Look back at the 10 biggest local stories of 2016, covering everything from weather to Metro to the election.
10. Maryland shooting spree
A Federal Protective Service officer fatally shot his estranged wife outside their daughters’ high school on May 5.
The next day, police say, he shot and killed two more people as he tried to steal their cars at a mall and grocery store in Montgomery County. Three other people were shot and wounded over the course of the two days.
Eulalio Tordil, of Adelphi, faces murder and handgun charges in the death of his wife, Gladys Tordil, in Prince George’s County. He faces murder and attempted murder charges in Montgomery County for the deaths of Malcom Winffel and Claudina Molina.
Tordil had been ordered to turn in all of his guns as part of a protective order filed several months earlier. That order required Tordil to stay away from his wife, plus her residence and the high school where she taught chemistry.
His trial in Montgomery County is in April.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
9. Golden Olympics for local athletes
The Rio Olympics, in August, featured more than 20 athletes from D.C., Maryland and Virginia. They won a collective 16 gold medals.
NBA star Kevin Durant, of D.C., won gold with the men’s basketball team.
Helen Maroulis, of Rocky Point, Maryland, won gold in the women’s wrestling freestyle 53-kg competition.
Matthew Centrowitz, of Annapolis, became the first U.S. man to win the 1,500 meter race since 1908.
Swimmer Michael Phelps, of Baltimore, cemented his legacy as one of the best athletes of all time, adding another five gold medals and a silver to his collection of Olympic hardware.
But Katie Ledecky was the breakout star of the games. The Bethesda swimmer won four gold medals of her own plus a silver medal and shattered her own world record in the 800-meter freestyle. She was honored as USA Swimming’s athlete of the year and memorably threw out the first pitch at a Nationals game as Bryce Harper held her medals.
(WTOP/Kate Ryan)
WTOP/Kate Ryan
8. Ambush
Prince George’s County Officer Jacai Colson was shot and killed during an ambush outside a police station in Landover in March.
He was shot by a fellow officer who didn’t recognize the narcotics detective because Colson was dressed in street clothes.
Three brothers — Michael, Malik and Elijah Ford — have been indicted on charges related to the attack.
Michael Ford is charged with second-degree murder for Colson’s death and attempted murder for shooting at passers-by and other officers. His brothers are each charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Authorities have said Michael Ford opened fire on the police station in the hope of gaining notoriety. Police have also said that his brothers took video of the attack and could have prevented it.
Detective Taylor Krauss, who fired the fatal shot, was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.
Michael Ford’s trial is set to begin in May.
(Courtesy Prince George’s County Police Department)
Courtesy Prince George’s County Police Department
7. Epic openings and a monumental closing
This year, D.C. welcomed two major new attractions, celebrated the re-imagining of two iconic landmarks and watched as a national treasure closed its doors for several years of repairs.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened to great fanfare in September with a ceremony headlined by President Barack Obama. Museum officials ran out of timed entry passes as quickly as they could provide them. And the museum is booked through March.
MGM National Harbor had a similar, overwhelming response. Eager crowds packed into the new casino and resort on opening weekend, forcing MGM to ask casino visitors to postpone their visit.
Trump International Hotel, inside the Old Post Office, opened with a ribbon cutting and a visit from the hotel’s namesake while dozens of protesters swarmed outside the entrance. The grand hotel continues to garner headlines. Since the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, questions have been raised as to whether his business can continue to hold the lease to the federally-owned building.
In June, the infamous Watergate Hotel celebrated its reopening after a six-year, $125 million renovation that embraces the glitz and glamour of the 1960s.
And earlier this month, National Park Service officials announced that the Washington Monument would remain closed to the public through 2019 while the landmark’s lone elevator is repaired and updated. Elevator problems forced the monument to close repeatedly over the past year.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
6. Ellicott City flood
A line of slow-moving storms stalled over Maryland, dumping 6 inches of rain in just two hours on a July evening and causing a flood that ripped apart historic Ellicott City.
Two people were killed in the flood; a third person was killed during the months of repairs.
Overflowing streams and creeks unleashed a torrent of water that crashed down the hills that surround and run through the heart of the town. Rising waters from the Patapsco River also added to the flood.
The town’s crippled Main Street didn’t completely reopen to the public until October, but repairs on many of the local shops that line the road weren’t finished at the time. But by Small Business Saturday, two days after Thanksgiving, most were back open and welcoming shoppers.
See photos: Ellicott City flooding
(Kevin Rector/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
Kevin Rector/The Baltimore Sun via AP
5. Silver Spring apartment explosion
Seven people were killed, more than 30 injured and 100 residents displaced by a natural gas explosion that engulfed the Flower Branch Apartments in August.
The late-night explosion destroyed two apartment buildings on Piney Branch Road and trapped residents on balconies, requiring firefighters to make “scores of rescues.”
Residents had reported the smell of gas the day of the explosion and firefighters were called to the complex in July for a similar report, but detected no natural gas.
Many of the apartment’s residents were recent immigrants from Guatemala and El Salvador. They lost clothes, photos and even their life savings — cash — in the blaze.
A group representing residents has sued property manager Kay Apartment Communities and Washington Gas in part to determine who is responsible for the deadly explosion.
Federal investigators determined that the blast originated in a basement meter room in one of the buildings, but have not determined what ignited the gas. A National Transportation Safety Board investigation is underway, but could take up to a year to complete.
See photos: Apartment explosion in Silver Spring
(WTOP/Nick Iannelli)
WTOP/Nick Iannelli
4. A school system in crisis
Resignations. Criminal indictments. Lawsuits. Policy overhauls. Promises to keep children safe. The Prince George’s County school system and community was rocked by multiple documented cases of physical and sexual abuse of its students at the hands of faculty and staff in 2016.
“You just start talking to them (parents) about it, and they start crying. The community is hurting right now,” said the county’s NAACP President Bob Ross in calling for Superintendent Kevin Maxwell to step down earlier this year.
Deonte Carraway arrested: The school aide at Judge Sylvania Woods Elementary School is accused of coercing his students to engage in sexual activity and then recording videos of those acts while on school property. He faces 270 counts in state court and has been indicted on federal charges of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Task force recommendsdozens of changes in hiring, training and safety protocols.
Head Start: Instructors at the county’s Head Start program used humiliation and corporal punishment as a means to discipline young students. Federal funding for the program was revoked as a result.
Maxwell’s chief of staff, George Margolies, stepped down soon after.
Michael Patopie arrested: The school bus aide is charged with sexual abuse for inappropriately touching two special needs students on a school bus. Bus camera footage captured the contact.
(WTOP/Dave Dildine)
WTOP/Dave Dildine
3. Election 2016
The 2016 presidential race was like no other, with two unpopular candidates and a deeply divided, angry nation seeking change.
But there were also big local stories this election season.
For the first time in decades, Barbara Mikulski was not on the ballot in Maryland, as the state’s longtime champion prepared to retire from the U.S. Senate. And with the departure of Rep. Donna Edwards, no women will represent the state in Congress for the first time since Mikulski took office in the 1970s.
Maryland also had a contentious primary season, as nine Democrats vied for the chance to replace Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who opted to run for Senate in another heated primary race. The House race would become the most expensive of the primary.
In Virginia, two women battled for the chance to represent a large swath of Northern Virginia in what would become one of the country’s most contested House races in November. And Gov. Terry McAuliffe succeeded in keeping Virginia blue for his longtime friend and ally Hillary Clinton.
D.C. had a front seat to the contentious presidential primary. For the first time in decades, the District’s delegates, and votes, mattered, and for both parties. Republicans lined up for blocks to decide among the many contenders for their party’s nomination, ultimately supporting Marco Rubio. Hillary Clinton’s win here — the last primary before the Democratic convention — set up a meeting with challenger Bernie Sanders and his eventual endorsement of Clinton.
(WTOP/Kate Ryan)
WTOP/Kate Ryan
2. Metro’s emergency closing
On Wednesday, March 16, the region learned what a world without Metro would be like.
The transit agency shut down the Metrorail system for an entire day to make emergency inspections of the cables that power the rail system after a fire a few days earlier.
An electrical fire at McPherson Square shared similarities with the fire that filled a Yellow Line tunnel with acrid smoke and led to the death of a passenger in 2015.
“It’s happened twice in a year. I can’t wait for the third time,” General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said of the electrical fires.
The emergency closing was the first time in the transit agency’s history that the entire rail system was closed for reasons not related to the weather.
The region survived two rush hours without Metro, largely because many commuters chose to work from home or took the day off, easing the extra burden on the area’s normally clogged roads.
Less than two months later, Wiedefeld announced his SafeTrack rebuilding plan: to close entire stretches of track for weeks at a time to make critical safety repairs. The plan also included midnight closing times seven days a week, to give workers more time to access the tracks.
(WTOP/Dave Dildine)
WTOP/Dave Dildine
1. A blizzard and the big dig
A January snowstorm buried the D.C. region under 2 to 3 feet of snow.
Area schools, businesses and federal offices were closed for days as snow plows, dump trucks, bulldozers, snow melters and even industrial-sized snowblowers slowly dug out the region. Even Metrorail closed so that the trains could be stored in the tunnels. Some interstates in Maryland were closed to traffic so snow plow trains could clear the snow.
Patience wore thin when residents across the region were still waiting to see a plow 48 hours after the snow ended.
The mounds of snow lingered for months at RFK Stadium in D.C. Montgomery County spent $40 million on snow removal; D.C., 50 million.
But it wasn’t just D.C. The storm blasted across 26 states, affecting more than 100 million people, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which rated the snowstorm a Category 4, or crippling storm.
At least three people died locally due to the storm.
See photos:
–Blizzard aftermath: More digging
–1st big snow of 2016
(WTOP/Dave Dildine)
