businesses that

truly support racial justice

Courtland

Milloy

BY SPENCER S. HSU

Defense attorneys for longtime

Proud Boys leader Henry “En-

rique” Tarrio and U.S. prosecutors

released 22 minutes of video on

Tuesday that recorded his move-

ments in Washington on the eve of

the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack,

including his meeting in an under-

ground parking garage with Stew-

art Rhodes, founder of the extrem-

ist group Oath Keepers.

The existence of the video and

the interest of FBI and House in-

vestigators in it have been report-

ed previously — including in Tar-

rio’s indictment in March on

charges of conspiring to attack

Congress that day — but clips of

the recording had not been made

public.

They show Tarrio smoking ciga-

rettes, saying he is worried about

being stopped by police and eager

to leave town, but lingering at the

Hall of the States garage near Cap-

itol Hill to shake hands and speak

with Rhodes and Rhodes’s lawyer.

Also present at the garage meeting

were leaders of two right-wing

pro-Trump groups: Joshua Ma-

cias, a scheduled speaker the fol-

lowing day, and Bianca Gracia, a

Jan. 6 event organizer with White

House ties.

“I feel like I’m a fugitive,” Tarrio

says as he is driven underground

to avoid being seen at street-level,

according to the video. “I’m going

to stay close [to D.C.] just to make

sure my guys are okay, tomorrow. I

got a lot of stuff to do tomorrow,”

he adds later.

The video was recorded by a

documentary team embedded

with the Proud Boys, and six clips

were released — one by the gov-

ernment and five by the defense.

The video begins with Tarrio’s re-

lease from the D.C. jail. Tarrio had

been detained days earlier by D.C.

police for a separate incident —

the burning of a Black Lives Mat-

ter banner stolen from a D.C.

church in December 2020 after a

different pro-Trump rally — and

ordered to leave town before later

pleading guilty and completing a

four-month jail term earlier this

year.

The new videos were released

by U.S. District Judge Timothy J.

Kelly in Tarrio’s ongoing effort to

win bond in his separate Jan. 6-re-

lated prosecution. The move

comes at a delicate time in the

case, as a scheduled Aug. 8 trial

date could be slipping for Tarrio

and four co-defendants alleged to

be his top lieutenants.

On Tuesday, Kelly emerged

from a closed-door hearing saying

co-defendant Dominic J. Pezzola

— who has pleaded not guilty to

breaking through the first win-

dow at the Capitol using a stolen

SEE TARRIO ON B5

Video of

Jan. 5

meeting

released

Leader of Proud Boys

met with Oath Keepers

founder and others

BY JUSTIN GEORGE

Metro will bring back 64 of its

7000 -series rail cars over the

summer while transit engineers

work toward automating daily

wheel inspections to restore

60 percent of its fleet.

The Washington Metrorail

Safety Commission, an independ-

ent oversight agency, revealed

details Tuesday of Metro’s plans

for restoring nearly 750 of the

transit agency’s 1,300 rail cars.

Their absence since October,

when a federal safety investiga-

tion uncovered a wheel defect,

has led to a seven-month train

shortage and reduced service.

The first part of Metro’s two-

part restoration plan last week

provided the agency with good

news amid a turbulent stretch as

Metro continues to have safety

failures. A recertification lapse

involving about half of the rail

operators resulted in the resigna-

tions of General Manager Paul J.

Wiedefeld and Metro Chief Oper-

ating Officer Joseph Leader on

May 16.

Metro officials are hoping to fix

the problems while eyeing new

leadership later this summer in

hopes it will improve the agency’s

safety culture. No timeline was

provided for when Metro would

return the bulk of its idled cars.

At its monthly meeting Tues-

day, safety commission chief ex-

ecutive David L. Mayer said Met-

ro must stick to the plan it

submitted to the commission last

week to get the 7000-series cars

back into service. The commis-

sion has approved a plan that

would allow Metro to bring back

cars that have their wheel sets

inspected each day to monitor for

a rare defect that widens the

distance between wheels on their

axle.

“Metrorail is required to follow

all aspects of its plan, including

the frequent back-to-back inspec-

tions in Metrorail shops, careful

control of the rail cars, determin-

ing the required number of per-

sonnel across the Metrorail or-

ganization to execute the plan

SEE METRO ON B2

Metro will soon reinstate 64 rail cars

NO TIMELINE FOR REMAINDER OF 7000 SERIES

Work continues on automating daily inspections

MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

BY JULIE ZAUZMER WEIL

Ballots are already in voters’

mailboxes and tensions are high

between the four Democratic

candidates running for mayor of

Washington. Muriel E. Bowser,

seeking a third term, has sparred

with D.C. Council members Rob-

ert C. White Jr. and Trayon White

Sr. and former neighborhood

official James Butler in a slew of

debates leading up to the June 21

Democratic primary. At the lat-

est forum Monday night, spon-

sored by the Ward 6 Democrats

and moderated by ABC7’s Sam

Ford, the candidates rehashed

their differences on policing,

schools and other major issues.

On crime

Bowser and Butler accused

Robert White and Trayon White

of diverting funds from police at

a cost to public safety, with

Butler calling the two council

members “defund-the-police

Democrats.”

“I may be the only one — a nd

Mr. Butler, perhaps — w ho is

willing to include policing in that

comprehensive approach” to

crime, Bowser said. “I hear the

words ‘streamlined policing.’

What that means is defunding

policing for two years.” (The “two

years” reference was to the coun-

cil’s 2020 decision to reduce the

police budget by about 2 percent,

a cut that led the department to

SEE DEBATE ON B5

Mayoral candidates debate housing, schools, crime

STEFANI REYNOLDS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST; JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST;

MARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POST; JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: D.C. mayoral candidates Muriel

E. Bowser, Trayon White Sr., James Butler and R obert C. White Jr.

A homeless encampment sits blocks from the Federal Reserve in D.C. in April. M ayor Muriel E.

Bowser’s administration is working to clear such encampments and place occupants in apartments.