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The Gazette SILVER SPRING | TAKOMA PARK | BURTONSVILLE
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
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1 dead after shots fired in Norbeck
Crime stats have Takoma Park on alert n
Victims tell their stories at town hall meeting BY
ALINE BARROS STAFF WRITER
It was 9 p.m. on a cold January evening when Char Serwa became another statistic — a crime victim, robbed and carjacked at gunpoint.
Serwa parked her car in the driveway of her Takoma Park home. She then noticed a man walking fast on Sycamore Avenue. “I knew this was bad immediately. I didn’t have time to run back to my car and get away,” Serwa said. She decided to act calm and walked up the three steps near her home walkway. When she reached the third step and turned around, the man was behind her. “He said ‘Give me all your stuff,’”
Serwa said. Serwa hesitated for a moment, at which point the man raised the gun to her face. Serwa said he was very specific. “He asked for my keys, my purse, and my phone. ... I gave him everything, but I still had my house keys,” Serwa added. Serwa was the fifth armed robbery victim in January in the city of Takoma
Police still trying to determine what happened n
BY KRISTA BRICK STAFF WRITER
See CRIME, Page A-8
A shooting at a home in a Norbeck neighborhood has left one man dead and another in critical condition. Police were called to the home in the 15800 block of Laughlin Lane at about 10:30 p.m. Monday for shots fired. When they arrived on the scene they found a deceased man lying in the driveway, according to Capt. Paul Starks, a Montgomery County police spokesman. A cause of death has not yet been determined. A second man already had
been taken to a local hospital with gunshot wounds and is in critical condition, Starks said. It is unclear who drove that man to the hospital. “We are going to talk with him as soon as he is able to safely communicate, to learn about what he saw, what he did,” Starks said Tuesday morning. There were multiple people at the home at the time of the incident, according to police. The relationship between the man who was shot and the man found dead in the driveway is so far unknown, according to Starks. “We are trying to find more about the circumstances and possible motive,” Starks said. kbrick@gazette.net
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
A shooting at a home in the 15800 block of Laughlin Lane left one man dead and another in critical condition.
PHOTOS BY DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
Katherine Zenzano, a community outreach coordinator for the Montgomery County Police Animal Services Division, holds Lulu, a 5-year-old domestic shorthair cat, at the new Montgomery County Animal Shelter in Gaithersburg. Lulu and another cat were surrendered because the owner had died.
White House backs Purple Line project
Calling all animal lovers:
New shelter now open
Budget proposal includes $100M for light-rail project
n
BY KATHERIINE SHAVER THE WASHINGTON POST
Center prepared to care for dogs, cats, livestock, birds, reptiles n
BY JENN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
Spencer, a 3-year-old Chihuahua mix, was frightened when he came to the Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center as a stray on Feb. 26. Two days later, with the help of nurturing staff, he was comfortably gobbling up treats and excitedly licking his human admirers. Spencer is one of many animals moving into rooms at the new $20 million Derwood shelter, which opened on Sunday. The 49,160-square-foot facility at 7315 Muncaster Mill Road replaces the county animal shelter on Rothgeb Drive in Rockville, which is operated by the Montgomery County Humane Society.
The county contracted with the Humane Society to continue running the old shelter until the end of March, allowing for a transition time between the two centers. In July 2010, the Montgomery County Planning Board approved the use of seven acres of a 51-acre parcel at the corner of Muncaster Mill and Airpark Roads for the new shelter, after county officials deemed the old one, which was built in 1975, overcrowded and in need of renovations. Construction on the new facility, which is more than three times the size of the Rothgeb shelter, began in January 2012. All animals picked up by the county’s Animal Services Division
See SHELTER, Page A-8
Spencer, a 3-year-old Chihuahua mix, was scared when he came in as a stray on Feb. 26, but after two days of interaction in the shelter, he had become much more confident.
SPORTS
HEALING THROUGH BASKETBALL
Teressa French
Maryland’s proposed lightrail Purple Line project has been recommended for $100 million in federal construction money in fiscal 2015 as part of President Barack Obama’s budget released Tuesday, marking a critical financial milestone that would keep the project on schedule. More important to the project’s future is the fact that the Purple Line also was included on a list of seven large transit projects nationwide that the Federal Transit Administration recommended for a “full funding grant agreement,” a longer-term commitment by the federal government to help pay for the projects’ construction. The total amount of federal funding recommended for
Covenant Life community uses basketball to work out grief of two deaths in three days.
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each project wasn’t included in budget documents released Tuesday. U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said those figures would be released Wednesday. Maryland transit officials have said they are seeking $900 million in federal funding for the $2.2 billion Purple Line. The $100 million included in the president’s budget would be allocated in the federal fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Maryland transit officials have said they hope to begin building the 16-mile line between Bethesda and New Carrollton in 2015 and open it in 2020. The proposal is awaiting federal approval from the state’s environmental impacts study. The money isn’t a certainty. The “full funding grant agreement” spelling out how much federal money the state would receive annually must still be negotiated.
See PURPLE, Page A-8
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