Assault in West End neighborhood of Rockville

Montgomery County police were called to a residential street in the West End neighborhood of Rockville late last night to investigate an assault reported there. The assault was reported in the 700 block of Wilson Avenue at 11:17 PM Saturday, April 22, 2023.

Pickpocket strikes at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda

Watch your wallet at the mall. Montgomery County police were called to Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda the evening of April 18, 2023, after a pickpocketing incident there. The theft was reported at 9:47 PM at the mall.

Assault reported at Rockville nursing home

Rockville City police responded to a report of a 2nd-degree assault at a nursing home yesterday afternoon, April 21, 2023. The assault was reported at a nursing home in the 1200 block of Potomac Valley Road at 1:31 PM Friday.

Liljenquist & Beckstead to relocate inside Montgomery Mall in Bethesda

Liljenquist & Beckstead will be relocating inside Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda this summer. It's a move that will be measured in inches, as their new location will be right next to their current one on Level 2. Store manager Mohammad Khan says it will be a brand new showroom, not an expansion of the existing one. Renderings of the new showroom have just been posted on the future storefront. 

Liljenquist & Beckstead was founded in 1978 by Tom Liljenquist, President, and Sidney Beckstead, Vice President. It has four locations in the region, including their flagship store in Tysons. Liljenquist & Beckstead is an authorized retailer for Rolex sales and repairs, as well as several other luxury watch brands.

Rockville armed carjacking suspects arrested

Mateo Paredes-Vincent

Montgomery County police announced this morning that two suspects have been located and arrested in the November 23, 2021 attempted armed carjacking in Rockville. Mateo Paredes-Vincent, 19, of Washington, D.C. and Havanna Holland-Miller, 20,  of Southbridge, Massachusetts will face attempted armed carjacking charges in the incident that occurred at 5:30 PM that day, at an apartment complex in the 100 block of Talbott Street. 

Havanna Holland-Miller

Paredes-Vincent was located by detectives in an Alachua, Florida jail, where is he currently imprisoned on unrelated charges in that jurisdiction. Holland-Millar has been arrested by the Southbridge Police Department in Massachusetts. Both are in custody and awaiting extradition to Montgomery County, Maryland.

Ốc & Crab Seafood Restaurant opens in Rockville

Ốc & Crab Seafood Restaurant has opened at 765-F Rockville Pike in the Ritchie Center. It is a Vietnamese seafood restaurant, located next to Gama Korean Chicken. Delivery and takeout orders can be placed on their website. Operating hours are 3:00 PM to 10:00 PM Monday to Friday, and 12:00 PM to 10:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday.

Rockville Amazon Fresh store canceled on Shady Grove Road (Photos)

The long-anticipated Amazon Fresh store at the 270 Center on Shady Grove Road will not come to fruition. All signage has been removed from the building in stages, over the last 48 hours. This is a reversal of not only Amazon's strategy of using bricks-and-mortar stores to expand its warehousing capacity for same-day deliveries, but also of CEO Andy Jassy's recent bullish remarks that the e-commerce giant would "go big" on physical grocery stores in 2023.

Canceling the Shady Grove Road store, which is on the border between Rockville and Gaithersburg, represents a major financial loss for the company. The store was fully built-out inside as of late summer 2022, and it has sat empty with bare shelves since. That has been the case with several other Amazon Fresh stores that were on the verge of opening around the country.

Now the question would be, will Amazon use its lease of the former office supply store for another grocery or retail concept, or will it break its lease at 270 Center at further cost? Jassy said the firm had settled on a format they want to "go big" with, but he did not say if "Amazon Fresh" was that format. Montgomery County has two existing Amazon Fresh concept stores, at the Collection at Chevy Chase and Chevy Chase Lake.

Damaged Amazon Fresh sign as it
appeared April 13, 2023

The cancellation of this store is the latest retrenchment move by Amazon. It recently laid off a substantial number of employees, and has "paused" construction of several projects at its HQ2 property in Arlington, Virginia, including the centerpiece Helix building that was scheduled for a 2025 delivery. 

Bulbs exposed behind damaged area
April 13, 2023

Just a week ago, the main sign that has been lit on the front of the store was damaged. Green shards of the lower part of the logo lay on the sidewalk below the sign. The bulbs that had been hidden behind them glowed in the night, as empty shelves and navigational aisle signage remained visible inside the store. It was unclear if the sign had been vandalized, or if the damage was sustained during the recent high wind event.

Sign debris on sidewalk below on April 13

Bare shelves inside store

Signage for navigating aisles and
merchandise visible inside store