4 charged in burglaries; Elementary school closes after illness outbreak

The DMV zone. I'm Marina Morocco. Let's get you caught up on everything that's happening across the DMV is four men right now from Maryland facing charges in connection with a string of burglaries targeting homes in Fairfax County. They were unoccupied homes and fires were started. Police say five break-ins reported at four homes between November of 2025 and July of this year. Items stolen like cash, jewelry, firearms and even a Porsche SUV. Investigators say they use video footage, digital evidence and stolen property to identify these four suspects we've got former FBI agent Ken Gray joining us now with how they were able to commit all these crimes and for some time get away with it Ken Hi Marina yes this started with an investigation back in November of 2023 and police making use of digital information videos and tracing stolen property managed to identify the four members of this burglary ring uh they they managed to get away with this for some time but if you saw the picture of the haul that they'd taken a lot of it involved firearms both long guns and also handguns so it's a it's a good thing that this group was wrapped up uh they were involved with identifying homes that had been uh victims of fires so the residents were not present there And perhaps even their security systems were not working because there was damage by fire. So this is an interesting way to target individuals like this, and they were successful for a period of time. I imagine the charges have to be supercharged, if you will. It's not just the fact that you're burglarizing and victimizing people, but you're committing the act of arson. Well, they didn't burn the houses. They identified houses that already had a fire, but then went and targeted those homes. It's not unlike when burglars target a home based upon funerals going on. They find a residence that is not occupied. Because of the fire, they're not going to be occupied for a period of time. And so they were easy pickings, and they managed to hit four places like this and came in with quite a bit of a haul. The charges were burglary, grand larceny, breaking and conspiracy to commit grand larceny, and destruction of property. And so they're looking at quite a bit of time for this racket that they were running for a period of time. Unbelievable stuff. You kick people when they're already down and clearly not a charge for that, but probably the lowest of the low that you can expect there. Ken, thank you for breaking that down as we wait more on this case and hopefully, you know, all this stuff which was not damaged and somehow salvageable is returned to the rightful owners as it seems as though police now have it in evidence. We appreciate it. Thank you, Ken. Thank you. Topic number two here at Prince George's County Elementary School closed for the rest of the week after dozens of students and staff reported flu-like and gastrointestinal symptoms. Officials say the closure will allow time for the illness to run its course and for crews there to deep clean and sanitize the building. The specific cause is yet to be identified. Got double board certified pediatrician and pediatric critical care physician, Dr. Anita Patel joining us. Dr. Patel, good to see you. You know, I think a lot of people are wondering, is this enough time? Is it too long a time to shut down the school and doesn't warrant it being shut down for a week? So it's a complicated question with a somewhat easy answer. So, you know, they're trying to, number one, stop the spread. And I know that we've all been through this before with the pandemic. This is not suggesting that this is a pandemic, but we do need to stop the spread. And it also gives the school time to disinfect and clean because there are a lot of GI pathogens. and we know that these children are having some vomiting and diarrhea that simply need actually soap and water, real disinfectant cleaning. So I think it was a reasonable choice and the best choice they had at the time. But I also want to caution parents that their kids could still be infectious. And if we unfortunately don't stay home, if we are not washing our hands with soap and water. It has to be soap and water because certain pathogens need that to actually go away. We could continue to see infections happen in this school and, frankly, a lot of schools in our area. How worried should parents be? Because, I mean, this was an entire week where these symptoms were presenting and all these people, nearly 60 of them, and now to that point, school shut down for a week. I imagine, like you said, that maybe there's still kids who've not presented with the symptoms, but could? Yes, absolutely. So I want us to think about this outbreak as a standard outbreak. It could be flu. It could be norovirus. We don't know yet. But what we do know is that, number one, infections are going to run rampant in schools. They're really efficient at doing that. And we really have to go back to the same strategies we already learned during the pandemic, not that this is a pandemic. And as I said, it's keeping your kids at home. It is making sure that they're healthy before they return. And the whole reason for all of this is really to keep our children safe, but also with the knowledge that we see a cluster of cases right now, but there will undoubtedly be more infections down the road. Yeah. I wonder your take as a pediatrician, obviously, I mean, you talk about norovirus, Right. We've seen that, especially in cruise ships where there's a large masses of people, there's a huge outbreak. And then, you know, these protocols get in place, like having hand sanitizer at stations. You wonder in elementary school, should there be hand washing breaks? Like which protocol should we be taking every day to try and avoid something like this? Yeah. So this is the good part. It's actually not that complicated and is probably what a lot of kids are already doing. And that is, number one, making sure that you're washing your hands after you go to the bathroom. You are 100 percent washing your hands before eating. And you're washing your hands if you've just done P.E. and you're touching all your classmates. These are the mitigation strategies. None of them are perfect, though. And guess what? Your kids will probably get sick at some point during this respiratory season. I have a three and a six year old. They've already been sick. So sickness is not indicative that we are heading into another pandemic. So I really tell parents this is not a time to panic, but it is a time to make sure that you are doing all the handwashing I just mentioned. It's also a great time to make sure that your children's vaccinations are up to date, particularly the flu vaccine. I will speak for myself and say that when I saw that flu cases were rising, I took my three and my six-year-old immediately to go get their flu and COVID shots. So we actually have the public safety measures. We need to use them, but also understand that we don't have a vaccine for every single virus. And I am practicing in the DMV. We are seeing crazy amounts of multiple winter viruses. And we know that things are not following the same game plan they used to. Flu season doesn't necessarily start after Halloween now. So we all need to be cognizant of that and also listen to trusted sources and trusted media outlets like yours that are really urging parents to not panic, but also telling them, pay attention, do everything that you know you're supposed to do. And I'd be remiss not to mention as a pediatric critical care doctor, watch for the warning signs, right? So in children, the warning signs that we worry about are, are they having any difficulty breathing? That is an automatic call your pediatrician and likely go to the emergency room. If your child, particularly in the kiddos that are having these vomiting and diarrhea illnesses, if you notice that they're not drinking enough and that that's resulting in them not peeing as often. So a good marker is a kid should pee every eight hours. And in our little babies, they should be peeing likely every six hours. And then lastly, use your pediatrician as your guide. They are going to know which viruses are happening in the area right now. I know that we're seeing a lot of rhinovirus locally and that is causing a lot of children to be sick. But also just lastly, remind yourself that just because your kid's sick doesn't mean they're going to end up in the hospital. It doesn't mean we're dealing with this. like, yeah. Dr. Patel, we appreciate it. Thank you. Of course. Thank you.