Falls Church NEWS BRIEFS

Target to Close F.C. Store, 1 of 4 ‘Underperforming’ In U.S.

Target is closing its underperforming location on S. Washington St. in the City of Falls Church, it was widely reported yesterday. According to the online Insider news site, “The company cited declining foot traffic as its primary reason for the closures and said most store employees would be offered positions at other locations.”

Three other announced closures are on H Street in D.C., Baltimore and Minneapolis. The announcement came as Walmart announced the closing of eight retail locations across the U.S.

On the other hand, according to the report, Target is still in overall expansion mode, with new major stores of 120,000 square feet along with more of the small locations planned.

Grand Larceny Suspects Sought by F.C. Police

City of Falls Church Police have issued a request for help in identifying grand larceny suspects. On Friday, March 10 at about 1:45 p.m., the suspects entered Tri State Jewelers at 110 W Broad St.

Two male suspects kept the employees occupied while three female suspects walked around the store. While the employees were distracted, one female, wearing a purple dress with a white checkered design and a blue head scarf, crawled to the back room and stole approximately $500,000 worth of jewelry.

Henderson Middle Schooler C-SPAN Documentary Winner

The C-SPAN television network announced yesterday that Sesh Sudarshan, a student at Falls Church’s Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School, will receive a $1,500 second prize award from the network for his documentary that will be aired on C-SPAN on April 9 at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout that day.

Sesh Sudarshan’s documentary submission is called, “E Pluribus Unum: Who Gets Represented in America,” about expanding federal religious holidays.

Challenger Assails Commonwealth Attorney

An ABC documentary on a 24-yearold murder case in Arlington broad - cast March 10 has triggered accusations of poor prosecutorial judgment repeated by a candidate in the coming June Democratic primary for commonwealth’s attorney.

Challenger Josh Katcher, a longtime prosecutor who has previously raised objections to the performance of incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, issued an attack following ABC’s “20/20” documentary that examined conflicting evidence in the case involving the longunsolved 1998 murder of Arlington librarian Andrea Cincotta in her Colonial Village condo.

“The current commonwealth’s attorney’s judgment continues to be questioned, this time by her decision to bring a homicide case to trial based entirely on the testimony of a violent convicted criminal who had a clear motive to lie,” said Katcher.

But Dehghani-Tafti has parried, telling the News-Press in an email that “an acquittal is not a failed trial but an example of the system working as it should. When someone is killed, and we have evidence we believe is credible, it’s our job to stand up for them and the community to fight for justice. It’s our job to do that for the victim’s family too. We took it to the community in the form of a special (investigative) grand jury; the special grand jury indicted both Leonard and Johnson. Leonard pleaded guilty to first degree murder and received a life sentence. His many, consistent statements implicated Mr. Johnson. And we took Mr. Johnson’s case to the community in the form of a trial. It was a tough case, and those are precisely the cases that should go to trial. I accept the jury’s verdict.”

Asked to comment on the criticisms of Arlington police, spokeswoman Ashley Savage said, “From the onset of the investigation, the Police Department has remained committed to pursuing justice on behalf of Andrea Cincotta and her family. A grand jury heard the facts of the case and returned indictments. The court proceedings are the official release of information and we’ll defer to the court records for additional information presented in this case.” —

Charlie Clark

in attendance.

The speakers took turns explaining how the new electric buses will ensure the safety of both students and the environment. The final speaker was fifth grade student Henry Tiedelman, who spoke to the pros of using electric school buses compared to gasfueled.

The two Jouley-brand electric buses feature specialized battery packaging, production of zero emissions, lower mechanical maintenance costs and quiet operations, among other things making it easier for students to communicate with drivers.

FCCPS was awarded $530,000 by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to help support the purchase of the two new electric school buses. The funding comes from Virginia’s