Murder at the Pool Hall! Again!
The Third Murder: February, 2001
Here is an account of the third documented murder at Hi Cue pool hall, located in our neighborhood at George Mason Drive and Columbia Pike.
Officers responded to the Hi Cue Billiards in the 900 block of S. George Mason Drive just before midnight on February 3rd for a report of a fight. When they arrived, they found the victim, a juvenile from Fairfax County, who was suffering from a stab wound to the lower body. He was transported to Arlington Hospital where he was pronounced dead. His next of kin have been notified.
This investigation is in its early stages. It appears that a group of six Asian males, 3 adults and 3 juveniles, arrived at the business. Several went inside and then left, encountering 1 Asian male who was alone. A fight started and the lone male received injuries. He produced a knife and stabbed one member of the group and this victim was found as described above.
At this time, the 5 members of the group have been charged with malicious wounding. No charges have been placed against the lone individual. All participants deny any gang affiliation. The investigation is continuing.
Steve Holl
Captain
3rd District Commander
Arlington County Police Department
This is the third or fourth murder at Hi Cue. Even a police guard can't prevent murders at this establishment.
On February 12th Tim Lynch of the Columbia Pike Renovation Organization organized the traditional after-the-murder meeting, including representatives of the pool hall, the property owners, Police Chief Edward Flynn, Third Police District Commander Steve Holl, the officer who had been guarding Hi-Cue (but was assisting with a nearby police call at that moment), BSCL President Mark Wigfield, several other Barcrofters, other nearby civic associations and two County Board members: Chairman Jay Fisette and member Charles Monroe. An all star cast.
After two hours the meeting concluded with almost no results. Charles Monroe will check with the County on possible restrictions to Hi-Cue's business license, but doubts that the County can do much. The owners say they are waiting for our ideas on what to do, but refuse to consider terminating Hi-Cue's lease, even if more murders occur. They were vague about when the lease ends, but thought it was probably 2003. CPRO is trying to keep the lines of communication open. The police have been doing a great job of keeping the lid on Hi-Cue and will continue to do their best. Hi-Cue will continue to hire off-duty police officers to keep order in the pool hall and parking lot on weekends. In short, Hi-Cue goes on, bringing people to our neighborhood who kill people. Everyone involved understands that there will be more murders in that parking lot.
In the longer term, the shopping center is overdue for renovation, and the owners are considering that. One Barcrofter present noted that our only recourse seems to be to make it uneconomic somehow for the owners to keep tolerating the pool hall, since all leases can be terminated if owners really want to. If anybody has ideas about that, please contact Mark Wigfield at 703-979-0339 or send him an email to send an email message to the Arlington County Board telling them what you think.
Read on below for an account of the previous murders. Bear in mind that it was written four years earlier.
The Second Murder - March, 1997
First Cut - Day two: Monday, March 23
Early on the morning of Monday, March 23 (actually very late on Sunday night) there
was another incident at the Hi Cue pool hall at Columbia Pike and George Mason
Drive.
According to police reports in the Washington Post, a man was murdered--shot in the head--in
the parking lot as he left the pool hall. The murder may have been in retaliation for another
shooting there the night before, when a man was shot in the stomach but survived.
Chris Monek, chair of the BSCL's Crime Resistance Committee, is working the problem. He has been
in touch with Ellen Bozman, County Board Chair, who informed him that the police are working full
speed on the problem, bringing together the assets of the CBPOP team that patrols our area, the
gang activities detachment and others. You can contact Chris at 920-1287. He has five years of
experience with Hi Cue problems. His phone is ringing off the hook.
Conchita Mitchell of the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization has been in touch with the
owners of the shopping center, with whom she has a cooperative relationship. They were concerned
and are investigating.
The incident was first written up by Leef Smith in the Washington Post, appearing on Monday.
She noted that it was the third murder in the Hi Cue parking lot. She identified the victim as a 17
year old Asian male, and quoted Detective Ken Rosenberg saying that it could be gang-related. She
quoted Board Member Al Eisenberg as saying that he thinks "something else is going on over there
that from my standpoint should lead to a shutdown of the business." But she also noted that he said
that Virginia licensing laws would make it difficult to do that, a constant refrain in this seven
year problem. The article recounts the BSCL's request in 1993 that the pool hall be shut down. She
quotes Anna Choy, owner of Hi Cue for three months, saying it is not the pool hall but the parking
lot that attracts bad actors: "People come park, and they hang around," Choy said. "It's the parking
lot. It's not pool." Smith also quotes Jim Kerr (BSCL President) and Randy Swart (easily reachable
for interviews since he works at home) on the neighborhoods concern.
The Journal also published an account on Monday, by Beatriz Perez on page 1. She recounted
the futile chase of the killer by the shopping center security guard. (So much for security
guards--one guard can't prevent a shooting.) She recounts the earlier shooting, saying that a man
was shot in the stomach leaving the pool hall.
On Monday evening, TV news picked up the story. Channel 9 ran it at six o'clock, in a segment titled
Suburban Security? among other suburban crime articles. Channel 9's Gary Reals showed footage of
the pool hall, police vehicles there with lights flashing. He interviewed Robin Nightingale,
a Barcroft neighborhood resident who works at the Rite Aid next door to the pool hall, and
said she is working on a petition. Unable to reach Jim Kerr or Chris Monek, he also interviewed
the always available Randy Swart (Baa Baa the lawnsheep is clearly visible in the background),
who said the neighborhood is concerned.
Channel 4's Jim Handley did the lead piece for News 4 at 11 o'clock. It featured interviews
with Lt. Steve Holl of the Arlington police, an unidentifed patron who said the teens were the
problem, and one Larry Denny, who likened the pool hall to a house of prostitution or a crack
house and said the neighborhood didn't need it. Handley had a few shots of Randy Swart saying his
stock thing about concern, and then most impressively was able to dig back into the Channel 4
archives for footage of the FBI raid of Hi Cue in 1992 for what he called "alleged gambling
activity." Handley had covered that event as well, and made good use of his perspective on the
story.
On Monday evening some homes in the vicinity of the pool hall received an automated call from
the Arlington County Police Department alterting them to the two incidents, The call also said
that the police are pursuing the investigation and measures to prevent future recurrences of the
problems.
Day Three: Tuesday, March 25th
Another Washington Post article appeared in their Tuesday morning edition identifying the
17 year old victim, with an interview of his mother, who said she had been worried about
the friends he was hanging with and concerned that they might be gang members, although she thought
her son was not. They also interviewed two friends, who had left incense, a card and flowers at
the murder site in memory of the victim, whom they described as a very nice and non-violent person.
The Journal article also talks about the victim, and quotes an Arlington County police
detective as saying it was not necessary to assign more officers to the area, since it already
has a CBPOP team in place, and to assign more officers would require taking them off some other
priority work.
Conchita Mitchell of the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization (CPRO) organized a meeting with
the owner of the shopping center, Howard Sharpe, and three members of his staff, along with County
Board Chairman Ellen Bozman, Chief of Police Brewer, Nelson Reals of the County Manager's office,
Chris Monek of the BSCL Crime Resistance Committee and the ever-available Randy Swart of the BSCL
Board. The value of CPRO as a coordinating mechanism was apparent throughout the meeting.
Mr. Sharpe had returned to Washington when he heard the news of the murders to organize a response.
He announced a series of measures that his staff and the owner of the pool hall were taking:
- Barring Notice - Several weeks ago the shopping center was placed under a Barring Notice,
which permits the arrest of a person previously identified by the shopping center management as
barred from the premises.
- Increased Security - The shopping center has had a security officer from Sting Security
on weekends. Now there will be an officer on duty seven days a week. They are there during the
evening hours only, and are not armed.
- Towing of cars - Some cars are parked in the lot while the owners carpool to a nightclub
in DC. Others are parked there after hours. Sharpe is hiring Frank's Towing to remove those cars. (Mrs.
Bozman and Chief Brewer urged him to be very careful in defining and controlling what cars are to
be towed to avoid towing legitimate customers.)
- Closing hours - Although the lease requires closing the pool hall at 2:30 PM, it has been
running much later, sometimes just not closing at all. Mr. Sharpe will enforce the closing hours.
- Meeting with the pool hall owners - In a meeting with the owners of the pool hall Mr.
Sharpe urged them to hire off-duty Arlington police to beef up security inside. They indicated that
through a family relationship they expect to have armed officers from a DC police force gang unit
who are deputized to operate in Arlington as U.S. Marshals to be spending time at the pool hall.
The pool hall is looking into upgrading its security camera, which apparently was not operating
properly at the time of the murder. They are considering a membership system, with two photos
taken when anyone new comes in. One would go on the membership card and the other be kept on file
in the pool hall.
- Parking Lot Lighting - Effective immediately the parking lot lights will stay on from
7PM to 7AM. The shopping center may get new lighting as well.
Mr. Sharpe noted that the pool hall is under new management, and he signed a seven year lease with
them in December.
Chief Brewer said that he is bringing the resources of a CBPOP team to bear on the problem, and
will have both uniformed and plainclothes officers working in the parking lot from 7 PM to 3 AM.
Day Four - Wednesday
The Journal reported that Paul Ferguson, Arlington County Board member, told them that
he is trying to shut the pool hall down. In an article which appeared on Wednesday, Ferguson said
he had instructed the County Manager to find a "creative" way to do that. The Journal said that
the County Manager was reportedly examining all the relevant regulations to see if the pool hall
is in compliance.
CPRO organized another meeting, this time bringing together the owners of the pool hall, the owner
of the shopping center, a police department representative, four neighborhood representatives from
the three neighborhoods involved (Alcova, Barcroft and New Arlington-Douglas Park), and a
representative of the County Manager. CPRO's Conchita Mitchell did a masterful job of conducting
a crisp no-nonsense meeting which elicited the plans of each participant for steps in the wake of
the two shootings. She went over the list carefully at the end and is preparing a letter to serve
as a memorandum of the conclusions of the meeting. This will permit organized followup. The main
advance in this meeting was an agreement by the shopping center owner, Mr. Howard Sharpe, that he
would hire off-duty Arlington policemen (uniformed and with their squad car) to patrol the
shopping center in the evening hours. This should go a long way toward suppressing further
shooting incidents. The owners of Hi Cue made a commitment to upgrade their security camera, close
their establishment at 2:30 AM as required by their lease, and look into using off-duty policemen
to patrol inside. It is evident that if the place cannot be closed at least considerable progress can be made in improving
security at the shopping center.
Here is the letter Conchita Mitchell wrote to meeting particpants. It is a masterpiece.
Day Five - Thursday
The owner of the shopping center estimates that the increased security will cost him $60,000 per
year. That seems like a bargain to us taxpayers, and of course should be offset against the
profits from his seven year lease to the pool hall. It certainly should not be picked up by the
taxpayers, who have already been providing much more security for this shopping center than for
any normal business. If landlords rent to tenants who cause extraordinary problems, the
landlords should expect to take whatever extraordinary measures are necessary at their own
expense, and Mr. Sharpe has been very cooperative in doing that. In fact, he has agreed to
everything the neighborhoods have asked of him short of pitching out his tenant.
Rumor has it that Arlington County has not found any transgressions that would permit closing
the pool hall. Not too surprising, based on the experience in 1992 when the BSCL tried to have
Hi Cue closed. Even the FBI gambling raid and the subesequent conviction of the owners on
gambling charges apparently did not give the County any leverage. This seems strange to us but
normal to the County.
Robert Gehl of the Journal is working on another article for Friday's edition.
Day Six - Friday
Susan Kennedy from Channel 8 interviewed Randy Swart in the morning (the only Barcrofter at home
on a Friday morning) with a great shot of Baa Baa, the lawn sheep in his front yard. The
Journal article reported that the County can't shut down Hi Cue. The Republicans called
a vigil for 8 PM, attended by about 25 Republicans and no neighborhood people since they did
not even bother to notify the civic associations. The serious neighborhood response had already
taken place, organized by CPRO, with Alcova, New Arlington-Douglas Park and Barcroft participating
in the CPRO meetings, which accomplished everything we asked for short of actually closing down
the pool hall. A partisan political gesture may not add anything useful to the dialogue at this
point, but it should help to keep the pressure up. There were two Barcrofters there, and one of
them spent her time talking to the Arlington County Police officer who was on duty. (If our
neighborhood decides that a demonstration is called for, you won't be able to drive through the
shopping center parking lot for the crowds.)
Day Seven - Saturday
Barcrofters have discovered that in fact the shopping center has not yet hired any off-duty police
officers. The officers on duty there now are from the CBPOP team that is supposed to be working on
the problem of disaffected hispanic youth in the West End, and not funded by the shopping center at
all. Chris Monek is following up on the question of when the shopping center intends to perform.
Day Eight - Sunday the 30th
The Washington Post finally ran a one-paragraph follow-up in the metro section, noting that
the shopping center is beefing up security.
A Week Later - Thursday, April 3
The Post has a good article on page one of the Weekly section for Arlington which draws
from the CPRO Letter and quotes CPRO's Conchita Mitchell extensively.
It also quotes Nelson Rios as saying that perhaps a citizens' neighborhood watch for the shopping
center is called for, and Ben Winslow saying that the police can't do it all and the community
must get involved. The Journal ran an article yesterday on the vigil at the shopping center
last week, noting that it was a Republican political affair. The BSCL will discuss the situation
at its monthly meeting.
BSCL Meeting on April 3
The BSCL discussed this issue on April 3rd at our regular monthly meeting. The above information
was repeated, with the addition of County Board Vice Chairman Chris Zimmerman, who participated
in the discussion and is looking into the County's options. Much of the neighborhood's concern has
been alleviated by the decision of the shopping center's management to hire off-duty Arlington
police officers to provide security at night.
April 22 - Police have been hired.
Deputy Police Chief Brewer has confirmed that the police officers on patrol at the shopping center
now are in fact off-duty officers hired by the shopping center management. At our May meeting we
will be discussing how to keep them there for the long term.
It isn't over
This page will endure for years, since the problem is ongoing and recurs at long intervals. Long
term follow-up will be the key factor for our civic association. Otherwise we look forward to
copying everything you have read above and changing the dates when the next murder occurs.
For media people: our preferred interviewee on this subject is Mark Wigfield, President of the
BSCL, (703) 979-0339. Mark has been around long enough to tell you about our problems with
Hi-Cue over the past five years.
At the time of this revision in 2000, the use of off-duty police officers has kept a lid on
the worst of the incidents at Hi Cue. The presence of a police cruiser in the parking lot
seems to put people on their best behavior. We still believe that the combination of pool and
illicit gambling on pool games that is part of the pool scene will eventually result in other
violent crimes at Hi-Cue, but not while Arlington's finest are there!
February 2001 note: That last comment proved hopelessly optimistic, but the one above it on the probability of another murder has proven very accurate.
The First Murder
On November 7, 1992, Hoang Nguyen was shot to death and Minh Quang Ta was stabbed in the parking lot in front of Hi-Cue Billiards. The incident had begun with fighting earlier in the evening, and the group later convicted of the crimes had followed the victims' group to Hi-Cue.
This page was revised on: July 29, 2006.
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