Manassas voters removed the only Republican from City Council on Tuesday, handing all three open seats to Democratic nominees.
Unofficial results from the Virginia Department of Elections show Dianne Lane, Jill M. Spall and Helen Anne Zurita taking the seats. Incumbent Theresa Coates Ellis finished fourth. She has served on the council since 2019 and was the sole Republican on the body.
Manassas City Council deadlocked 3-3 twice Monday on the first reading of a rezoning that would put 162 apartments and a public parking garage on the former Manassas Ice and Fuel site at 9007 Center Street, then left the outcome unclear when the clerk’s language on the tape said the item both “is passed” and “is deferred.”
A motion to defer the item failed 3-3. Theresa Coates Ellis, Sonia R. Vásquez Luna, and Ashley Hutson voted yes. Mark D. Wolfe, Ralph J. Smith, and Tom Osina voted no. A motion to approve produced the same split: Osina, Smith, and Wolfe yes; Ellis, Vásquez Luna, and Hutson no. Under ordinary council rules a 3-3 vote fails. Official minutes or a later clarification will be needed to confirm what, if anything, advanced.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Bull Run Unitarian Universalists as “Brew Church.” The congregation’s acronym is BRUU.
Manassas police recovered more than 25 shell casings from the street at the Church and Main intersection after shots were fired about 11 p.m. Friday outside Bull Run Unitarian Universalists (BRUU). No injuries were reported, and officers already within one block of the scene arrived in less than one minute.
The City of Manassas and Historic Manassas Inc. have canceled the final 2026 First Friday after considering community feedback. The decision follows the Sept. 4 shooting during the packed downtown event that killed 16-year-old Patriot High School student Ashley Intihar, an uninvolved bystander, near the train depot.
Police said gunfire broke out about 9:30 p.m. amid roughly 10,000 people. Xavier Wanzer, 19, of Orange, approached Tasheem Rashad Douglas, 21, over a prior conflict. Douglas, a convicted felon already out on bond, fired and struck Intihar. Wanzer and Talib Davis, 23, of Fauquier County, returned fire. Douglas faces second-degree murder and firearms charges. Wanzer and Davis face malicious wounding and firearms charges. All three are held without bond. The organizations will focus the rest of the year on fall and winter seasonal events instead, and residents can share feedback on First Fridays for 2027 through a questionnaire.
District Hemp Botanicals will close its store at 9417 Main Street in Historic Downtown Manassas on Saturday, Oct. 17, after nine years in business, founder Barbara Biddle announced this week.
In a letter published by Manassas NOW, Biddle said she was sharing the news “with a heavy heart.” She described the shop as a mission focused on education, access and alternatives, and said changing regulations, the loss of popular products and challenges for independent hemp businesses made it impossible to continue. A 50% closing sale runs through the final day.
The Manassas Journal has posted videos of the School Board and House District 20 portions of its Oct. 4 candidate forum at the Manassas Museum. Readers can watch the videos on the Journal’s site.
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Manassas City Police shut down six massage businesses and arrested three people Tuesday in Operation False Front, the department said.
The operation started with a Crime Solvers tip. Detectives and assisting agencies served search and arrest warrants at the businesses and at homes in the City of Manassas, Fairfax County, and Prince William County. Police said they seized several hundred thousand dollars in cash, plus records. Several people the department described as human-trafficking victims were found and given services.
Gita Kafle told a Manassas courtroom she and her daughter often video-called two or three times a day until the calls stopped around July 30, 2024, DC News Now reports.
She said she reached Naresh Bhatt about five days later and he told her Mamta had gone to work and had not come back. The trial recessed Thursday until Tuesday at 9 a.m. Detective Claudia Ventura of Manassas Park Police is expected back on the stand. The paper said about an hour of body-camera video from her August 2024 interviews with Bhatt was played Thursday.
Virginia Railway Express wants a federal planning grant to study how extreme heat, inland flooding and storms could affect its tracks and stations. The Operations Board on Sept. 18 recommended authorization to submit that application jointly with the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority.
The recommendation covers the U.S. Department of Transportation PROTECT planning-grant round for fiscal years 2024 through 2026. PROTECT is the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation program. Chief Executive Officer Katie Choe told the board she expects the grant to be about $800,000, fully reimbursed, with no local match. That figure is her expectation. It is not an award, and the written item does not state a dollar amount.
