8/3/2019 Honoring the nations heroes (The Washington Post)

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saturday, november12, 2011 E Z M 2

ABCDE

METRO

Obituaries Alan Mootnick, a self-taughtauthority on gibbon biology, founded aconservation center for the primates. B4

Things to do

Get a rundown of the regionsbest weekend events, includinggames, exhibits, oyster-tasting

and plenty of music.

THEDISTRICT

Shots near White House

Gunshots were apparently firedon Friday night, according tofederal law enforcement officials.

Theyre investigating an incidenton Constitution Avenue. B3

ONFAITH

Q&Awith the new bishop

The Posts Michelle Boorstein talkswith the Rev. Mariann Budde, who onSaturday becomes the first woman to

head the Episcopal Diocese ofWashington.B2

D.C. settles suitin fatal shootingof teen by officerCITY AGREESTO PAYUNDISCLOSED SUM

Rawlingss father: Now Ive got some justice

Study: Metro employeesoverworked, fatigued

BY CHERYL W. THOMPSON

A $100 million civil lawsuitagainst the District and two D.C.policeofficersinvolvedin the2007fatal shooting of a 14-year-oldSoutheast Washington

boy over a stolen mini- bike was settled lateThursday for an undis-closedamount.

The family of DeOnteRawlings sued the cityand officers JamesHaskeland AnthonyClayin connection with thedeath of the Ballou HighSchool freshman. The of-

ficerswere offduty whenthe shootingoccurred.

Haskelhassaidthathe andClay were driving in Haskels sport-utility vehicle in pursuit of Rawl-ings as the teen sped off onHaskels minibikeat theHighlandDwellings public housing com-plex in Southeast.

Haskel, who said the bike hadbeenstolenfrom hisgarage earlierin the day, said Rawlings got offthebikeand fired athim, prompt-ingthe veteranofficerto fireeight

bullets in 5.5 seconds. Rawlingswas killed by a single bul-lettothebackofhishead.

No lead residue wasfound on the boys cloth-ing, and no gunshot resi-due, soot or powder wasfound on his fingers orhands, according to theautopsy report. No foren-sicevidencetiedRawlingsto the shooting, and nogun was found at the

scene.I know my son didnt shoot at

them, Charles Rawlings, the vic-timsfather,saidin aFridayphoneinterview.Now Ivegot somejus-tice.

Haskel and Clay did not return

settlement continued onB6

BY DANA HEDGPETH

Metrorail employees in safety-critical jobs including train op-erators, supervisors and mainte-nance technicians are workinglonger hours than allowed, a

workloadthata joint analysissays

could lead to fatigue and acci-dents.The Tri-State Oversight Com-

mittee (TOC), which monitorssafety at Metro, partnered withthe transit authority for fivemonths to study how it managesfatigue among its employees. Theresults are to be presented Thurs-dayto Metros board ofdirectors.

According to a copy ofthe finalreport,Metro employees insafety-critical jobs work a de facto 16-hourdaymaximum,andtherearenolimitsonthenumberofconsec-utive days anemployeeworks.

The study analyzed a 28-daysample of Metrorail employees inthe operations and maintenancedepartments. The employeesidentitieswere kept confidential.

One employee in Metros auto-mated train control division saidhe was constantly fixing mis-

takesmade byhis colleagues andattributed thepoor workquality,inpart,to fatigue.

Dan Stessel, Metros chiefspokesman, wrote Friday in ane-mail that the report will be dis-cussed at Thursdays safety andsecurity committee meeting butthat changes could still be made.We will defer comment until thefinal report is presented to thecommittee,Stessel wrote.

Matt Bassett, TOC chairman,declined to comment until he

metro continued onB3

JOHNMCDONNELL/THEWASHINGTONPOST

AtrainpullsintoMcPhersonSquare onFriday.There areno federalruleslimitingthenumberof hoursMetroemployees canwork.

DeOnte

Rawlings diedSept.17,2007.

Honoring the nations heroesIn ceremonies across the region, thousands gather for remembrance on Veterans Day

BY VICTOR Z APANA AND JIMM PHILLIPS

Some stood amid headstones, fighting off chilly winds.Others gathered in chapels, in town squares and atmarble halls. They were family members, friends andstrangers, and they sought Friday to honor the sacrificesof the nations service members on Veterans Day.

Among themost poignantand notable of ceremoniesoccurredat Arlington National Cemetery, wheremournersleft ornamentsand trinkets by headstones and where hundreds of people including President Obama came to pay their respects.

The president placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns

and later held his hand over his heart as taps were played.At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, thousands assembled and

many gave generously toward a planned multimillion-dollarlearning center forthe site.In ArlingtonCounty, residentsrang a

vintage Pennsylvania church bell. Students and professors at theUniversity of Maryland convened in Memorial Chapel to honortheir veteran colleagues.

And in Silver Spring, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) andMontgomery County officials celebrated the completion of

Veterans Plaza, a milestone in the decades-long process to

veterans continued onB6

PHOTOSBY NIKKIKAHN/THEWASHINGTON POST

Clockwisefrom top leftare servicemembers at theVeteransDay ceremonyat ArlingtonNational Cemetery: flagbearerCarlos

Lanceof Baltimore;GeorgeBruzgis ofHaledon, N.J.; RobertHartenstein of Canton,Ohio; andMaryGarcia of Chesapeake,Va.

BILLOLEARY/THEWASHINGTONPOST

HonorGuardmembers fromvarious armedservicesfile intopositionat ArlingtonCemetery.As partof Fridaysceremony,

PresidentObama laid a wreathat theTomb ofthe Unknowns.Throughoutthe day, mournerslefttrinketsnearheadstones.

A standing ovation for their sit-insMemorial at Morgan State honors alumnis pioneering role in segregation fight

BY D ANIEL DE VISE

baltimore In 1953, sevenyearsbeforethe formallaunch ofthe sit-in movement, studentsfrom Morgan State College werelining up daily at the lunchcounter of Reads drugstore.There, some manager or anxious

waitress would recite the Mary-land trespassing statute and askthem to leave.

Scholars at the historicallyblackuniversity believe thatthey were the first students in thenation to organize sit-ins fordesegregation. This week, theirrole in the nations civil rights

movement was finally honored.Please rise, said Larry Gib-

son, a University of Marylandlaw professor, addressing astanding-room-only crowd inMorgan States movie theaterThursday afternoon. Half of theaudience took to its feet: nearly200 alumni of what is nowMorgan State University, the hu-man legacy of a 15-year cam-paign of sit-ins, picketing andarrests that transformed a segre-gated Baltimore.

There wasMel Butler, whosat,hungry, at segregated lunchcounters. And Clarence MitchellIII, arrested at the whites-only

Hoopers Restaurant downtownin 1960. And Regina WrightBruce, jailed with 350 otherstudents in a mass arrest outsidethe Northwood Theatre in 1963.

And there was John Lewis, theFreedom Rider-turned-Georgiacongressman, hailing them fromthe stage: Thank you, each andevery one of you, for getting inthe way.

Narrativesof thestudent sit-inmovement generally begin in1960, at a Woolworths lunchcounter in Greensboro, N.C. Thestart of the broader student civil

morgan continued onB4

Constituent service still a job preserver

In Fairfax County,

abandoned pool mayhave swung board race

BY FREDRICK KUNKLE

If theres a reason FairfaxCounty Supervisor John C. Cook

won by a gnats eyelash in Tues-days election, it might have to do

witha bigholein theground.Democrats and Republicans

both say that Cook, a Republicanwho eked out victory over Demo-cratic challenger Janet S. Oleszek

by 372 votes in the closelywatchedBraddock District,had a

recordof dealingwith hyper-localproblems.

And perhaps no such problemwas asvexingas what todo aboutthe abandoned eyesore that once

was the Kings Park West SwimClub.

After the community pool,faced with decliningmembershipand growing maintenance bills,closed several years ago, the site

became a magnet for graffiti art-ists and other troublemakers. Italso was a safety hazard. Neigh-

bors explored putting a day-carecenter or homes there. But noth-ingcame ofsuchideas.

So Cookworkedwith thecoun-tys Department of Public Worksand Environmental Services and

the FairfaxCounty ParkAuthorityon a plan to transform the siteinto a storm-water retention ba-sinand parkland.

Oleszeks campaign chairman,Benjamin A. Tribbett, thought ofthedefunctpoolon electionnight

when returns showed the usuallyDemocrat-friendly Robinson pre-cinct, where the pool is located,

wentfor Cook by55 votes.The reality is that theres just

nothing you could say to a hard-enedDemocratthat wasliving onthat street theyregoingto votefor the guy who fixed it, saidTribbett, who writes the Not Lar-ry Sabato blog.

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8/3/2019 Honoring the nations heroes (The Washington Post)

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B6 EZ SU KLMNO SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2011

Lookfor mostly clearskies, withonly afew high,thin clouds to filter the brightsunshine.High temperaturesof about 60 perhaps a bit higher seem withinreach. The forecast alsocalls forintermittent breezes of 5 to 10 mphout of

the warm southwest.

POSTLOCALpostlocal.com

News, traffic,weather. Now.

Honoring veterans sacrifices

redevelop the citys downtownandrememberthose whoserved.

Friday was a particularly sig-nificant Veterans Day not onlyfor its date 11/11/11 but alsofor events that transpired sincethe last one. The death of Osama

bin Laden. Allegations that thenations largest military mortu-ary mishandled troops remains.The10th anniversaryof 9/11.Theannouncement that the Iraq war

will imminently end.First lady Michelle Obama,

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panet-ta and D.C. Mayor Vincent C.Gray were among those who

visited Arlington. The presidenttold the crowd that he hadordered the hiring of more veter-ans by the federal governmentand called for a new spirit ofsacrifice. He referenced thecoming end of the Iraq war,

which drew cheers.After a decade of war, the

nation we now need to rebuild isour own, Obama said beforeheading to San Diego to attend a

veterans from B1 college basketball game aboard

an aircraft carrier.Two miles away, federal offi-cials and veterans urged familiesto remember a different war. Theceremony by the Vietnam Veter-ans Memorial was broadcast aspart ofa 12-hourtelethon toraisefunds for an education centerplanned for the memorial site.Event organizers said they gar-nered at least $2 million.

Joe Galloway, who served as ajournalist for United Press Inter-national during the war, told theaudience that the center wouldhelp civilians, especially politi-cians, better understand battle.

We need smarter, better-edu-cated politicians, he said. Theyshould not be allowed to vote fora war if they dont know whatone is firsthand.

John Dobish, who served inthe Navy, said he was struck byGalloways criticism. The politi-cians in Washington arent ac-complishing anything by keep-ing us in Iraq, he said.

Meanwhile, Montgomery offi-cials unveiled Veterans Plazas

finishing touch: a three-piece

memorial made of bronze andglass.Van Hollenspokebriefly at the

ceremony, apologizingfor havinglost his voice. He said he had

been using it a lot over the pastfew days, trying to talk somesense on that joint committee

you may have heard about, re-ferring to the debt supercom-mittee on Capitol Hill.

Veterans representing eachsection of the military, many inuniform, showed up at the cer-emony. Among them was JackHewitt, who was instrumental inthe planning of the plaza.

Hewitt, one of seven brotherswho fought in the Vietnam andKorean wars, said he is proud of

beinga veteranandof thecountyfinishing Veterans Plaza.

To be here as the countyprovides this [to remember] allthe veterans in the county, stateand country, I can do no morethan tosay thankyou,thankyou,thank you, he said.

zapanav@washpost.com

phillipsj@washpost.com

D.C. settles suit in DeOnte Rawlings killing

callsto theirhomes Fridayseekingcomment.

The settlement needs approvalfromMayor VincentC. Gray.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. La-

nier declined to comment. Thepolice department doesnt com-ment onthingslikethat, shesaid.

D.C. Attorney General Irvin B.Nathan said he was pleased thatan agreement hadbeen reached.

In order to avoid the uncer-tainty of litigation . . . we thoughtit was in the best interest of thepublic as well as the Rawlingsfamily to resolve this matter ami-cably, Nathan said in a phoneinterview Friday. We came to areasonablecompromise.Its averysad andunfortunatesituation.

It was Haskels third shootingon the force in 12 years. In theprevious shootings, which werenotfatal,he alsohadbeenoff dutyandwas cleared.

The killing outraged residentsandwasoneofthe mostemotionalandcontroversialincidents inthecity in decades. Lanier and then-

MayorAdrianM. Fenty(D)public-lypromised athoroughandtrans-parent investigation but quietlyreturned the officers to their jobs

before the internal police investi-gationwas completed, a moveLa-nierdescribedas notunusualina recent e-mail to a WashingtonPostreporter.

Lanier has declined to discussthe matter further, citing person-nel issues.

Haskel and Clay were sued forcivil conspiracy and violatingRawlingsscivilrights.Haskel wasalso sued for assault and battery.Federal prosecutors decided notto charge them in 2008, sayingHaskel was justified in shootingRawlings.

The trial, which had beenscheduled to begin this week inU.S. District Court, was delayedafter Rawlingss attorney com-plainedto JudgePaulL. Friedmanthat Nathans office had handedhim1,700pagesof FBIdocumentsand 51 additional crime-scenephotographs at the last minute.Friedman admonished the Dis-

settlement from B1

tricts lawyers during a hearingMonday, saying that he wasashamed.

This is not the way to try acase, Friedmansaid.

Nathan said his office turnedovertherecordsas soonasthe FBIreleasedthem.

We werent sitting on it, hesaid.Ina subsequent hearing,Fried-

man postponed the trialuntil January and urged

bothsidestosettle.Haskel and Clay have

denied any wrongdoing,includingusing excessiveforce.

Any actions taken . . . were necessary and rea-sonable under the cir-cumstances and carriedoutpursuanttolawfulau-thority, the city said in court rec-ords. All actions taken by Officer

James Haskel were taken in thedefenseof himselfand others.

But Charles Rawlings said theofficers should nothave taken thelawintotheirown hands.

Ifsomeone tookyourbike,youcall 911, he said. They knew therules. They knew the law. If they

wentby therules,my sonwouldbealive today.

The Post examined the case 19months after the shooting andfound a series of police missteps.

Haskel and Clay failed to identifythemselves as police officers anddidntattendto thewoundedRaw-lings.

I didnt even approach him,Haskelsaid inhis deposition.

The officers also left the crimescene without securing it, Haskel

on foot and Clay driving Haskelsvehicle, taking crucialevidence Haskels SUV had been hit by a

bullet withhim.Haskel is assigned to

the special operations di-vision. Clay, who was as-signed to the police acad-emy at the time of theshooting, now works inthe departments publicinformation office.

Clay acknowledged inhis deposition that heknew leaving the scene

violateddepartmentpolicy.Thatwas a personal decision I

made, he said.Charles Rawlings said he took

the settlement because he wastired.

GodtoldmeIvegottoforgive,hesaid.I cant keepcarryingthat

burdenon myshoulders.Haskel and Clay know they

made a mistake, he said. Theyhandled things real bad. Who can

we trust if we cant trust the po-lice?

thompsonc@washpost.com

MARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POST

DeOnteRawlingssbody was foundon thepavementalongsidethis

chain-linkfence afterhe was shotby an off-dutyD.C. police officer.

Charles

Rawlings

BILL OLEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST

Visitors to ArlingtonNational CemeterywaveAmericanflags at theVeteransDay ceremony. During

Fridaysevent, PresidentObama saidhe has ordered thefederal governmentto hiremore veterans.

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