Happy Saturday, Washington. Obviously, the talk about town today is still mostly about the incident outside of DC9 early on Friday morning, in which police have accused five club employees of beating a man to death after he threw a brick through the front window. The latest: the Post finds an eyewitness who claims that Ali Ahmed Mohammed, the 27-year-old who died, begged for mercy as the men beat him. Police appear to also be walking back a bit, calling the incident a “struggle” in an official press release, rather than the “savage beating” that MPD Chief Cathy Lanier had dubbed it yesterday. Yesterday’s proposed arraignment has been moved to today — we’ll keep an eye on when the five arrested actually appear in front of a judge, which will likely be this afternoon.
>> A huge 24-inch water main break closed Constitution Avenue between 9th and 12th Streets NW last night. The water continued to flow this morning; D.C. Water is on the scene and says that it may take until Sunday to complete the repairs. The Museum of Natural History has been closed due to the lack of water pressure in the area.
>> There’s a big meeting happening right now concerning the future of the McMillan Sand Filtration Site, the 25-acre parcel of currently unused land which sits next to the McMillan Reservoir in D.C., and is bounded by Michigan Avenue, North Capitol Street, Channing Street and First Street NW. A developer has had plans in the works for at least a couple of years to redevelop the space into a mixed-use campus, but there has been community opposition from those who would rather see the space used as something a little more community-friendly. Bloomingdale resident Nolan Treadway is live-tweeting the meeting in detail today; we highly recommend checking out his notes.
>> An ex-marine was convicted of raping a University of Maryland student in an Arlington County courthouse yesterday — and the jury recommended that he be handed five life sentences plus 168 years in prison. Jorge Torrez, 21, was convicted of abducting and raping the woman in February. After the assault, Torrez pulled a scarf over the woman’s face until she passed out and left her in a remote Prince William County forest. During the investigation, authorities also located evidence that linked Torrez to two 2005 slayings in his home state of Illinois, though Torrez has not been charged with those crimes to date. Torrez will be sentenced in December.
