Surveillance video shows this Diamond Ridge, Virginia, home becoming the scene of a party where four teens were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to host a party that ended in a fatal accident.
The quiet neighborhood of Diamond Ridge in Alexandria, Virginia, suddenly was roiled by multiple “police-department vehicle convoys” and crime scene tape just after 3 a.m. on Saturday.
What happened there has got neighbors and news outlets nationwide buzzing about the rising influence of home video cameras in keeping tabs on their neighbors and neighbors’ parties.
According to police, the chaos erupted when a Rockville man noticed two youths outside his house chatting. He asked them to show identification and began filming, thinking they were part of the a “Neighborhood Watch” program and complained to police. The teens ran from the neighborhood but a SWAT team found them hiding in nearby woods.
Police have said that two of the youths carried “nine illegally possessed handguns.” A third had methamphetamine and a fourth had a large amount of marijuana. The remaining three were minors.
One 16-year-old was killed and three others injured when a car fleeing from police and stolen from a Fairfax County, Virginia, home slammed into their car on Saturday. The teens were seen on the outdoor surveillance video dancing and pretending to shoot guns as a crowd of several hundred gathered in the street.
Before police were called, the young men were taunting a crowd in the street:
The video shows the teens laughing and partying with a squad car, many teens nearby and the squad car continuing to drive off before police arrive. Then a growl is heard and the officers quickly pull out weapons as people yell.
Then the police arrive:
The video shows people dancing in the street and staring at the police.
The house is now boarded up. A home in the same neighborhood was the site of a violent armed home invasion late last year in which two people died and two more were wounded. The home where Saturday’s party was staged has long been a backdrop for numerous parties, according to neighbors.
A policeman assigned to the neighborhood said he was “shocked” by the party.
“This is a nice neighborhood, quiet and peaceful, and it didn’t have to turn violent,” the cop said.
