Group Fight In Leesburg Raises Fear Of Gangs
N.Va. Police Forces Join to Battle Threat

By Christina Jewett
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 16, 2002; Page B01

The first significant incident of gang violence in Leesburg has brought a new rhythm to 5-year-old Tommy Morris's life.

He lives in an apartment complex across the street from where Leesburg police arrested 16 people and confiscated a machete after a fight July 31. Police suspect the 16 are members of MS-13, a notorious street gang.

The arrests at the Glen Apartments startled neighborhood residents. Now, as the air-conditioning units drone on and off and wind chimes clank in the slight summer breeze, Tommy rides his bike back and forth on a narrow sidewalk. No more shouting at the playground or ringing friends' doorbells.

"He has to stay on this strip with me," said his mother, Sheila Morris, 30. "I'm scared. I'm getting ready to go to the locksmith and add some locks to my door."

Police said that on the afternoon of July 31, an argument developed into a fight at the apartments, and a 25-year-old Leesburg man was wounded in the ear and shoulder with a machete.

Fifteen of the suspects -- who were from Arlington and Fairfax counties and North Carolina -- were charged with an act of violence by a mob and malicious wounding. They are being held in the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center without bond. A 17-year-old male was also arrested and charged with malicious wounding and association with a gang; he was taken to the Loudoun County Juvenile Detention Center.

The fight came less than two weeks after a gang-related incident in a parking lot adjacent to a carnival in Sterling in which a 17-year-old Reston youth suffered a serious stab wound. No arrests were made, said Kraig Troxell, spokesman for the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office.

General gang activity involving strong-arm robberies, thefts and drug trafficking first appeared in the east end of the county about three years ago, said Loudoun County Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson. "We're starting to react to gang violence that's rather ugly," he said.

Leesburg Police Chief Joseph Price said that several other gang-related assaults occurred last month within several blocks of where the July 31 fight broke out.

Capt. Clagett Moxley, spokesman for Leesburg police, said, "We're looking to see if previous activity can be connected to" members of MS-13. He said the department has no evidence that MS-13 is recruiting or initiating members in town.

Last weekend, a man from the Glen Apartments didn't wait to find out. He was moving out. "This is not a cool scene," said the man, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution. "It's too much for me."

He had lived in the Glen Apartments complex for a year and a half. "It was really mellow, nice and quiet," he said.

Researchers say members of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang fled war-torn El Salvador, entering the United States illegally. Their original territory was 13th Street in Los Angeles, which led to the "MS-13" designation. Members came to the Washington suburbs about seven years ago, said Detective Kenneth Compher of Fairfax County's gang unit. Fairfax has about 800 members, he said.

Many MS-13 members arrive with fighting skills gained in military training and are known to use machetes. "If you have MS-13 running around, you have a real problem," said George W. Knox, director of the National Gang Crime Research Center. "Bastions of the middle class are now facing this."

Compher said Fairfax is the only Northern Virginia jurisdiction with a unit dedicated to combating gangs. He said that the unit has been "working gangs" since the mid-1990s and that its efforts are driving gang members out of the county.

"They think they'll have more freedom in counties that don't usually deal with gangs," he said. "They're going to move places where they think they won't be stopped all the time."

In late July, Simpson reassigned four school resource officers to the crime investigation division. "We need to get more aggressive," the Loudoun sheriff said. Gang members "are getting to the point where they're becoming more violent."

Wayde Byard, spokesman for Loudoun public schools, said no significant gang-related incidents have occurred in the schools.

Price said the Leesburg department was monitoring gang activity before the fight and had established working relationships with Arlington and Fairfax officers, who assisted in the July 31 arrests. Leesburg police are also working with Loudoun's Office on Youth to start a sports outreach program in public parks.

"Arrests are important," Price said. "But we want to take a multipronged approach."

The Loudoun and Leesburg officers use a Northern Virginia gang database and attend regional gang unit meetings with 16 other Washington area police forces.

Loudoun and Leesburg police officials said each department has one officer assigned to combating gangs part time, and Leesburg officials said they were considering assigning an officer to full-time gang duty.

Knox, a gang researcher based in Chicago, said communities that are most effective at combating gangs approach the problem by training officials in schools, youth outreach positions and the prosecutor's office.

Knox said well-trained officers and an extensive intelligence network are key to eliminating gang problems. "Gangs don't stay in jurisdictions that are good at investigating and making arrests," he said. "They can simply go to an adjoining community that is in gang denial. Officers have to send the message really quickly . . . that they're not going to tolerate that in their neighborhood."

Sheila Morris said she is reassured by the frequent patrols that Leesburg police are making around her complex and nearby areas. But it's not enough, she said.

"I want someone sitting here watching 24/7," she said. "That's how scared I am."