While the alleged shooter, if convicted, deserves the blame for the murder of an innocent bystander, a high schooler and parishioner at Holy Trinity, it would not have happened without a continued soft-on-crime, no cash bail policies from local and statewide Democrat leaders. Tasheem Rashad Douglas has accumulated at least seven offenses, felonies and misdemeanors, in three years, all committed as an adult. Yet the Democratic Commonwealth Attorney couldn’t keep him in jail, she barely tried. The Democratic Party prides itself on its anti-gun stances, yet let a convicted felon to continue to not just possess a gun, but wave it around in public on numerous occasions, until he finally killed someone. As the Potomac Local reported, “Seven firearm charges in two years, multiple probation violations and an active arrest warrant. Yet, 21-year-old Tasheem Rashad Douglas was free…”
As recently as last February 15 Douglas pulled out a firearm at Manassas Mall, and when the police pursued him, he ran with his firearm into Westgate Elementary school. Instead of locking him up, with the approval of the Prince William County prosecutor he was released on a bond that only required him to swear he would show up in court. He was already a felon by then, having been convicted of a weapons charge in 2024. Sentenced to five years in the 2024 case, the five years was suspended and reduced to two months.
In 2021 Democratic Governor Ralph Northam and the Democratic legislature passed Senate Bill 1266 repealing charge-based presumptions for cash bail, and especially for illegal immigrants. This bill was passed on a party-line vote without any Republican support. Among those voting for this bill was the now State Attorney General Jay Jones, then a State Delegate. Jones has said nothing about the horrible Manassas shooting, odd for a politician who was happy to express his wishes to see Republicans and their children killed by firearms.
And what has Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger said about this atrocity? According to Inside Nova, WJLA reporter Nick Minock attempted to ask her a question about the Manassas murder at a public event in Manassas on September 7th. Inside Nova reported that “As she walked away, Minock asked whether the criminal justice system had failed the 16-year-old; why staff did not honor the promised questions; what message she had for the girl killed downtown; and whether the General Assembly should appoint judges “that make sure things like this don’t happen.” Spanberger did not respond and drove away, WJLA reported. Minock later posted video of the exchange, writing that she “ran away from my questions about a deadly shooting in downtown Manassas.”
As President Obama said, “elections have consequences.” In this case, electing soft-on-crime Democrats has had deadly consequences.
[See the excellent reporting at Potomac Local and Inside Nova.]