Tonya N. Bell, 30, is charged with aggravated assault, and prosecutors say they are considering additional charges. She is accused of driving through a police barricade into the crowd Saturday evening, sending people and strollers flying and injuring at least 40 people. According to charging documents, Bell told police she had been "smoking crack all day."
Bell had until recently worked in the office of Marion Barry, former mayor and a District of Columbia Council member, as a receptionist employed by a temp agency. Barry's office issued a letter terminating its contract with NAI Personnel.
Bell appeared to be laughing as she drove the car with flattened tires and broken windows into the crowd, said Linda Greene, who saw Bell's car from her porch.
"The car just passed so fast, and all of a sudden I just heard people screaming," said Denise Jackson. "I turned around, and it was like bodies falling out of the sky."
This story is horrible and any cheap comments that I have about the Marion Barry crack angle seem juvenile and really low. Luckily, no one was seriously injured.
This does remind me of one of my favorite headlines of all time. Barry won his current city council seat in 2004 and one of the NYC tabloids went with this:
"Barry Gets Another Crack at Politics."
No comments:
Post a Comment