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July 31, 2006
Horror strikes Kent Village
I live in Landover, MD, in a community called Kent Village; it is a quintessential "transition" neighborhood with part slums with huge new community developments. Many people like living here because it is within walking distance of the Orange Line (main DC subway) and the rent is still reasonable. My two bedroom townhouse with fenced in yard is about 1000 a month rent (which is exceptionally cheap in the DC area).
But this weekend, we were reminded that there is still an unsafe element in the area:
Woman Set Afire in Landover
A Prince George's County landscaper doused his girlfriend with gasoline and set her on fire yesterday, police said, in an attack that eerily resembled a crime that horrified the region last fall.
While she was still ablaze, the woman, 39, ran several blocks to her home in Landover, burst through the door and told family members to call 911.
She suffered second- and third-degree burns to her upper body and was in critical but stable condition at a hospital. Police said they expect that she will survive. Anthony Willoughby, 40, was in police custody shortly after the incident, police said. He was charged with first- and second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault and malicious burning and was being held without bond.
Police would not release the woman's name last night because they were still notifying other family members. Relatives and a neighbor interviewed provided conflicting information on her identity.
The woman had a restraining order against Willoughby, according to police, but a family member said the couple had made up. Late Friday night after work, she went to visit him at his home in the 2100 block of Ohio Avenue, police said. They got into an argument that was loud enough for neighbors to hear, police said. It is unclear what they argued about.
Judging from the address and map WaPo provided yesterday, she had to have run past our courtyard. The worst part about this incident is that it's the second time in a year this has happened. Here's a CNN transcript about the attack on Yvette Cade last year:
LIN (voice-over): It was exactly what Yvette Cade feared. Her family says her husband, Roger Hardgrave, had physically abused her and continued to harass her.
She got this court order barring him from contacting her. He took her to court to challenge it. And Cade's family says the actions of the judge who heard the case were unconscionable.
In this audio from the proceeding, Cade speaks to Judge Richard Palumbo.
YVETTE CADE, WIFE: He's still contacting me. Um. He's intimidating my daughter. And um, he's vandalizing other people's properties. I want an immediate and absolute divorce.
JUDGE PALUMBO: Well, I'd like to be six-foot-five, but that's not what we do here. You have to go to divorce court for that.
LIN: Palumbo said he would reject Hardgrave's request to lift the restraining order. But he granted it. Nearly a month later, Hardgrave found his ex-wife working at a T-Mobile store. He doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. Now he's charged with attempted murder.
Posted by Aaron at July 31, 2006 07:13 AM
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