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Hanover in mourning: Community shaken by four recent killings

A spate of four killings in Hanover over a two-week period has left residents of the normally tranquil county saddened and shaken.

“It’s very disturbing,” said Jay T. “Tommy” Thompson, owner of the Mechanicsville Drug Store. “It’s kind of the talk of the town.”

On Jan. 21, a 16-year-old Atlee High School student was shot to death in what officers said was a drug deal-turned-robbery.

Over the weekend, a father and his 3-year-old twin daughters died after he apparently filled their Mechanicsville house with carbon monoxide from a car and slit his daughters’ throats.

Then, on Monday, police announced they were investigating the slaying of a Beaverdam woman inside her home. Police have arrested a boyfriend on charges of stealing her van.

Coming on the heels of the shooting death of a 17-year-old Lee-Davis High School student in December, it has been the deadliest stretch for Hanover since at least 1999.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Vandals damage mosque under construction in Va.

Fairfax County police say vandals have done extensive damage to a mosque under construction in Chantilly.

Police received a report of destruction of property at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Mosque about 8:40 a.m. Monday. The Washington Post reports that the mosque’s firstfloor windows and glass were shattered by rocks. Damage was estimated at $60,000.

Police said there was no sign the building was entered. Several discarded liquor bottles were strewn around the grounds.

Brief by the Associated Press

Link seen between stabbing, national street gang

MS-13

Authorities are investigating a link between a brutal stabbing in Richmond last month and the national street gang MS13.

Law enforcement authorities have arrested five suspects in the Jan. 14 abduction and stabbing of a 21-year-old man in South Richmond. Police said Tuesday that multiple suspects stabbed the victim as many as seven times, but he survived.

One of the suspects, Jose A. “Pantro” Bran, 28, of the 3400 block of Meadowdale Boulevard in Chesterfield County, is charged with gang participation. Court documents identify him as a participant in MS-13, a violent gang that originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s by immigrants fleeing El Salvador’s civil war.

The documents also say that Bran conspired to kill the stabbing victim for the benefit of MS-13, at the direction of the gang, or in association with MS-13.

A source familiar with the investigation said that authorities believe the violent attack is connected to recent activity in the Richmond area by an MS-13 clique known as Sailors Loco Salvatrucha Western, or SLSW. The group has ties to the Northern Virginia and Washington areas. Locally, authorities are aware of perhaps 10 members but are concerned to see they are committing crimes as a group, the source said.

Authorities urge residents to report any activity associated with the gang.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

‘Tornado tourism’ stirs Joplin's anger

Eight months after a tornado laid waste to much of this city, Joplin is wrestling with an emotional question: Should the community market its devastated neighborhoods to tourists?

When the Joplin Convention and Visitors Bureau recently discussed offering guided bus tours and even a smartphone app, storm victims bristled, imagining that their shattered homes could be put on display for legions of curious sightseers.

But the bureau director says he wants to promote Joplin’s recovery to outsiders, insisting that the effort is “not about busted-up homes or destroyed cars or body parts.”

Signs of revival are slowly emerging from the ruins left by the May 22 tornado, which killed 161 people. Debris has been cleared, and The Home Depot and other stores have rebuilt. Hundreds of construction permits have also been issued.

So when a local television report raised the possibility that tourist buses could be allowed to crawl through neighborhoods leveled by one of the deadliest tornados in American history, people swiftly responded with angry calls and emails.

Bureau Director Patrick Tuttle said the proposal for disaster tours was only an idea, and it was rejected. It was merely a response to information requests from travelers, particularly those who passed through on Interstate 44 and stopped at a Missouri welcome center.

Brief by the Associated Press

Taliban release possible, U.S. says

U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged on Tuesday that the United States may release several Afghan Taliban prisoners from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an incentive to bring the Taliban to peace talks.

Meanwhile, Afghan officials said that a plan to give Afghanistan a form of legal custody over the men if they are released satisfied their earlier objection to sending the prisoners to a third country.

Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper told Congress on Tuesday that no decision had been made on whether to trade the five prisoners as part of nascent peace talks with the Taliban.

The prisoners proposed for transfer include some of the detainees brought to Guantanamo during the first days and weeks of the U.S. invasion that toppled the Taliban government in 2001. At least one has been accused in the massacre of thousands of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan, according to U.S. and other assessments, but none is accused of directly killing Americans.

Brief by the Associated Press

Planned Parenthood loses Komen grants

The nation’s leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is halting its partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates, creating a bitter rift linked to the abortion debate between two iconic organizations that have assisted millions of women.

The change will mean a cutoff of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, mainly for breast exams.

Planned Parenthood says the move results from Komen bowing to pressure from anti-abortion activists.

Komen says the key reason is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation in Congress, a probe launched by a conservative Republican who was urged to act by anti-abortion groups.

Planned Parenthood said the Komen grants totaled roughly $680,000 last year and $580,000 the year before. They went to at least 19 of its affiliates for breast-cancer screening and other breast-health services.

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Brief by the Associated Press