The female victim in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jose Sandoval May 16 has been able to provide Herndon police with a description of the shooter(s), confirms Sgt. Jerry Keys of the Herndon Police Department. The police are withholding the number of suspects and decline to confirm witness reports that at least one shooter had a gang tattoo, however, police have determined the shooting was gang related.
"She has communicated with investigators," Keys said.
Both Keys and Herndon Police Chief Toussaint Summers Jr. have said there is no evidence that Jose Sandoval, a freshman at Herndon High, was involved with gangs.
"We have confirmed the suspect is a gang member," said Summers at a community meeting Thursday. "The victim is not in our gang database or the state's database."
AT THAT SAME MEETING, Summers assured the community that everything was being done to find the person or people responsible for the shooting.
"I'm 95 percent sure the homicide suspect will be in jail within a week," Summers said.
Keys is more cautious, saying the investigation is ongoing and is "going where we want it to go," but that he doesn't expect "anything to jumping up real soon." The investigators are in the process of reinterviewing people in the neighborhood, making sure no information was missed.
He said the victim has provide vital information and the investigators are following up on what she old them.
"We're trying to put everything together in a package. We have suspects we're looking into. We're trying to narrow it down to specific individuals," Keys said. "You only get one shot at the trial because of double jeopardy."
JAN LESLIE, principal of Herndon High School, also addressed the more than 300 residents who attended the community meeting. She said that as a result of the shootings, rumors have been floating around the school concerning future incidents, all of which she said have proved to be unfounded. Nonetheless, the school is taking them seriously and each rumor is being investigated. Security was increased Friday because of the rumors, but no incidents were reported.
"Herndon High School is a small city of 2,300. … My sister's kids don't even live in a city that big," Leslie said. "Regarding [the rumors about last Friday], I love Herndon, but you are a rumor-latent community. … Quite frankly, the rumors came from people very separated from the immediate events."
In addition, Leslie described the various programs and steps the school personnel has put into place over the last three years to combat gang activities, ranging from prevention programs to the expulsion of those deemed too disruptive to the learning environment.
"We've been active. Have we stemmed it? Not 100 percent," Leslie said.
She described the mood of the students as sad, but not angry or retaliatory. Last Tuesday, students painted the rock in front of the school and placed flowers around it in memory of Jose. Leslie said the memorial was moved to a courtyard inside the school's grounds to provide grieving students privacy and to prevent gang members from coming along and tagging or destroying the memorial.
JOSE AND THE FEMALE, 16, were walking in the 1000 block of Park Avenue May 16, when, around 9:41 p.m., both were shot. The female is in stable condition at Reston Hospital. Jose was also transported to Reston Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police have said it was not a drive-by shooting or a robbery, and that the incident is not believed to be retaliatory in nature, referring to a gang-related machete maiming of a teen-age earlier this month in the Alexandria area.