June 1 3, 2017 issue

Page 1

The key to tennis A10

Meet Richmond’s top student / Personality B1

Richmond Free Press © 2017 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

VOL. 26 NO. 22

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

www.richmondfreepress.com

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JUNE 1-3, 2017

‘When is enough Slaying of Va. State Police Special Agent Michael T. Walter grips Mosby Court By Jeremy M. Lazarus

At an April community meeting, residents of Mosby Court pleaded with Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham for a crackdown to end the violence in the section of the public housing community located off Accommodation Street in the East End. He was urged to set up roadblocks to force people to show IDs to enter Mosby Court, to authorize officers to conduct pat downs and to take other steps to improve the safety of residents who have seen seven people killed and at least 19 others wounded this year in this small section of the city. But the police chief said “that would be going too far,” said Arthur Burton, a Mosby Court advocate who created and operates Kinfolk Community Empowerment Center that works with residents for the betterment of the community. Mr. Burton said the failure of city officials to take strong action to weed out of the community those with a propensity for violence laid the groundwork for the latest fatal shooting in Mosby Court, this time of a member of the Virginia State Police. State Police Special Agent Michael T. Walter, 45, was shot in the head Friday evening allegedly by a convicted felon who lived in Mosby Court. Agent Walter died early Saturday at a Richmond hospital. A former Marine and father of three, he mentored youths in his time off duty and had mentored a youth wrestling club in Powhatan County. An 18-year State Police veteran, Agent Walter was with a Richmond Police officer conducting an enforcement initiative Please turn to A4

enough?’ Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Former Special Officer Brad Hughes, who lost his legs in the line of duty in 2014, visits the memorial to Virginia State Police Special Agent Michael T. Walter that sits outside of the State Police Headquarters on Midlothian Turnpike in Chesterfield County. Mr. Hughes said Tuesday that he knew Agent Walter and wanted to pay his respects.

Rep. McEachin calls for speedy HUD intervention at Essex Village after woman’s fall By Jeremy M. Lazarus

During heavy weekend rains, odorous and toxic raw sewage once again flowed freely over the lawn in Essex Village, ranked as Henrico County’s worst apartment complex. And last week, a pregnant woman toppled to the ground when a railing on her second-floor balcony

gave way. She and her unborn child survived and are in recovery. These incidents have led Congressman A. Donald McEachin to demand action at the sprawling apartment complex from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He wants HUD either to force the owners to make essential improvements or to provide vouchers to

residents so they can move elsewhere, according to his spokeswoman, Jamitress Bowden. Ms. Bowden said neither HUD Secretary Ben Carson nor a member of his staff has yet responded to the congressman’s request for a meeting to discuss conditions at Essex Village, located off Laburnum Please turn to A4

What’s all the Hoopla?

Richmond Public Library doubles its digital offerings By Jeremy M. Lazarus

The Richmond Public Library just doubled its offerings of books, music, movies, TV shows, video games and other items, and it didn’t have to buy anything. According to Library Director Scott Firestine, the library did it by hooking up with an online website called Hoopla and making the items available to patrons through its online library that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He said Hoopla offers about 600,000 items on its website — equal to the total number of physical items available at the Main Library in Downtown and its seven open branches.

(The West End Branch on Patterson Avenue, now under renovation, is expected to reopen by September.) Library patrons will be able to borrow up to four items a month from Hoopla without charge, Mr. Firestine said, simply by using their increasingly powerful library card numbers. The new connection to Hoopla, which is to go live on Thursday, June 1, is one way that the resource-short library is using online services in carrying out its mission: “To inform, enrich, empower.” Amid struggles to staff library branches Please turn to A4

the additional water to its customers. As described to the council, the new facility would be paid for by the county. The administration did not explain how many acres of the park’s woodland would be disturbed. While the Stoney administration insists the park property can be used for this purpose, it appears to run afoul of a development ban that was put in place in February 2001. Under Mayor Stoney’s plan, Chesterfield County would pay an average of $1.3 million a year for the additional 5 million gallons in 2020, when the construction would be completed and the new equipment ready for use. The county also is promising to pay the

Former national NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous is launching a political career. Perhaps recently best known as a surrogate for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mr. Jealous confirmed this week that he is running for governor of Maryland. He cited his long record of civil rights activism and the diversity of the state of Maryland as being in his favor. “When I was president of the NAACP, I learned just how quickly my neighbors here were prepared to move forward on civil rights. In one year, we abolished the death penalty, we passed marriage equality, we passed the Dream Act. “I’m running for governor because I believe we’re prepared to move just as quickly in moving forward on education, on employment, on the environment while continuing to protect civil rights,” Mr. Jealous said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire. “I’m running for governor because I believe we can do much better by our kids right now.” Mr. Jealous, 44, is entering a crowded field of seven other candidates poised to run in a Democratic primary to be held June 26, 2018. He believes disaffection for the scandalladen Trump administration may cause Maryland voters to lean toward Democratic leadership after electing Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in November 2014. Gov. Hogan is eligible to

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Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Scott Firestine, director of the Richmond Public Library, sits in one of the smaller computer labs available to the public in the library’s Main Branch at 101 E. Franklin St. in Downtown. Patrons can use the computer lab to access the library’s expanded array of digital materials.

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

A gaggle of fun Heaven Irvin, 3, and her year-old sister, Lyric, enjoy the honking and closeness of geese at Richmond’s Byrd Park. The girls ran and played during a family outing at the park last Saturday during the Memorial Day weekend. Please see more photos, B3.

Ben Jealous to run for gov. in Md. Trice Edney News Wire

Mayor seeks to lease part of park to Chesterfield for county drinking water

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Mr. Jealous

Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney apparently is seeking to overturn a 16-yearold ban on development in a public park in South Side. He is doing so in a bid to meet a Chesterfield County request to boost its purchase of drinking water from Richmond. The county now buys 27 million gallons a day and wants to increase the amount by 5 million gallons, to 32 million gallons daily. Under a proposal the mayor has sent to Richmond City Council, he is seeking approval to lease a portion of the 106-acre Lewis G. Larus Park, 8850 W. Huguenot Road, to the county for construction of a new pumping station and transmission line to get


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