SATURDAy, MARCH 7 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST eZ m2 B3
of the house in the 800 block of
Dolley Madison Boulevard, the
county fire and rescue
department said.
All seven occupants got out
safely, the department said.
The fire department later said
the home was being remodeled,
making it hard for firefighters to
get to some areas and deal with
the blaze. One person was taken
to a hospital for an evaluation,
fire officials said.
Authorities said the fire was
“accidental in nature and started
in the basement.”
The cause of the three-alarm
fire was “an electrical event with
the wiring to the air handler.”
Officials said it “then spread to
ordinary combustibles” that
were nearby.
— Martin Weil and Dana Hedgpeth25 guns are stolen
from shop in ViennaTwenty-five guns were stolen
from a firearms store in Vienna,
according to police.
The guns were taken about
6 a.m. Monday from a store in
the 300 block of Maple Avenue
East, Vienna police said.
— Dana HedgpethmArylAnDMan escapes cuffs and
steals car, police sayPolice in Maryland said a man
escaped Friday after slipping out
of handcuffs.
Prince George’s County police
said they were looking for Shawn
Addison, 19, o f the District, who
escaped from a police station a t
1:45 p.m. He then took a gray
To yota RAV4 that h ad been left
running nearby, according to
police.
Authorities said they l ost sight
of him on Southern Avenue. He
was not thought to be armed,
police said. He had been arrested
in connection with being in
possession of a stolen car, police
said.
— Justin Wm. MoyerVIrgInIAFire causes damage
worth $3.5 millionAn intense fire that broke out
Monday night at a large house in
the McLean area of Fairfax
County caused about $3.5 million
in damages, officials said.
Flames tore through the roofloCAl DIgestVIrgInIA
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dC-3 (fri.): 2-1-9
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5 Card Cash: 7C-10s-JH-5s-6dlotterIesone who was getting their hair
cut,” Newsham said.
After the shooting, the gunmen
fled in a silver minivan.
The chief said two victims went
to a firehouse f or help, apparently
in nearby Prince George’s County.
“We had two walk-in shooting
victims, one adult, one child,” s aid
Jennifer Donelan, the spokes-
woman f or the Prince George’s fire
and rescue service. The two went
to a firehouse on Central Avenue.
Vito Maggiolo, a spokesman f or
the D.C. fire and E MS department,
said D.C. EMS personnel t ook four
to hospitals.
The 6200 block of Dix Street
intersects Eastern Avenue N E, the
border between the District and
Prince George’s.
One of the wounded men was in
surgery Friday night and in criti-
cal but stable condition, police
said.
[email protected]
[email protected]BY CLARENCE WILLIAMS
AND MARTIN WEILSix people, including a small
boy, were shot and wounded Fri-
day evening in Northeast Wash-
ington when three armed men
opened fire in a barber shop, the
police said.
The child was grazed on a hand,
and none of the others’ wounds
were thought to be life-threaten-
ing, the police said. They i ncluded
four men and a woman who is
related to the boy, according to
police.
tHe DIstrICt
3 men fire in
barbershop,
injuring 6
BY FENIT NIRAPPILFormer D.C. Council member
Harry Thomas Jr. is back in city
political circles, eight years after
he went to prison for stealing tax-
payer dollars m eant f or children.
Thomas was sworn in Thursday
to fill a vacant leadership post in
the D.C. Democratic Party, repre-
senting h is former Ward 5 district.
He i s a scion o f a family w ith a deep
history in city politics; his father,
Harry Thomas S r., held the Ward 5
council s eat for 12 years.
The younger Thomas resigned
from the council in 2012, after
being c harged with embezzlement
and t ax fraud.
Several local leaders embraced
his return to city politics this
week, saying he deserves a second
chance, while others said his
crimes disqualify him. Thomas
said he is trying to give back t o the
community h e betrayed.
“I just think i f we l ive in a world
that doesn’t redeem people, what
kind of world do we live in?” he
asked in an interview. “Once peo-
ple pay their debt to society, they
should be given a fair opportunity
to come b ack, a nd that’s really why
I’m staying involved.”
All eight political wards in the
District have a Democratic com-
mitteeman and committeewom-
an, elected by voters in the Demo-
cratic primary.
Romaine Thomas, the former
council member’s mother and a
longtime school principal, is Ward
5’s committeewoman. Harry
Thomas Jr. ran uncontested for
the o ther p osition a fter t he person
elected in 2 018 stepped down.
Ursula Higgins, a neighbor-
hood commissioner in Ward 5,
called Thomas’s r eturn “fantastic.”
“Yes, he has had things he has
done in the past, and he has paid
the price for his actions,” Higgins
said. “But I also think he has the
heart and desire for the city to go
in a positive direction.”
Other former constituents said
Thomas can find redemption —
but n ot through p olitics.
“There’s no way he can redeem
the way he m ismanaged t he p ublic
trust,” said Kathy Henderson, a
former neighborhood commis-sioner and council candidate. “He
came to office for the purpose of
concocting a scheme to steal from
children.”
T homas pleaded guilty after
prosecutors accused him of steal-
ing taxpayer money intended for
nonprofits serving children to in-
stead pay for a luxury SUV, expen-
sive trips and exotic shoes.
Thomas’s incarceration ended
in 2015. On Friday, Thomas de-
scribed his criminal conviction as
a “bump in the road” and “one
chapter that does not define my
life.”
His mother said her son has a
right to serve his city and redeem
the f amily name.
“We are a bedrock for this com-
munity,” said Romaine Thomas,
90.
Thomas was among several
new faces in D.C. politics brought
down by political scandal earlier
this decade.
Former council chair Kwame
Brown, who resigned after a bank
fraud conviction, now hosts a po-
litical talk show on Facebook. For-
mer at-large council member Mi-chael Brown, who went to prison
for taking bribes, has said he is
considering running for office
again this year.
The most recent politician to do
wrong and attempt a comeback is
former Ward 2 council member
Jack Evans, who filed t o run for his
old s eat days after r elinquishing it,
when he was facing expulsion by
his peers o ver ethics violations. He
was t he subject of a federal investi-
gation but has not been charged
with a crime.
Evans (D) faced a hostile recep-
tion at his first appearance at a
candidate forum Thursday.
Harry Thomas, in contrast,
eased his way back into politics.
He worked on Dionne Reeder’s
unsuccessful 2018 council cam-
paign and has done consulting
work for local businesses. He told
The Washington Post he has also
been advocating for criminal jus-
tice reform and against prison la-
bor.
Thomas did not rule out run-
ning for his o ld seat if it becomes
vacant.
[email protected]tHe DIstrICt
Former lawmaker who embezzled funds reenters politics
BY CLARENCE WILLIAMSAs she stood on church steps,
Melissa Laws clapped boldly and
loudly led a chorus of family,
neighbors a nd strangers Thursday
in singing Stevie Wonder’s “Happy
Birthday” to celebrate her son
turning 14.
Malachi Lukes would not hear
those verses. He lost his life Sun-
day, when the 13-year-old was fa-
tally shot alongside a friend in his
neighborhood.
Thursday night’s crowd assem-
bled outside the Lincoln Congre-
gational Te mple in the Shaw
neighborhood of Northwest
Washington — which houses the
Shaw Community Center — with
lighted candles in vigil. Minutes
before she sang, Laws gripped a
set of sky blue and white balloons
in her s on’s h onor before r eleasing
them into the night.
For Laws, those seemed like m o-
ments of relief. Since Sunday, she
has had hours that have left her
heartbroken and mostly speech-
less, she l ater said in a n interview.
Somehow, s he found a few pow-
erful words of thanks a nd thought
as the birthday w ishes subsided.
“Thank you for all of y our
prayers, c ondolences, s upport, the
love for Malachi,” Laws saidthrough tears. “This is exactly
what he would h ave wanted.”
“Please don’t l et M alachi’s d eath
be in vain.”
His mother’s plea was a refrain
spoken throughout a mournfulprayer service before the vigil,
where more than 2 00 people
packed the church sanctuary in a
display of love and support for
Malachi’s mother, sister, aunt and
a large extended family. Laws is
the program director at the com-
munity center, where her son and
other youths addressed violence
that surrounds their neighbor-
hood.
D.C. police reported that Mala-
chi was shot in the neck Sunday
afternoon as he walked to play
basketball with friends and a per-
son fired in the 600 block of S
Street NW. A second teenager also
was wounded but survived, police
said.
Malachi also was known for be-
ing one of two teenagers held in
handcuffs by a Metro transit offi-
cer in June 2019, an incident that
spurred him and his mother to
speak out about how police often
interact with youth. The incident
scarred Malachi, his mother said,
and caused him to lose sleep and
become withdrawn from the hu-
miliation of being handcuffed onthe s tation platform.
During the ceremony, Shaw
Community Center Executive Di-
rector Sudi West c alled all o f Mala-
chi’s friends and contemporaries
to the stage to show the connec-
tion among young people, united
both in their grief but also the
promise of their y outh.
One by one, more than 75 teen-
agers filed past Laws, who sat on
the c hurch altar. Y oung ladies held
hands in support; most of the
young male faces showed no signs
of shaving.
Many o f their eyes w ere swollen
from crying.
Eighth-grader Arja’e Scott
spoke gently into a microphone
and described the p ressure s he f elt
to be strong for her friends and
family w ho are u pset.
“I’m not strong enough to keep
telling them I’m okay, when I’m
not for real, for real. I’m trying to
be and it’s hard,” Arja’e, 13, said.
“Everybody knows he was a good
person, he loved them and we
loved him back. I want to tell him
happy birthday.”West, who quoted the words of
the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,
that “our lives begin to e nd t he d ay
we become silent about things that
matter,” challenged the District’s
adults to address the flow of guns
that fuels violence in the commu-
nity and to help steer youth from
destructive paths. He asked the
crowd to let Malachi’s life and
death become a legacy t o change.
“We cannot remain silent. We
won’t r emain s ilent about the daily
injustices,” West said. “A s his life
ends, we begin to speak out.”
Other speakers reminded
mourners that Malachi’s name
carried religious and symbolic
meaning that they could use to
learn lessons from this loss.
The Rev. Dexter Nutall said the
name Malachi holds biblical
meanings of “angel” and “messen-
ger” a s he turned to L aws.
“Surely, he was your angel,”
Nutall said. “But tonight, he is our
messenger, and the m essage Mala-
chi is speaking tonight is for
peace.”
[email protected]tHe DIstrICt
Mourners gather to celebrate 14th birthday of boy killed in Shaw shooting
JaHI CHIKwendIu/tHe wasHIngton Post
Melissa Laws, left, the mother of Malachi Lukes, is comforted by
her sister, Natasha Muhammad, on Thursday at a memorial service
and candlelight vigil for Malachi, who was about to turn 14.The gunfire broke out shortly
after 6 p.m. at Snap’s barbershop
in the 6200 block o f Dix Street N E.
No motive was immediately
known, D.C. Police Chief PeterNewsham said in a briefing at the
scene.
“It looks like the victims in this
case were in the barbershop get-
ting their hair cut or with some-amanda VoIsard for tHe wasHIngton Post
A small boy and five others were struck by gunfire Friday at Snap’s
barbershop in Northeast Washington. All are expected to survive.ABSOLUTE MONISM
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