N.Va. sees 2 murder-suicides in 2 days
Arlington and Fairfax each saw an apparent murder-suicide incident this week.
The first, on Tuesday, involved a married Arlington couple, whom police identified Thursday. Juan Carlos Mox Mox killed his wife, Xiomara Aracely Benitez, before killing himself, according to Arlington police officials. The couple, both 30 and of Arlington, had two children.
Arlington police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck would not say exactly how the couple died.
Fairfax police responded to an alleged murder-suicide incident Wednesday night. Officers found Ihab Robert Qutob, 43, dead from an apparent gunshot wound in an apartment on Trevor House Drive, police said. They also found Alexander Aden Rios, 27, with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Qutob and Rios lived in the same unit at the address where the incident took place, but police spokesman Officer Don Gotthardt said he did not know anything else about the relationship between the two men.
Man sentenced in Shaw drug ring
A District man was sentenced Thursday to more than 14 years in prison for his role in a drug-trafficking ring that operated primarily in the Shaw neighborhood, officials said.
Espey Brown Jr., 38, was sentenced in D.C. federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute 28 grams or more of cocaine base and one count of using, carrying and possessing a firearm during a drug-trafficking offense.
When he pleaded guilty, Brown admitted to being part of a conspiracy to distribute and possess powder and crack cocaine between June 2008 and August 2011. He supplied the drugs to street-level dealers, who then sold them to users in the neighborhood of the Kennedy Recreation Center and nearby apartment complexes.
