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The Prince George’s County Council unanimously appointed a new member to the District 6 seat left vacant after Wala Blegay was appointed last month to fill an at-large seat.

Longtime county resident Danielle Hunter will serve in the District 6 seat through Dec. 7.

She previously worked inside County Executive Aisha Braveboy's office as the director of appointments for the county's board and commissions.

“I’m really excited about this position. It gives me the opportunity to continue to do what I’ve already done and already have been doing for a very long time. I just haven’t been on the forefront of it,” Hunter told News4.

Hunter and her family have lived in Prince George's County, Maryland, for more than 20 years, and they've been in the District 6 area of the county for the past seven years, she said.

She said safety, education and health care are her top priorities, and she wants to get a better understanding of the council's budget constraints.

“It is an opportunity for me to really push what the constituents are looking for,” Hunter said. “And address and be a part of a lot of the solutions, voice my concerns.”

Prince George's County, Maryland, news updates, events and information

In December, the council unanimously voted to appoint Wala Blegay to an at-large seat, a move some criticized because multiple people from outside the council applied for the position.

“Everyone is considered. The reality is that there are a lot of great candidates,” Council Chair Krystal Oriadha said. “Everyone will have the chance in six months to vote for the person that they feel represents them the best, and I hope that the members that we choose to represent and stand on the council do a great job."

Hunter said her focus will be on learning and serving the residents of District 6 until her appointment ends in early December. She plans to run for the seat in the hopes of serving a full term in the position.

“We need to continue to work together. We need to filter out a lot of the negativity that's sometimes bestowed upon Prince George’s County. We need to collectively hear each other and keep a positive dialogue,” she said.

SoBe has operated in the community for 12 years, becoming a familiar space for families, friends, and neighbors to connect.

LANHAM, Md. — After more than a decade serving as a gathering place for food, fellowship, and community, SoBe Restaurant and Lounge in Prince George’s County is preparing to close its doors.

The popular Lanham restaurant will shut down Sunday night, owner Anthony Simpson confirmed in an exclusive interview with WUSA9.

“It’s bittersweet,” Simpson said. “Sad for the community a little bit — we tried to anchor the community and of course the way that we do in serving good food and environment for people to come out.”

SoBe has operated in the community for 12 years, becoming a familiar space for families, friends, and neighbors to connect. Simpson said the decision to close ultimately came down to a lease dispute with the landlord.

“It’s a lease situation where the landlords decided to go in a different direction,” Simpson said. “They were asking for a personal guarantee, and after reviewing the documents and realizing that it was not a good business decision or personal decision for my family.”

Simpson said the new lease terms would have left his family financially responsible for years to come.

Despite the closure, Simpson said he remains proud of what SoBe represented and the memories created inside its walls.

“We’ve had so many great memories from so many people — all the way to 100-year-old birthday parties,” he said. “Everybody knows it was a safe place to come to. We took pride in our food, which my wife put together the menu.”

Prince George’s County At-Large Councilmember Wala Blegay said SoBe has long been a staple in the community.

“People said we need places to go and eat, we need places to go and gather, and this is one of the places that we had that had no issues,” Blegay said.

Blegay said she was surprised by the announcement, noting she had attended a fundraiser at the restaurant just last week.

“I feel like I grew up in this space,” she said.

The closure also underscores broader challenges facing Prince George’s County, where leaders have been working to retain and attract local businesses. Blegay said county officials are actively focused on restaurant development and economic growth.

“We’re really looking for more people who want to operate restaurants,” she said, adding that the county’s economic development corporation is prioritizing those efforts.

As for Simpson, he hopes his journey serves as an inspiration, particularly for young people in the community.

“For young boys and girls to look at me as a minority, a Black man in this community, and know that they too — it’s possible,” he said.

Simpson said he has received multiple offers to continue the business in some form and hinted that SoBe's legacy could live on through his son.

“It’ll probably be turned over to my son and his vision for the future, so SoBe could possibly survive this,” he said.

WUSA9 reached out to the landlord for comment, but has not yet received a response.

Before closing, SoBe will host several final events, beginning Friday night, through Sunday, as the Simpson family prepares to say goodbye and thank the community for more than a decade of support.

Compared with other Metro stations around the D.C. region, the area surrounding the Capitol Heights Metro station is unremarkable at best.

“Four acres of asphalt — a parking lot that just sits empty,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said, describing the stop on Central Avenue, which sits right on the Maryland side of the D.C. line.

But in the future, state, local and transit leaders said it will be radically different.

Local leaders announced Tuesday that Atlantic Pacific Companies will lead the redevelopment of the land surrounding the Metro station.

It’s one of a long list of projects tied to Prince George’s County’s efforts to revamp what’s known as the Blue Line Corridor, which runs near and along Central Avenue from the D.C. line to just outside the Capital Beltway.

“This station is the heartbeat of the Blue Line Corridor,” Moore said.

The state is investing $17 million into this redevelopment project, with plans for more than 300 affordable housing units and about 10,000 square feet of new retail space when it’s completed. For this particular project, the rents will be priced for those who make 60% or less of the area median income.

During the announcement, Moore also touted his support for three bills that lawmakers will consider when they return to Annapolis next week. One would see over 300 acres of state-owned land that sits adjacent to transit stations in Maryland be made available for further redevelopment. Moore said that could lead to more than 7,000 new housing units and nearly $1.5 billion in new tax revenues.

Another bill the governor announced his support for is called the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development’s Starter and Silver Homes Act. That bill would supersede local zoning laws and make it easier to build smaller, less-expensive starter homes and townhomes.

Built on smaller housing lots, the new homes could be up to 30% less expensive than the homes being built now, according to Jake Day, Maryland’s secretary of housing and community development.

A third bill backed by the governor aims to ensure regulatory certainty during the construction approval process.

A $140M development is moving forward next to the Capitol Heights station on Metro's Blue Line, a corridor where Prince George's County and Maryland officials are pushing for more growth.

Metro selected a development team led by Atlantic Pacific Cos. to build 320 affordable apartments on a 3.8-acre surface parking lot next to the station, the transit agency announced Tuesday afternoon.

The apartments will be set aside for renters making no more than 60% of the area median income. The project is also planned to include 10K SF of retail.

The site was previously awarded to Donatelli Development in 2014, but its project fell through and Metro began seeking a new development team in September 2024.

The team selected Tuesday includes Torti Gallas + Partners as the architect and Whiting Turner as the general contractor. Atlantic Pacific Cos., a Miami-based developer with a national portfolio, owns at least three properties in the D.C. area and is also partnering on a 293-unit senior housing project near the Capitol Heights station.

Sitting just over the Maryland side of the border with D.C., the Capitol Heights neighborhood only had seven new homes built between 2020 and 2024, according to the Blue Line Corridor Coalition. But the area is now primed for significant residential development in the coming years as state officials target it for growth.

Several officials and development partners quoted in Metro's Tuesday press release — including Gov. Wes Moore and Prince George's County Executive Aisha Braveboy — framed the Capitol Heights project as a significant step toward addressing the area's housing shortage.

"This Blue Line Corridor project will help close the housing shortage in the community, connect more Marylanders to opportunity, and demonstrate what transit-oriented development should look like," Moore said in a statement.

Maryland in 2024 allocated $17M to upgrade the infrastructure around the Capitol Heights Metro station to allow for development. And the state has committed $450M to advance development on the Blue Line corridor, stretching from the D.C. border to the Largo terminus station.

The corridor suffered a major loss last year when the Washington Commanders announced plans to leave Northwest Stadium in 2030 and build a new stadium in D.C. Prince George's County officials had advanced plans for more mixed-use development around the stadium and along the Blue Line corridor when vying to keep the team there, but they are still moving forward with the efforts.

The Blue Line Corridor Coalition, launched in October, is led by the Local Initiatives Support Corp. in partnership with local business owners, developers and officials. It aims to spur revitalization and "equitable development" in the area, in part by supporting affordable housing projects.

LISC provided financing to a 158-unit mixed-income project that Community First Development Corp. is building in the Capitol Heights area. Amazon's Housing Equity Fund also provided financing for that project in 2022.

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. - A Prince George's County man accused of killing his four-month-old son will stay behind bars for now.

Police believe 24-year-old Khalil Brooks-Clarke caused injuries that led to the death of his infant son. But his defense attorney is pushing back, telling FOX 5 that the evidence doesn't add up.

What we know:

It was an incredibly intense and emotional bond hearing in an Upper Marlboro court hearing Monday afternoon.

Khalil Brooks-Clarke's family sat on one side, while family and loved ones of the child's mother sat on the other.

According to the charging documents, Brooks-Clarke was caring for his four-month-old son, Kairo, on Friday, Dec. 27. Brooks-Clarke says he woke up because Kairo was breathing abnormally, saying it's something the baby has done before.

He says he laid the baby down, made a bottle but when he came back, the baby was unresponsive. He said he then called 911, around 12:40 a.m., and started giving the baby CPR until EMTs arrived.

Kairo was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The defense argued that there were no visible signs of harm to the baby and this could be sudden infant death syndrome, but according to court documents, a CT scan showed skull fractures on both sides of Kairo's head.

His death was declared a homicide, and it was noted that some external factor caused injuries.

Dig deeper:

Multiple family members say the baby was fine just hours before 911 was called.

The child's mother spoke with investigators and in court today and said Brooks-Clarke had a history of shaking the child.

"She stated that the defendant did not like when the baby cried and fussed and would often become frustrated. The defendant, in his frustration would record videos on his phone of him shaking the decedent when he would not stop crying," the court documents read.

But Brooks-Clarke's family says he was a loving father who had help and support.

His defense attorney, Orlando Mayo, also spoke to FOX 5 after court.

"We understand the narrative. A child is dead, and people will be angry. We're hurt. We're also grieving, so is the mom's family. They're all grieving. My client doesn't have a chance to grieve. He’s got to go and fight for his life behind evidence that seems not very compelling," Mayo said.

Arrest and charges:

Investigators say the child’s father, 24-year-old Khalil Brooks-Clarke, was the sole caregiver present at the time Kairo sustained the fatal injuries.

After consulting with the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office, police charged Brooks-Clarke with:

What's next:

The judge ordered Brooks-Clarke be held without bond, and he has a preliminary hearing at the end of the month.

The mother's family declined to speak after the emotional hearing, but they are reportedly planning a vigil in the coming days.