The D.C. space went via a number of adjustments this 12 months.
The highs included the Washington Commanders having the primary nice 12 months in far too lengthy, and pandas returning to the Nationwide Zoo.
The 12 months had lows, too. The collapse of Baltimore’s Key Bridge killed six employees, tragic murders have been uncovered throughout the DMV and extreme climate shook the area.
The U.S. received huge within the Olympics (our native athletes did too!), we gawked at bizarre popular culture moments just like the Willy Wonka expertise in Scotland (sure, that occurred this 12 months), and the nation had a groundbreaking election with surprises to the very finish.
In case you forgot, we put collectively among the largest tales of 2024 so that you can look again on.
DC day care employees rush kids out of constructing earlier than explosion subsequent door
The proprietor and staff of a Southeast D.C. day care heart rushed greater than a dozen infants and youngsters exterior once they smelled fuel coming from a constructing subsequent door in January. Minutes later, a constructing that was residence to a comfort retailer was leveled and two different buildings have been broken in a fuel explosion.
The day care heart proprietor was counseled for having an emergency plan and executing it quick and flawlessly, probably saving the lives of each youngster and worker.
“I need each father or mother that sends their children there to know they which might be ready and so they do job,” D.C. Hearth Chief John Donnelly stated.
Snead stated she felt honored and was simply doing her job. “It took some very particular folks and some particular abilities to get the kids out,” Snead stated.
Airplane lands on Loudoun County Parkway in snowstorm
“I search for and the airplane’s like 20 toes above me and it lands like 20 toes in entrance of me,” a person stated after a small airplane made an emergency touchdown on the parkway. News4’s Mauricio Casillas stories.
In January, the D.C. space received its first snowstorm in two years — and days later, a second storm arrived, inflicting a airplane to make an emergency touchdown on the Loudoun County Parkway. The small airplane had seven folks on board when the pilot landed on the parkway. Nobody on the airplane or on the bottom was harm.
“I search for and the airplane’s like 20 toes above me and it lands like 20 toes in entrance of me. And, simply driving, I’m like, ‘Uh, what’s occurring?’ So, they go down, they land it. They received squirrely on the finish right here and crashed into the guardrail,” a witness stated.
Firefighter Trevor Brown dies in a Northern Virginia home explosion
On Feb. 16, a volunteer firefighter was killed in a home explosion Friday that additionally injured 13 others. Trevor Brown, 45, a father of three, died in a catastrophic explosion that destroyed a house in Sterling shortly after a big propane tank was discovered leaking, Loudoun County hearth officers stated.
The tragedy spurred an outpouring of help, together with a memorial on the web site of the explosion with notes and flowers.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin spoke at Brown’s memorial service, describing him as a hero who labored a 12-hour shift, took his children to highschool and sure stated, “If not me, then who?” when responding to the Sterling emergency.
‘We misplaced our superb sons’: Two little boys die after Clifton home hearth
In April, two younger brothers pulled from a home hearth died after a number of days in intensive care, leaving their household devastated.
Northern Virginia Bureau Reporter Drew Wilder reveals how the brothers, 3 and 6, are being remembered.
Zachariah and William Brice and their 8-year-old brother, Logan, have been within the care of their grandparents when the fireplace broke out of their Northern Virginia residence. Logan ran exterior and known as 911, and his grandparents tried to get to his brothers however couldn’t, neighbors stated. The youthful boys have been trapped in a lethal cloud of thick smoke that broken their lungs and brains.
“When William and Zach have been discovered, William was really protecting and defending Zachariah. We knew that to be his character as a result of that is simply who he’s and he, himself, is a hero,” their father stated.
William’s love lined Zachariah like a protect, defending his little brother till the top.
Cargo ship strikes and collapses Baltimore’s Key Bridge, killing 6
The ship Dali suffered an influence failure on the worst attainable second after which slammed into the Key Bridge in a vital location, inflicting the bridge to crash down. Six employees who have been on the bridge died within the collapse.
It’s one of the catastrophic and preventable maritime disasters in Maryland historical past, Gov. Wes Moore stated whereas saying a sweeping lawsuit towards the ship’s proprietor and its operator.
Maryland estimated rebuilding the bridge may take 4 years and value almost $2 billion. The federal authorities is ready to foot the invoice as lawsuits drag on.
NBC4
DC strikes deal to maintain the Caps and Wizards
The Capitals and Wizards have performed at Capital One Enviornment in downtown D.C. for greater than twenty years. That received’t change anytime quickly.
However a 12 months in the past, it actually appeared like Washington’s professional hockey and basketball groups can be shifting to Alexandria, Virginia. Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Monumental Sports activities and Leisure CEO Ted Leonsis’ assertion on the finish of 2023 gave the impression of a achieved deal.
However then, a surprising reversal got here after tumultuous months full of bitter battles between group members, a billionaire and political leaders.
The brand new deal will maintain the Caps and Wizards in D.C. till at the very least 2050 and will remodel the neighborhood.
Stumpy’s final stand
D.C. misplaced an area icon in 2024.
Stumpy, the long-lasting half-dead cherry tree that grew new blossoms each peak bloom regardless of all odds, was faraway from his residence close to the Tidal Basin to make means for a brand new seawall.
It was a loss all of us anticipated – the light however relentless flooding close to the Jefferson Memorial was the rationale Stumpy earned his nickname, and took out his brethren years earlier – but it surely was a tragic loss nonetheless.
After a collection of heartfelt tributes throughout peak bloom within the spring, District residents visiting the tidal basin one sunny mid-morning in Might have been greeted with an empty sq. of development netting the place Stumpy as soon as stood.
In case you’re tearing up another time remembering Stumpy, concern not: His descendant-clones are already rising on the Nationwide Arboretum, and can sooner or later be planted in the identical soil that sprouted our hero.
Photo voltaic eclipse
1000’s of individuals turned out on the Nationwide Mall, gathered on rooftops and placed on eclipse glasses throughout the Washington, D.C., space on April 8 to have a good time a uncommon and mesmerizing photo voltaic eclipse.
1000’s of individuals within the Washington, D.C., space stepped exterior Monday for a glimpse of a last-in-a-generation photo voltaic eclipse.
At 3:20 p.m., when the eclipse reached its most level, crowds started to cheer on the Nationwide Mall and at viewing events across the D.C. space. Greater than 80% of the solar was blocked in D.C., and daylight filtering via the timber solid crescent-shaped shadows.
Monday’s complete photo voltaic eclipse was the final one which shall be seen over the continental U.S. for an additional 20 years. D.C., Maryland and Virginia weren’t within the path of totality, however different main cities from Dallas, Texas, to Burlington, Vermont, noticed a corona of sunshine because the moon utterly obscured the solar.
The Washington Commanders draft Jayden Daniels with the second general choose
The Commanders wanted a hero, and Jayden Daniels delivered.
The Hail Mary. Comeback victories. Ending the Eagles’ profitable streak. Washington’s finest begin in a technology.
And subsequent, playoffs.
Daniels made 12 landing passes within the fourth quarter and extra time, a file for an NFL rookie, and he’s favored for Rookie of the 12 months.
“Because the moments get greater, he will get higher,” Mike Tirico stated.
The Commanders made it to the postseason with an 11-5 file, and the vibes are pretty much as good as youthful generations can keep in mind.
Jayden Daniels is likely to be single-handedly altering the outlook on the Commanders season.JP Finlay appears at how they pulled off a win towards the Cardinals.
Police clear pro-Palestinian protesters at GW campus
Because the Israel-Hamas struggle raged, D.C. police arrested 33 demonstrators after clearing the pro-Palestinian protest encampment at George Washington College on Might 8. The police motion on Day 14 of the protests started after 3 a.m., after faculty directors requested for assist eradicating college students and others from campus property.
Protesters, which included GW college students and others, demanded the college’s divestment from Israel and an finish to Israeli assaults within the Gaza Strip.
“They got here in full riot gear – a whole lot of cops,” demonstrator Mimi Ziad instructed News4. She stated police shoved demonstrators and sprayed them with pepper spray.
Hours after police arrested protesters, crews labored to take away tents and wash chalk off the roadway. News4’s Joseph Olmo takes a glance.
Northern lights dazzle the DC space
An unusually sturdy photo voltaic storm produced beautiful shows of colour within the skies throughout the Northern Hemisphere in Might.
It appeared like a once-in-a-lifetime stroke of luck, maybe – till one other sturdy photo voltaic storm in October introduced the aurora borealis to D.C. and its suburbs.
Viewers despatched of their pictures of the northern lights seen within the space Thursday night. Storm Team4 Chief Meteorologist Doug Kammerer shares a few of these photos.
‘Our total state grieves’ after Maryland parole officer discovered slain in offender’s condo
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore ordered flags within the state to be flown at half employees in June earlier than a slain parole officer was laid to relaxation.
The agent, 33-year-old Davis Martinez, went to verify on a registered intercourse offender who had been launched from jail in 2021. However after Martinez did not return to work, Montgomery County officers went to the offender’s condo. There, they discovered the physique of the lacking parole agent.
Martinez was pronounced useless on the condo within the 2800 block of Terrace Drive in Chevy Chase, police stated.
Gaithersburg twister outbreak
A robust twister and storm tore via Montgomery County in June, leaving injury for at the very least 45 miles. Residents in Gaithersburg, Maryland have been left with energy outages and broken houses as timber fell on prime of them.
5 folks have been injured in a single Gaithersburg residence with one in every of them left with traumatic accidents. Two or three tornadoes hit in that space of Montgomery County, with winds as excessive as 105 mph, the Nationwide Climate Service stated.
A motorist’s dashboard digital camera captured a second when a funnel cloud touched down in Gaithersburg. He spoke with News4’s Walter Morris about what he witnessed.
Martin Perez was at residence in Gaithersburg together with his spouse, daughter and two buddies when a twister struck and excessive winds toppled a tree onto his residence, splitting it in two.
One man risked his life and went out within the storm to pursue his dream of being a twister chaser.
‘Each girl, universally’: Army spouse is first Asian American, transgender girl to win Miss Maryland
Bailey Anne Kennedy, the newly topped Miss Maryland of 2024, made main historical past as the primary Asian American girl and the primary transgender girl to win the title. The army spouse additionally competed within the first 12 months that married girls might be within the Miss USA pageant.
And to prime all of it off, this 12 months’s competitors was Kennedy’s first pageant.
Newly topped Miss Maryland USA, Bailey Anne Kennedy is a army spouse and the primary Asian American and transgender girl to win the title.
Kennedy’s platform within the competitors was that “magnificence has no expiration date,” she instructed News4. Issues like being a mom, or pursuing a childhood dream that you simply thought was now not attainable to realize, are all a part of the great thing about life.
“Now, having received the title, it is superb. I simply need it to be reflection of the LGBTQIA+ group, that we’re all coming from totally different backgrounds and totally different walks of life,” she added. “We’re similar to anyone else.”
Chilly case murders of Shenandoah hikers solved almost 30 years later
Almost three many years after the murders of two girls in Virginia’s Shenandoah Nationwide Park, the FBI says they now know who was accountable for the horrific crime.
Julie Williams and Lollie Winans have been murdered at their campsite close to Skyland Resort in Might 1996. Winans was 26 and Williams was 24.
A fellow hiker and convicted serial rapist sexually assaulted and killed them, the FBI stated, after new DNA testing.
28 years after two girls have been brutally murdered in Shenandoah Nationwide Park, the FBI says they’ve solved the case. News4’s Paul Wagner stories.
Walter Leo Jackson, initially from Cleveland, is the suspect within the double homicide, members of the FBI’s Richmond Subject Workplace stated at a information convention. Jackson died in jail in 2018 after a legal historical past that included rapes, assaults and kidnappings, the FBI stated.
The FBI says investigators are nonetheless wanting into Jackson’s previous, and whether or not they can hyperlink him to different crimes.
Bethesda native Katie Ledecky expressed satisfaction in what number of swimmers from the D.C. space discovered success within the swimming portion of the Paris Olympics. She spoke with News4’s Jummy Olabanji.
Paris Olympics
The Paris Olympics was a wild trip, from an formidable opening ceremony to controversies to hilarious memes. However hometown satisfaction was our favourite story. The athletes of Staff DMV not solely introduced residence heaps of medals, however made historical past many times.
Katie Ledecky, the Bethesda, Maryland, native, secured her title because the most embellished feminine Olympian of all time. Arlington’s Torri Huske received 5 medals in swimming.
Watch U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles win the boys’s 100m on the Paris Olympics.
Alexandria’s Noah Lyles took bronze within the 200M – regardless of a COVID analysis. Simply days earlier than, he received the boys’s 100m by fraction of a second in a wild photograph end.
And one other runner, Maryland excessive schooler Quincy Wilson, made Olympics observe historical past by operating on the age of 16.
One other summer season COVID surge
One other summer season COVID surge had folks asking: Ought to we fear about COVID anymore? And the way can we navigate altering expectations?
News4 spoke to a number of well being and infectious illness specialists to get solutions.
For the overwhelming majority of individuals, COVID has turn out to be one other respiratory virus to deal with, stated Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious illness professional and senior scholar on the Johns Hopkins Heart for Well being Safety. However, on the identical time, the virus nonetheless hospitalizes and even kills some folks.
“In case you’re anyone that simply had a model new lung transplant, sure, you need to care. In case you’re a wholesome 18-year-old, it is in all probability much less essential to you. Every individual goes to be impacted by COVID uniquely. No two circumstances are the identical,” he stated.
Adalja stated it’s pure for the virus to be much less disruptive to folks’s lives with every successive wave in circumstances.
The seek for Mamta Khafle Bhatt
Mamta Kafle Bhatt, a 28-year-old nurse, was reported lacking after failing to indicate up for her shifts at work. Mates stated that was extremely uncommon since she was caring for her child and infrequently energetic on social media.
Her husband, Naresh Bhatt, 37, of Manassas Park, was indicted in December on expenses of homicide and defiling the physique of his spouse. Police have stated they consider her physique was dismembered.
A grand jury indicted a Virginia man on a first-degree homicide cost within the case of his lacking spouse. News4’s Walter Morris stories.
Mamta, initially from Nepal, moved to the U.S. for an organized marriage in 2021. She missed her child woman’s first birthday, and her relations rushed to the U.S. to handle the kid.
Mates and group members have helped seek for Mamta and rallied to push police to search out her.
“On the finish of the day, we nonetheless stand right here combating for justice,” Holly Wirth, a spokesperson for family and friends of Mamta, stated. “We’re going to be Mamta’s voice till the top of the trial.”
Bounce home flies into air at Maryland baseball sport, killing 5-year-old boy
A 5-year-old boy died after an inflatable bounce home went airborne throughout an expert baseball sport in Waldorf in August.
Aug. 2 was a “Religion and Household Night time” at Regency Furnishings Stadium in Waldorf earlier than tragedy struck. A bounce home with kids inside “was carried roughly 15 to twenty toes up within the air, inflicting kids to fall earlier than it landed on the enjoying discipline,” Charles County officers stated in an announcement.
A Maryland church is holding a prayer service after the dying of a 5-year-old boy in a bounce home accident. News4’s Drew Wilder spoke with the boy’s father.
Declan Hicks, the 5-year-old boy, was enjoying within the bounce home on the time. He and one other youngster have been rushed to a hospital the place Declan later died.
“Phrases simply cannot clarify how outstanding he was,” his father stated on a video name, saying Declan turned 5 solely a month earlier.
DC Councilmember Trayon White arrested by federal authorities
D.C. Council member Trayon White was arrested on a federal bribery cost in August and accused of accepting tens of 1000’s of {dollars} in money bribes.
White is accused of agreeing to simply accept $156,000 in change for utilizing his place to strain staff of the D.C. Workplace of Neighborhood Security and Engagement (ONSE) and the D.C. Division of Youth Rehabilitation Providers (DYRS) to increase a number of contracts, prosecutors stated.
White was the chair of a D.C. Council committee that oversees a number of businesses, together with DYRS. The D.C. Council stripped White of his committee management and in December took a step towards expelling him.
White isn’t set to face trial till 2026.
DC Police Investigator Wayne David dies after gun he retrieved from storm drain goes off
D.C. police suffered a tragic loss in August. Investigator Wayne David, a 25-year veteran of the division, was shot and died of his accidents after he tried to retrieve a gun thrown right into a storm drain in Northeast D.C.
A suspect threw the gun into the drain after operating from a suspicious car and leaping over a retaining wall. He then jumped on the again of a motorbike and fled.
Wayne David, a 25-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Division who died on the job final month, was remembered Thursday by D.C.’s mayor, the police chief and his kids at a procession and funeral.
David, an officer with the Violent Crimes Suppression Division, tried to get the gun out of the road. The gun fired, hitting him within the higher physique and killing him. He was 52 years outdated.
Fellow members of MPD and members of David’s church in Southeast remembered him as a person with an enormous coronary heart and an enormous smile who beloved to offer again to his group.
Two weeks after David’s dying, the man accused of hiding the gun within the drain turned himself in to police on the seventh District Police Station. He was charged with carrying a pistol with no license.
In September, David was honored with a procession and funeral, the place D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C Police Chief Pamela Smith spoke alongside David’s kids.
HFStival returns to DC
The D.C. and Baltimore space’s iconic (and lengthy useless) HFStival returned to life this summer season.
The Postal Service, Dying Cab for Cutie, Incubus, Bush and Jimmy Eat World introduced the sounds of the ‘90s and 2000s again to Nationals Park in September for sooner or later of nostalgia and music.
Rock bands from the Nineties are making a comeback, and D.C. music lovers are losing no time getting them to the District. News4’s Mark Segraves has the story.
Herndon double homicide case updates
An au pair named Juliana Peres Magalhaes and Brendan Banfield, the daddy of the household for whom she labored, are accused of working collectively to kill Banfield’s spouse, Christine Banfield, and a stranger, Joseph Ryan, contained in the married couple’s Herndon residence in February 2023.
Prosecutors stated Brendan Banfield and the au pair concocted a plan to make use of a intercourse fetish web site to lure Ryan to the house.
Detectives say the 2 claimed Ryan had attacked Christine, prompting Brendan — a regulation enforcement officer for the Inner Income Service — to fireplace his weapon at Ryan.
Almost eight months after the killings, Fairfax County authorities arrested Peres Magalhaes and charged her with second-degree homicide in Ryan’s dying. Brendan Banfield was indicted within the murders of his spouse and Ryan in September, almost a 12 months after Peres Magalhaes was arrested.
In a search warrant affidavit obtained by News4 in November 2024, investigators detailed recorded conversations between Peres Magalhaes and Banfield’s mom, Teresa Banfield.
New pandas arrive on the Nationwide Zoo
D.C. received two new residents in October! Big pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao arrived at their new residence on the Nationwide Zoo and a number of folks within the D.C. space have been there to offer them a heat welcome.
It was introduced in Might that the Zoo can be getting two new pandas after Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Xiao Qi Ji returned to China in 2023. Bao Li’s grandparents, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, arrived in D.C. in 2000 and lived on the Nationwide Zoo for almost a quarter-century. Over time, they welcomed the zoo’s first-ever surviving panda cubs.
On Oct. 15, panda followers have been capable of observe the purpose the place the pair have been loaded into their crates onto the Panda Specific to the second they landed at Dulles Airport.
Zoo members will get a preview from Jan. 10-19. The brand new pandas will make their public debut Jan. 24.
China Wildlife Conservation Affiliation
Trump wins; Harris delivers concession speech from Howard College campus
After the days-long anticipate an election winner in 2020, People have been anticipating to not know the outcomes of the 2024 election immediately. The winner relied on the choice of a handful of swing states, with hours of cautious poll counting anticipated.
However all of these swing states have been known as for former President Donald Trump between the time polls closed on Nov. 5 and the early morning hours of Nov. 6. Different decisive outcomes rolled in additional rapidly than anticipated.
State after state turned pink on the electoral map. The initially electrical ambiance at Howard College, the place Vice President Kamala Harris’s marketing campaign hosted its election evening celebration, turned subdued. Round 1 a.m., Harris’s marketing campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond arrived on stage to inform the group that she wouldn’t communicate that evening.
Kamala Harris conceded to Donald Trump in a speech at Howard College and stated she’s going to assist Trump enact a peaceable switch of energy.
The U.S. woke on Nov. 6 to the information that Donald Trump was projected to win a second time period, turning into the nation’s forty seventh president. He gave a triumphant victory speech within the early morning hours, and his win was met with pleasure.
All components of the DMV have been known as for Vice President Kamala Harris within the historic 2024 election, with decisive wins in D.C. and Maryland, and a narrower margin in Virginia. Residents have been “dissatisfied” and expressed disappointment, fear and concern a few second Trump time period.
However when Harris conceded the race from Howard’s campus that afternoon, her speech was not bleak or despairing.
“Whereas I concede this election, I don’t concede the battle that fueled this marketing campaign,” she stated.
“On the marketing campaign, I’d usually say, ‘After we battle, we win,’” Harris instructed the group, lots of them in tears. “However right here’s the factor: Typically the battle takes some time. That doesn’t imply we received’t win. That doesn’t imply we received’t win. The essential factor is don’t ever surrender, don’t ever surrender, don’t ever cease making an attempt to make the world a greater place.”
‘Slave’ texts telling folks to ‘choose cotton’ despatched to DC, Virginia and Maryland residents
Individuals all through the D.C. space and throughout america reported receiving racist spam textual content messages the day after the election in November that instructed them to report back to plantations to choose cotton.
News4’s Aimee Cho spoke with a D.C. mother about how the texts have affected her household.
One screenshot of the textual content stated: “Greetings, You’ve gotten been chosen to choose cotton on the nearest plantation. Be prepared at 12PM SHARP together with your belongings. Our Govt Slaves will come get you in a Black Van, be ready to be searched down as soon as you have enter[sic] the plantation. You might be in Plantation Group S”
The FBI is investigating the texts and is involved with the Justice Division and different federal authorities, the company stated in an announcement.
“It is worrisome,” stated Pam, a lady who didn’t wish to be recognized however stated her household and buddies acquired messages. “The entire election had folks anxious, after which now we have now to take care of random messages coming throughout our cellphone, to Black folks, folks of colour. It is not truthful.”
Owl makes itself household’s Christmas tree topper
Christmas timber usually have a star or an angel on prime, however at one Arlington residence the week earlier than Christmas, an owl flew down the chimney like a sure jolly outdated elf and did just a little adorning of its personal.
Savannah Burgoyne was taking good care of her child Wednesday when she heard one thing within the hearth. Later within the day, their canine received nervous and howled. A short while later, when Burgoyne went into the kitchen, she discovered herself face-to-face with a barred owl.
“I walked into our kitchen, and there was an enormous owl sitting on our child’s highchair,” she stated.
The owl flew over to the Burgoynes’ Christmas tree, knocking the star off the highest and changing it.
“I’m, like, very personally unhappy that there’s no Hogwarts enrollment letter that it got here with,” she joked.
The household known as the Animal Welfare League of Arlington. After flying round and delighting the household’s 3-year-old and 6-year-old daughters, the owl departed off into the evening.
Jimmy Carter, thirty ninth President of america, dies at 100
Former President Jimmy Carter died Dec. 29 at age 100, prompting an outpouring of recollections and plans for memorials, together with remembrances in Washington, D.C.
Carter graduated from america Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1946, however many within the D.C. space keep in mind his native connections cast after his time period within the White Home from 1977 to 1981.
Jeni Stepanek, mom of Maryland author Mattie Stepanek, spoke to News4’s Erika Gonzalez about her friendship with former President Jimmy Carter after his dying Sunday.
He mentored younger poet Mattie Stepanek, the Rockville boy whose message of peace captivated the nation in his books together with “Heartsongs.” Stepanek was recognized with dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy. After the boy died at age 13, Carter helped Mattie’s mom, Jeni Stepanek, share her son’s message.
“When Mattie died, he turned an expensive buddy of mine, and he started mentoring me as effectively,” Stepanek instructed News4. “And so he tried to help Mattie’s Basis, his namesake Basis, and educate me to be a frontrunner. And he simply mentored me as a buddy and anyone that was dealing with a number of challenges.”
Carter even strapped on a device belt to assist construct and rehabilitate houses in Northeast D.C. in 2010 whereas working with Habitat for Humanity.
He’ll be honored with a state funeral in Georgia and Washington in January.
