Beverage regulation report conflicts with police affidavit on DC9 case
UPDATE 12:53 p.m.: A spokesperson for ABRA has just confirmed that a hearing on DC9's liquor license has been scheduled for Nov. 1 at 10 a.m. The hearing will be open to the public.
Original post: As the investigation into the death of 27-year-old Ali Ahmed Mohammed outside DC9 continues, the direction that prosecutors take in terms of filing additional murder charges against all or some of the five suspects will likely come down to which of them allegedly did what, and when. And a new report filed by an investigator for D.C.'s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration conflicts with a version of the story contained in a police affidavit filed in court on the case.
Rend Smith already reported on some of what the ABRA report says for the Washington City Paper, but one detail stands out: ABRA investigator Erin Mathieson quotes MPD Captain Michael Farish as stating that in the moments after Mohammed threw a brick through the front window of the bar, it was Arthur Zaloga who was the first to reach the victim and tackle him to the ground early Friday morning. This account is different from the charging documents presented to a judge by D.C. police on Saturday, which states that two witnesses saw Evan Preller, and not Zaloga, do the catching and tackling.
ABRA investigators aren't trained to conduct murder investigations, but this is still a discrepancy that needs to be cleared up. Ward 1 D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham recently told DCist that police investigators have led him to believe that one or more of the five suspects, Zaloga, Preller, Darryl Carter, Reginald Phillips, and co-owner Bill Spieler, has provided information to police that may make a murder charge for one or more of the men more likely.
The only people who really know what happened that night that led to the death of Mohammed are the individuals who were there. But one argument for the ABRA report potentially being flawed is that Arthur Zaloga is a rather slight man of small stature. It's difficult to imagine him being physically capable of throwing another man to the ground. Could he still have done it? Anything's possible. But right now we have two official accounts that don't match.
We've contacted Captain Farish, who heads the MPD's Homicide Branch, to see if he can shed any light on why these two reports differ, and will update as we learn more.
6 Comments
S Parry
Arthur Zaloga is not by any means a large man, but he is not small either, and is larger than Evan...the fact that needs to be addressed here is the number of gross errors in the "facts" that have been circulating since Friday morning. No one has a set story on what happened, and the police keep contradicting each other. Also: why has the M.E. report not been released yet? Are they waiting for the tox screen? That can take weeks? Also: It's absolutely obscene that this terrible incident is being tainted with the racial brush. 2 of the accused are black, 1 hispanic. I think the brick through the window had much more to do with this than the color of the victim's skin.
douglas guerrin
Umm Sommer Mathis, how do you know Mr. Zaloga is a slight man of small stature? Do you know him personally or did you find out from the police? Did you do the basic research necessary to compare him to Mr. Preller's height and size? You might want to do that.
Sommer Mathis
I have met both men and observed them both in court.
Your official 2 cents
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