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Three teens charged in gay D.C. principal’s murder

Police say victim met killers through sex chat line

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Four people were arrested this week in connection with the murder of Brian Betts, the gay principal of Shaw Middle School in D.C. (Photo by Bel Perez Gabilondo; courtesy of D.C. Public Schools)

Three 18-year-old men who allegedly met gay D.C. middle school principal Brian Betts through a telephone sex chat line were arrested this week in connection with his shooting death, police said.

Alante Saunders, whom Montgomery County Police said had no fixed address, and Sharif Tau Lancaster, who lives along the 5300 block of Fifth Street, N.W., in D.C., were charged Monday with first-degree murder, armed robbery and the use of a handgun in a felony crime of violence.

Deonatra Q. Gray, who lives along the 1300 block of Southview Drive in Oxon Hill, Md., was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder, one count of armed robbery, and one count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

“While the motive of the crime is still being investigated, we believe that it is most likely going to be robbery,” said Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger during a news conference Monday.

Betts, 42, was found shot to death April 15 in a second floor bedroom of his house in Silver Spring, Md. Police said they found his fully clothed body after colleagues at D.C.’s Shaw Middle School, where he worked as principal, became concerned when Betts failed to report to work.

On the day they discovered Betts’ body, investigators disclosed they found no signs of a forced entry into Betts’ house, leading them to believe he invited his killer or killers inside.

Also charged in the case was Artura Otey Williams, 46, Lancaster’s mother. Police she was arrested Monday at the home on Fifth Street, N.W., on charges related to her alleged use of one of several credit cards taken from Betts’ house. She was not charged with the murder itself.

In a related development, D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles separately disclosed Monday that Lancaster and Sanders had recently escaped from a juvenile home where they were in custody by the city’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. Nickles did not say the criminal offense or offenses the two youths had been charged with to land them in DYRS custody.

Manger, when asked by a reporter at the Montgomery County Police news conference whether the chat line through which Betts allegedly met his killers catered solely to gay clientele, said, “I’m not aware of that. I don’t know.”

He said he also didn’t know the name of the chat line, saying only, “It’s been described as a sex chat line, a social networking chat line.” But he noted that investigators believe Betts met one or all of the three 18-year-old men implicated in the case through the chat line on the night he was murdered.

After the news conference, police spokesperson Capt. Paul Sparks described the system as a “national chat line” linked to an Internet site. Sparks said he didn’t know the name of the chat line or Internet site.

Many gay-oriented sex chat lines are advertised in local and national gay publications and web sites.

Manger’s news conference outside Montgomery County Police headquarters in Rockville came the same day that teams of police officers and detectives in Montgomery County, Prince George’s County and D.C. used search warrants to conduct early-morning raids on four residences where they believed evidence and suspects in the case were located.

Manger said Williams was arrested during a search of her house on the 5300 block of Fifth Street, N.W.

He said Saunders, Lancaster and the third 18-year-old man were taken into custody during the search of an apartment along the 1300 block of Southview Drive in Oxon Hill, Md., which is located in Prince George’s County.

Among the items found during the Southview Drive search was Betts’ wallet, which was in possession of one of the men implicated in the case, Manger said. He noted that police found a receipt in the wallet for a pair of Nike shoes that were purchased using one of Betts’ credit cards shortly after the murder.

Police also used warrants Monday to search residences along the 4300 block of Third Street, S.E., in D.C., and along the 2400 block of Southern Avenue in Temple Hills, Md., in Prince George’s County.

Neighbors reported seeing police remove items from the residences, including several large bags containing items from the home on Fifth Street, N.W., which is near the border of D.C. and Silver Spring.

According to Manger and statements released Monday by Montgomery County Police, investigators began piecing together evidence linking the murder to the arrested suspects less than a week after Betts’ body was discovered.

The first break came when investigators discovered that Williams had used one of several credit cards stolen from Betts’ house on the night of the murder to purchase $111 worth of groceries from a Giant supermarket in Silver Spring on April 16, the day after Betts’ body was found. The Giant is located less than two miles from Betts’ house. Police said Williams was recorded using the credit card on a video surveillance camera at the store.

Police charged her with two counts of knowingly receiving a stolen credit card with the intent to use it, attempted theft of items less than $1,000 in value, and attempted fraudulent credit card use. She was being held in D.C. while awaiting extradition to Montgomery County.

“Lancaster was identified through fingerprints obtained from the crime scene inside Betts’ residence,” says one of two statements released Monday by Montgomery County Police.

“Through the course of the investigation, it was confirmed that Lancaster has no known ties to Betts,” says the statements. “Saunders, also with no known ties to the victim, was identified through fingerprints obtained inside and outside the vehicle belonging to Betts, a 2007 Nissan Xterra, which was stolen from his residence on the night of the murder.”

D.C. police recovered the vehicle April 17, two days after Betts was found dead in his house along the 3900 block of Fourth Street, S.E.

“It was determined that several credit cards belonging to Betts were stolen from the residence,” one of the police statements says. “The continuing investigation revealed that Betts’ credit cards were used to make purchases throughout the area, including Silver Spring, Oxon Hill, Hyattsville, Northwest and Southeast Washington, D.C.”

The statement notes that surveillance photos show Lancaster, Saunders and Williams using the credit cards.

“This remains still a very active investigation,” Manger said during his news conference.
In response to reporters’ questions, he said he didn’t know whether Lancaster, Saunders and Gray used the chat line to rob or harm other people. He also told reporters that he didn’t know what promoted one of the suspects to allegedly shoot Betts to death if the motive was robbery.

“The interviews have not been completed, so we don’t have that information,” he said.

Sparks, the police spokesperson, said more arrests could be made in the case.

Officials with the D.C. group Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence have said that law enforcement agencies in the D.C. area should issue a public alert about criminals targeting gays for robberies and assaults through online social networking sites or phone chat lines.

GLOV co-chairs Kelly Pickard and Joe Montoni said during the group’s regular monthly meeting in April, one week after the Betts murder, that plans were made to distribute flyers and other alerts urging members of the LGBT community to exert caution when using such sites or chat lines.

On Dec. 27, gay D.C. resident Anthony Perkins, 29, was shot to death in his car in Southeast D.C. by a suspect who met him through a phone chat line, according to D.C. police and the U.S. Attorney’s office. Authorities have so far declined to name the chat line.

D.C. police charged 20-year-old Antwan Holcomb with first-degree murder while armed in connection with Perkins’ death.

And in January, gay Maryland resident Gordon Rivers, 47, was fatally shot inside his car while it was parked on Naylor Road in Southeast D.C. Police later arrested 17-year-old William Wren of Southeast D.C. and 22-year-old Anthony Hager of Temple Hills, Md., on murder charges in connection with the case.

D.C. police said in an arrest affidavit that Wren admitted knowing Rivers before the murder and having called Rivers by phone to arrange a meeting with him on Naylor Road, intending to rob him.

Police and the U.S. Attorney’s office have declined to disclose how Wren met Rivers, spurring questions as to whether the two met online or through a phone chat line.

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District of Columbia

D.C. to conduct first-of-its-kind LGBTQ veterans’ survey

Forum on trans, gender diverse service members set for Nov. 15

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From left, Mayor's office of LGBTQ Affairs Director Japer Bowles, Department of Defense official Shawn Skelly, Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs Director Charlotte Woodward, Crush Dance Bar co-owner Stephen Rutgers, Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs official Pip Baitinger, and drag performer MacKayla Starr attend the 'Voices of Courage: Reclaiming the Legacy of LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in the Military' event at Crush Dance Bar on Sept. 20. (Photo courtesy of the Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs)

As Veterans Day is celebrated in D.C. and across the nation, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of Veterans Affairs announced it has recently drawn up an LGBTQIA+ veterans’ survey that it will begin distributing in the next few months.

“This attempt to survey the LGBTQIA+ veterans population in D.C. will be the first of its kind,” according to Pip Baitinger, who serves as LGBTQIA+ Veterans Outreach and Relation Specialist in the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs.

“Barriers have existed in surveying this population due to issues of trust and neglect of the community by institutions in the past,” Baitinger told the Washington Blade. “However, this survey will attempt to accurately represent the number of LGBTQIA+ veterans in D.C. and better understand their needs,” she said.

Baitinger pointed out that in addition to working on the survey, the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs is hosting a special forum on Nov. 15 called Empowering Voices: Health and Wellness for Transgender and Gender Diverse Veterans.

The forum, which will be held from 1-3:30 p.m. at the D.C. Veterans Administration Medical Center at 50 Irving St., N.W., will include discussion, workshops, and provide resources on topics such as gender affirming care and support from experts, a flyer announcing the event says.

The D.C. LGBTQ veterans survey and the Nov. 15 forum follow a Sept. 20 LGBTQ veterans event hosted jointly by the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs called “Voices of Courage: Reclaiming the Legacy of LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in the Military.”

The event, which was held at the D.C. LGBTQ Crush Dance Bar, was not open to the press because organizers wanted to ensure that LGBTQ veterans could discuss issues that may be sensitive or private that could impact their ability to obtain certain veterans’ benefits.

Baitinger provided the Blade with a summary of the issues discussed and raised at the event and identified some of those who spoke at the event. Among them was U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel And Readiness Shawn G. Skelly, who is the highest-ranking transgender official in the Department of Defense. 

Others participating in the event, Baitinger said, were U.S. Air Force member MaKayla Starr, who performed in drag; Charlette Woodward, an official with the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs; Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs; and Baitinger herself.

The mayor’s office noted at the time that the event was scheduled to take place on the 13th anniversary of the repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law that banned LGBTQ people from serving openly in the U.S. military. Mayor Bowser issued an official mayoral proclamation declaring the day LGBTQIA+ Veterans Day in the District of Columbia.

“Discussions during the event included the need for greater LGBTQIA+ representation in the military and the progress that has thus far been achieved,” Baitinger said. 

“One of the primary areas of concern is that of transgender and nonbinary veterans and service members, who are in vital need of gender affirming care and resources, such as hormones, surgeries, and just general affirming care from doctors who will use correct pronouns during routine doctor visits,” Baitinger said in describing the issues discussed at the Sept. 20 event.

She said an additional issue deemed important at the event was ongoing efforts to upgrade the discharges of LGBTQ veterans, many of whom received so-called “undesirable” discharges under the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law before it was repealed. President Joe Biden earlier this year issued a presidential pardon that enabled veterans discharged under the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law to apply for an upgrade of their discharge to the status of honorable discharge.

A list of resources for LGBTQ veterans offered by the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs can be accessed at the department’s website.

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Delaware

Delaware advocacy group to host panel on media’s role in countering hate

Blade editor among journalists participating in Wednesday event

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Blade editor Kevin Naff is among journalists participating in a panel discussion on hate this week.

LEWES, Del. — Speak Out Against Hate (SOAH) will hold its bi-monthly community meeting at 5 p.m. on Nov. 13 at the Lewes Library and via Zoom. The meeting will concentrate on the role of the press in responding to the divisiveness and rising tide of hatred in our country and communities. 

The meeting will feature a panel of journalists comprised of Chris Rauch, owner and publisher of the Cape Gazette; Benjamin Rothstein, journalist at the Daily State News and its sister paper the Greater Dover Independent; Kevin Naff, editor and co-owner of the Washington Blade; and Jake Owens, editor-in-chief of Spotlight Delaware.

Patty Maloney, president of SOAH said, “Following a national and state elections that saw our country nearly evenly divided, this important discussion with our local press will shine a light upon the role of the press locally and nationally in confronting the obvious chasm within our citizenry.”

For more information about the event and to register, please visit Speak Out Against Hate at soah-de.org.

Speak Out Against Hate was formed to confront and counter the rising tide of hate, whenever and wherever it exists.

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District of Columbia

Gay man found unconscious near D.C. gay bar dies

Police release video of suspects in incident listed as robbery

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D.C. police released a video showing two suspects and a vehicle they believe the suspects used in committing the robbery of Bryan Smith that led to his death. (Screen capture via MPD YouTube)

D.C. police have confirmed that a gay man who worked as a hairstylist and a DJ and who was found unconscious about 5 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 27, at the intersection of 5th and T Streets, N.W. near the gay bar Uproar has died.

Friends who knew the victim, Bryan Smith, stated in a GoFundMe message seeking support for his medical expenses that he was hospitalized for a severe head injury. His family members told Fox 5 News that he was in a coma.

A D.C. police spokesperson confirmed that Smith died on Nov. 7 and the cause and circumstances surrounding his death were pending with the Northern Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office. “Once we have more information, we’ll be putting that out,” D.C. police spokesperson Thomas Lynch told the Washington Blade.

The information released by D.C police indicates Smith at some point was transferred from a D.C. hospital where he was taken by ambulance at the time he was found unconscious to a Virginia hospital, most likely at the request of family members.

Police also released a video showing two suspects and a vehicle they believe the suspects used in committing the robbery of Smith.

“The ongoing investigation has determined that the man was robbed by two suspects while walking on the block,” according to an Oct. 30 police statement released before Smith died. “Detectives are still working to determine how the victim sustained his injuries,” the statement says.

The statement adds that the suspects have been linked to three other offenses that took place that same morning, two of which were attempted robberies and one of which was a robbery of victims on nearby streets.

Smith was found unconscious on Oct. 27 about five hours after another gay man, Sebastian Thomas Robles Lascarra, 22, was reportedly attacked and beaten by as many as 15 men and women at the McDonald’s restaurant at 14th and U Street, N.W., according to a D.C. police report and information provided by Lascarra’s husband.

D.C. police announced they made an arrest Nov. 5 of a 16-year-old juvenile male in connection with the McDonald’s case. The arrest came on the same day police released photos of seven suspects in the McDonald’s assault case taken from video cameras at or near the McDonald’s.

In their release of the video showing the two suspects in the Smith case, police are asking that anyone who may recognize the two individuals should contact police at 202-727-9099 or text their tip to the department’s TEXT TIP Line at 50411.

“Anyone who may have seen or heard something suspicious in the 500 block of T Street, NW, or the surrounding area around 5:00 a.m. Sunday [Oct. 27] is asked to call the police or text police,” the statement accompanying the release of the police video says. 

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