A police standoff inside a Columbia Pike 7-Eleven has ended with gunfire.
Around 9 p.m. several ambulances were dispatched to the standoff on the 3600 block of Columbia Pike, after reports of shots being fired. One person — the wanted man who barricaded himself in the store — was reported to be shot multiple times by police and critically wounded. Medics were also sent to treat at least several officers for unspecified injuries.
Good Friday evening, Arlington. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.
The following articles were published earlier today — May 8, 2026.
Since it’s Friday, we’ve also compiled a list of the most-read articles of the week, below.
Here is what’s going on Saturday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Here are the events planned for Sunday:
Today, expect a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 4 p.m. It will be cloudy in the morning, turning mostly sunny by afternoon, with a high of 74°F. Southwest winds will reach around 11 mph, with gusts up to 21 mph. On Saturday night, there’s a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7 p.m. The sky will then be mostly clear, with a low of 56°F and a light southwest wind. See more from Weather.gov.
“Difficulties in life are intended to make us better, not bitter.”
– Dan Reeves
The MonumentCam screenshot above is used with permission of the Trust for the National Mall and courtesy of EarthCam.
We hope you have a great weekend, Arlington! If you have something to say about an issue of local note not covered today, feel free to post it as a letter to the editor on our new forum. 👋
Hello dear ARLnow readers, we at FireWorks have been busy since our ownership change discussing internally how we wanted to involve the community in our required rebranding.
The fantastic team at ARLnow was a natural fit for our passion for local journalism and our Arlington community. Please find below our short list of possible names for our store. We hope you will help us decide what should be our future name and then join us under our new banner as we rebrand, renovate, and improve our store to better serve our community.
The poll below is our short list of names but our full list is:
A threat that turned out to not be credible prompted a lockdown at two Arlington schools Friday morning.
It happened shortly before noon at Thomas Jefferson Middle School and nearby Alice West Fleet Elementary, after a caller threatened imminent violence, according to scanner traffic.
It’s a cold winter night in Almost, Maine — a small town so remote it never quite got around to being officially incorporated. The Northern Lights shimmer overhead, and something in the air makes ordinary moments feel a little electric. Over the course of one enchanted evening, love stories unfold across town: couples fall into each other, fall apart, fall back together. A man carries the weight of his broken heart in a paper bag. A woman returns the love she borrowed from a relationship that didn’t work out. Two strangers find themselves drawn together in ways neither can explain.
John Cariani’s Almost, Maine is funny and aching in equal measure — the kind of play that makes you laugh out loud one moment and go quiet the next. It’s about how love surprises us, how it shows up when we’re not looking, and how hard it is to say the thing we most need to say. It has become one of the most-produced plays in American high school theater for good reason: it speaks to everyone who has ever loved someone and struggled to find the words.
A Falls Church burial ground nearly as old as the nation itself will soon have its history explored in a new tour series throughout the coming year.
A series of monthly walking tours will explore Oakwood Cemetery and the lives of some of those interred there. The first tour will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 24, followed by a series of monthly tours planned through November.
St. Agnes Catholic Church in Arlington, VA is starting a running & walking group. The first event is a 3-mile route on May 14 (Thr) at 7pm starting (and ending at) at Courthaus Social (2300 Clarendon Blvd, Arlington, VA 22201) near Court House Metro. We will run/walk to the Marine Corps Memorial and back. Extra points if you wear Catholic swag (e.g., Notre Dame t-shirt, Georgetown jersey, your hometown elementary school shirt). Please RSVP, so we can keep you updated.
With one exception through 13 regular-season high-school soccer matches this spring, the Washington-Liberty Generals have done whatever is necessary to finish on top.
The boys team has won in a variety of ways: twice in overtime, five times by one goal, a handful by three goals or more and six by shutout. As a result, the Generals own a 12-1 overall record with eight straight wins and stand atop the Liberty District standings with a 5-0 mark leading into their final regular season game Friday night.
Efforts to fund the $181 million west entrance to the Ballston-MU Metro station took another step forward last night (Thursday).
The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) voted to include $20 million in funding for the project as part of a new request to the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB). Final CTB action is slated for next month.
Whether you’re relocating across town or leaving Arlington for the first time, a reliable moving company can make all the difference—from the first call to the last box.
Here are the nominees for “Best Moving Company in Arlington” as part of our ARLnow Readers’ Choice awards.
Did we miss your favorite mover? Write it in!
Voting will close in two weeks.
Voting for Best Veterinarian Serving Arlington is still taking place. Be sure to cast your vote before voting closes next Friday at 8:30 a.m.
Two weeks ago, we voted on the Best Pediatrician Serving Arlington. The results are now official:
The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, delivering another major setback to the party in a nationwide battle against Republicans for an edge in this year’s midterm elections.
The court ruled 4-3 that the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize mid-decade redistricting. Voters narrowly approved the amendment on April 21, but the court’s ruling renders the vote’s result meaningless.
A Wakefield High School senior is among a small group of Arlington students who have spent the past four months gathering feedback from fellow youth about the current state of the school system.
In an April 30 presentation to the School Board, Zach Dawson said there were areas where Arlington Public Schools was meeting students’ needs, but other areas where it was falling short.
Ghost Limb is a timely and haunting examination of authoritarianism set during Argentina’s Dirty War that draws poetic inspiration from the Persephone and Demeter myth. When Consuelo’s son is “disappeared” by the military, she discovers a psychic link between her injured arm and her tortured child-and races to find him before it’s too late.
Performance Days and Times
