Snapped Shot

Shopping, restaurants, and rape. What's wrong with this picture?

An 18-year-old Springfield woman was raped at gunpoint while walking down the street with her infant daughter, according to Fairfax County Police.

The woman was walking with her daughter in the 7000 block Commerce Street in Commerce Plaza April 24 when, at around 7:55 p.m. a man with a handgun appeared and forced the pair to the rear of a home in the 6200 block of Dana Avenue. Police said the suspect threatened the 3-month-old baby, who was in a car carrier, raped the victim and then fled the scene.

The victim was transported to Inova Fairfax Hospital for treatment. The child was not injured.

The suspect was described as a Hispanic man in his mid-20s, around 5 feet 6 inches tall, with black hair, brown eyes, wearing a black shirt and black pants. Police said the suspect had a medium build, and "heavy acne all over his face."

Gerry Connolly's Springfield Mall

Two alleged MS-13 gang members have been arrested and charged with the late-night December 2007 murder of a Springfield man in the parking lot of the Cerro Grande restaurant at Springfield Mall.

Rafael Parada-Mendoza and Hosman Perez-Amaya, both 21 and both formerly of Fairfax County, were arrested in Texas [Ed.:—Fleeing to Mexico?] on March 14, 2008.

A federal grand jury indicted the pair in Alexandria on April 25.

At 1:45 a.m. on Dec. 2, 19-year-old Christian Argueta left the Cerro Grande Restaurant, which is also a nightclub, just before it closed at 2 a.m. Argueta and two suspects started arguing in the parking lot, and Argueta was shot and killed.

Since the incident, county police have been trying to establish a link between the shooting and a Nov. 30, 2007, Springfield stabbing at a Pizza Hut along Commerce Street.