On the morning of Jan. 21, Himanshu Gediya was thinking about his grades. The end of the quarter was approaching and the senior was trying to stay on track for college. By early afternoon, hiding in art class as police swarmed his high school in Derwood, schoolwork was the least of his worries. “I think there’s a shooter in the school,” he texted his parents. And later: “I love you,” just in case. All he knew then was that someone had been shot somewhere in Col. Zadok Magruder High School. Lee Evans, the school’s principal, usually stoic and collected, had come over the intercom minutes before ..read more

Police investigating allegations of surreptitious recording at Silver Spring rental property Montgomery County police executed a search warrant at an Airbnb rental property in Silver Spring last week after allegations surfaced of hidden cameras and surreptitious video recordings. Christopher Goisse, the property owner, denied putting in any recording devices, but said it’s possible a guest put in a device [Fox 5]. Hagerstown police searching for teen accused of killing Silver Spring resident Hagerstown police are searching for a 16-year-old boy accused of killing Taron Shawnta Trice, 44, of Si ..read more

It was around 2:30 a.m. July 23 when someone threw a rock through the glass front door of Smoke BBQ on Cordell Avenue in downtown Bethesda, according to co-owner Susan Lennon. The culprit left shortly after that, but a half hour later another person smashed the rest of the glass and might have stolen some beer off the shelves. Lennon is among many in Bethesda who are worried about the number of crimes, particularly robberies, burglaries and carjackings, that have been occurring recently. After the vandalism, Smoke BBQ posted on Facebook that it was the 14th business in downtown Bethesda that h ..read more

“Stop the war!” “Save the climate!” Chants erupted outside U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s Montgomery County office on Rockville Pike on Tuesday as veterans and youth called for the U.S. government to end military aid to Ukraine and to instead spend the money on alleviating climate change. About two dozen protesters strategically placed themselves in the shade of a telephone pole shadow in the 90-degree heat as they held signs and spoke into a microphone. As cars drove by, some drivers honked their horns in support. County police closed off the traffic lane closest to the office during the protes ..read more

Gaithersburg police have charged a man in connection with a stabbing that occurred on state Route 355 Monday afternoon. Dan Lane, a Gaithersburg police spokesman, wrote in an email to Bethesda Beat on Tuesday that police had charged Ricky Stevens, 61, of Gaithersburg, with first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. Police posted on Twitter Monday that officers were investigating a stabbing that occurred just before 4:30 p.m. in the 18700 block of N. Frederick Avenue (Route 355). Police found a male victim suffering from lacerations and provided care until Montgomery ..read more

The Bethesda Arts and Entertainment District has selected eight regional artists as finalists for The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards. More than 250 artists from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., submitted work to the 20th annual competition, according to a Monday press release. The award winners will be announced at a private reception Sept. 7. The first-place winner will be awarded $10,000, second place will receive $2,000, third place will win $1,000 and a Young Artist, a finalist who is younger than 30, could win $1,000. The exhibit will be on display from Sept. 8 to ..read more

A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge is set to consider the latest medical evaluation from the Maryland Department of Health next week in the case of a 27-year-old woman charged with killing her 92-year-old housemate in Kensington last year. Julia Birch was charged by Montgomery County police with killing noted sculptor Nancy Frankel on July 28, 2021, in a home they shared on Spruell Drive. According to police, Birch told detectives in an interview that she suffocated Frankel to death, and a medical examiner has ruled asphyxiation to be the cause of death. Birch is seeking to plead not crim ..read more

Richard Montgomery students finish second in national ‘Envirothon’ competition A team of students from Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville finished second out of 40 teams in the recent national “Envirothon” competition held at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The event tested the teams’ environmental and natural resource conservation problem-solving, team building and leadership, per a press release. [MCM] 1K illegally placed signs confiscated during county sweep More than 1,300 signs posted in public rights of way in violation of county code were confiscated when the Montgomery Count ..read more

A Silver Spring man was arrested last week and charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing his mother’s boyfriend multiple times. Seth Buggan, 18, was arrested Thursday and charged with attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault, according to charging documents. At approximately 2 p.m. Thursday, police responded to a residence on Cloverwood Court in Gaithersburg for a report of a stabbing, the documents said. They found the victim in a parked vehicle in front of the address with “multiple” stab wounds to the head and one to the back. He wa ..read more

Montgomery County Public Schools leaders say they’re making progress in filling vacant staff positions in the run-up to the first day of school, but as hundreds of positions remain unfilled, the district will turn to substitutes, often retirees, to help ease the strain. During a press conference Monday, MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight said there are 246 full-time teacher openings with 89 candidates in the approval process and “likely to be hired.” That’s compared to 396 open positions July 20, she said. There are an additional 400-plus open support staff positions with 83 candidates in the ..read more