Richmond police chief resigns after months of scrutiny and more Va. headlines

The state Capitol. (Ned Oliver/ Virginia Mercury)

• Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith resigned after months of intense scrutiny over whether he embellished details of an alleged Fourth of July mass shooting plot he said his department had stopped. Smith got the job in the summer of 2020 amid the turmoil that followed the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• The man who escaped from Williamsburg’s Eastern State Hospital was caught just a few miles away from the psychiatric facility after being spotted at a convenience store, police said.—WAVY

• Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he supports a bill that would allow drug dealers to be charged with murder for contributing to overdose deaths. “Since that bill was vetoed in May 2019, we have lost 4,702 Virginians to fentanyl overdose,” he said.—WRIC

• A Navy sailor living in Virginia Beach was convicted of selling illegal machine guns and possessing other heavy weaponry like grenade launchers and anti-tank missile launchers.—Virginian-Pilot

• “Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and his firebrand father warned voters at a Northern Virginia rally this week that the nation would falter if they don’t send Yesli Vega to Congress.”—Washington Post

• A Richmond judge sided with the city in a lawsuit over the fate of a monument to Confederate figure A.P Hill that also serves as his gravesite. The ruling potentially clears the way for the city to remove its last Confederate statue.—Richmond Times-Dispatch

• The office of Attorney General Jason Miyares advised the State Board of Education not to take in-person public comments on Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s controversial policies on transgender students, a suggestion the board’s Democratic chairman rejected as “bad policy.”—VPM

• Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan called the federal government’s process of picking a site for a new FBI headquarters “outrageous and disappointing,” saying late changes to the selection criteria seemed to be rigging things for Virginia.—WTOP

• In a T-shirt that said “Stop Cronyism,” NFL Hall of Famer Bruce Smith denounced what he called a rigged system for developers in Virginia Beach.—Virginian-Pilot

• An Albemarle County man was arrested for allegedly hanging a noose around the neck of a statue of the poet Homer at the University of Virginia. He’s been charged under a hate crime-related law barring the display of nooses to intimidate. A letter found at the site contained no racial or religious references and claimed the statue “glorifies pedophilia,” according to police.—Cavalier Daily

• Officials are in the early stages of planning a 25-mile paved bike trail from Charlottesville to Afton Mountain.—WVTF

• Some VCU professors aren’t enthused by the university’s decision to let its logo be used for a VCU-branded beer.—WRIC