Wheaton

WHEATON -- Montgomery County police are investigating the fatal shootings over the weekend of two Wheaton men -- the first a homicide late Saturday, the other apparently a suicide that authorities said may be related. Police found the body of homicide victim Wilber Hernandez, 30, of the 3400 block of Hewitt Ave. near the back entrance of Cancun Restaurant on Georgia Avenue in Wheaton shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday. While searching for a car witnesses said was used in the shooting, officers found a similar car on Elkin Street, with Luis Toledo, 31, of the 12000 block of Shorefield Court inside suffering from what was apparently a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

Millersville man, 26, charged in the shooting of his father A 26-year-old Millersville man was charged in the shooting of his father yesterday. Anne Arundel County police said Eric M. Radford pulled out a handgun during a fight with his father and shot him in the upper torso. Marshall S. Radford was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with injuries that were not life-threatening, authorities said. Eric Radford was charged with attempted first-degree murder and related offenses. Police said they responded to the 800 block of Oakdale Circle in Millersville about 1:15 p.m. in response to a report of a shooting.

A pregnant woman in her 20s was shot to death yesterday afternoon in a home in Wheaton where she was renting a room, Montgomery County police said.Doctors at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda delivered Maria Elizabeth Rodriquez's 9-month-old fetus, but the baby died within three hours of the shooting, a hospital spokeswoman said.Police said Ms. Rodriquez was shot about 1:25 p.m. at a house in the 3500 block of Floral Street in Wheaton.Rescue workers called to the scene found Ms. Rodriquez dead from two gunshot wounds to the head.

We who are sports fans frankly are lucky. Our world is entirely about fun and games, so much so that in the newspaper business, the sports section is not so affectionately referred to as the toy department, because what we deal with is piffle. Every so often, though, the real world intrudes upon play and forces us to examine what we hold dear and why and whether, in the pursuit of wins and losses, we are doing the right thing for ourselves and, most importantly, for our children. Such an instance has presented itself in Montgomery County, where a talented football player is being allowed to suit up and play this year despite facing two felony charges, including one that he allegedly drove the getaway car in a March 30 robbery.

A 25-year-old woman selling flowers on a roadside in Wheaton was reported kidnapped yesterday afternoon, Montgomery County police said. Pasquala Hernandez-Hernandez was selling flowers with her husband about 1:30 p.m. when a red two-door compact car with dark-tinted windows stopped at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Veirs Mill Road. The car's passenger door opened and Hernandez-Hernandez was pulled inside, according to police. The car sped off, heading south on Connecticut Avenue.

A man was killed last night when he was run over by a car while lying on a street in Wheaton, Montgomery County police reported.After drinking with friends, Dindo Rabot Ravarra, 20, walked in the roadway in the 2200 block of Glenallen Ave. shortly before 11 p.m. and lay down, police said. Ravarra, of the 2000 block of Randolph Road in Wheaton, was run over a few minutes later.A 1986 Ford Escort driven northbound by Mary Ann Hanlon, 39, of the 13700 block of Lionel Lane in Rockville, ran over Ravarra, police said.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Andre Agassi's precious white outfit was wrinkled, and his right thigh was wrapped. He was hurt but still brawling on a hot summer evening, an All-American quarterfinal against David Wheaton turning into a Centre Court rumble.Agassi was two points from a Wimbledon victory yesterday that would have silenced his critics, proving once and for all that underneath the Las Vegas glitz and the shoulder-length bleached-blond hair beats the heart of a tennis champion.And then . . . Agassi lost the fourth set. And then, he lost the match, 6-2, 0-6, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3)

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority marked the opening of its 3.2-mile Metrorail Red Line expansion yesterday with a carnival-like ceremony in Wheaton at the landing of "the longest escalator in the free world."Hundreds of balloon-toting onlookers snatched up free round-trip passes and marveled at the 230-foot escalator.Officials said it is the longest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere and -- worldwide -- second only to Leningrad's. It takes an estimated 2 1/2 minutes to descend.

A 3-year-old Ellicott City boy who wandered from his supervised Sunday school group drowned yesterday in a church pool in Wheaton, Montgomery County police said.Police were called at noon by members of the Washington Dae Sung Baptist Church in the 800 block of Randolph Road in Wheaton, after David Hahm was found in the swimming pool.Police said Hahm and a 3-year-old playmate wandered from the Sunday school class about 11: 20 a.m. and headed toward the pool, which is behind a house on the property.

WHEATON, Ill. -- Junior Joe Jerele's goal lifted Wheaton College into the final four and coach Joe Bean to his 500th career win, as the Crusaders defeated Salisbury State, 1-0, yesterday in an NCAA Division III men's soccer quarterfinal.Bean is the third men's soccer coach and the only Division III coach in NCAA history to win 500 games.Jerele scored the game-winner 29: 43 into the first half."We didn't clear the ball cleanly," Sea Gulls coach Gerry DiBartolo said of Jerele's goal. "The longer it stays in the box, anything can happen."

If you enter the hospital with pneumonia today, there's a good chance you'll be treated by a new kind of specialist - a hospitalist - instead of your family doctor. More than half of all large U.S. medical centers now use hospitalists, and new programs are springing up across the country. Fifteen years ago, the situation was far different: primary care doctors were in charge of treating many hospital patients. "It's a sea change in the nature of health care," says Dr. Bob Wachter, a hospitalist and researcher at the University of California at San Francisco.

A 25-year-old woman selling flowers on a roadside in Wheaton was reported kidnapped yesterday afternoon, Montgomery County police said. Pasquala Hernandez-Hernandez was selling flowers with her husband about 1:30 p.m. when a red two-door compact car with dark-tinted windows stopped at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Veirs Mill Road. The car's passenger door opened and Hernandez-Hernandez was pulled inside, according to police. The car sped off, heading south on Connecticut Avenue.

WHEATON - At 13, Simon Cho is too young for a soul patch and too green to be thinking about the Winter Olympics just a year away. But this weekend on a rink in Milwaukee, the wiry speed skater with muscles of steel and a will to match will see how he stacks up against the best in his age group at the U.S. National Short Track Championships. From that field will come the Olympians of 2010 and, perhaps, the next Apolo Anton Ohno, the gold and silver medalist from 2002 who made a hairy lower lip as much a part of his uniform as a helmet.

WHEATON - The serpentine path beckons visitors to stroll up the slight incline, toward a pond where turtles sunbathe on the islands, an area so serene that the turtles' slide into the water and birds' chirps break the near-silence. But first, approaching the pond's edge, the path opens into an irregularly shaped terrace of gray stones. More than 150 people are expected here today, as Montgomery County unveils a Reflection Terrace, a memorial in Wheaton Regional Park's Brookside Gardens to the sniper victims and other victims of violence.

It's `All Good' Everything is "all good" this weekend in Masontown, W.Va., as fans gather for the eighth annual All Good Summer Festival and Campout. The festival, which begins tomorrow , boasts three days of music, workshops, crafts and kid's activities. Performers include Keller Williams, the Disco Biscuits, Medeski Martin and Wood, Dark Star Orchestra, North Mississippi Allstars and more. Jah Works and the Recipe will perform early-arrival sets tonight. Family and handicap camping are available, and there will be ice, food and crafts from vendors, activities and a kids' play tent, but no babysitting will be provided.

WHEATON -- Montgomery County police are investigating the fatal shootings over the weekend of two Wheaton men -- the first a homicide late Saturday, the other apparently a suicide that authorities said may be related. Police found the body of homicide victim Wilber Hernandez, 30, of the 3400 block of Hewitt Ave. near the back entrance of Cancun Restaurant on Georgia Avenue in Wheaton shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday. While searching for a car witnesses said was used in the shooting, officers found a similar car on Elkin Street, with Luis Toledo, 31, of the 12000 block of Shorefield Court inside suffering from what was apparently a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

A vicious, apparently racially motivated attack on two black women in Montgomery County last week focused new attention on the state's little-used hate-crimes law.Two white men have been charged under the hate-crimes statute in a Wheaton incident in which one of the men allegedly beat a 39-year-old black woman, stripped her half-naked, doused her with charcoal lighter fluid and tried to set her ablaze.Police allege that the men, John R. Ayers Jr., 21, of Rockville and Sean T. Riley, 19, of the Wheaton area had been drinking and were cruising Georgia Avenue early Tuesday morning, "hunting" for black victims, purportedly in retaliation for having been called a racially derogatory name by three black men the previous Friday.

For the 13th-ranked Liberty Lions, the toughest aspect of last night's Class 3A West regional quarterfinal wasn't keeping visiting Wheaton at bay. It was keeping their own composure.In a game featuring five yellow cards, one ejection and nearly 20 minutes of injury time, Liberty scored two goals in each half en route to a 4-0 win.Despite dominating play throughout, and outshooting the Knights, 23-4, the Lions had to contend with a young and sometimes frustrated Wheaton team that sometimes pushed the limits of aggressive play.

Salisbury's softball team rebounded from Saturday's 11-inning loss to Moravian with an 8-0 victory over Wheaton in the NCAA Division III tournament losers' bracket yesterday in Salem, Va., to stay alive in the national title hunt. The Sea Gulls (40-7) defeated Wheaton (33-12-1) on the strength of a six-run fourth. Right fielder Erin Ruest hit her sixth home run of the season, a grand slam during that inning. Baseball: UMBC (14-34, 6-12) scored 10 runs in the sixth inning and defeated host Stony Brook, 13-10, in an America East contest.

Moravian (Pa.) College scored an unearned run in the bottom of the 11th inning, capping a come-from-behind 6-5 victory over Salisbury in a winners' bracket semifinal at the NCAA Division III softball championships in Salem, Va. The loss sent the Sea Gulls (39-7) to the double-elimination tournament's losers' bracket, where they'll face sixth-seeded Wheaton (Mass.) today at noon. MORE SOFTBALL: Georgia Tech eliminated Maryland from the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, scoring four times in the fifth inning to take a 6-4 win over the Terrapins (33-27)