Henrico County authorities revealed yesterday that a series of beatings earlier this year in the western part of the county were linked to gang initiation rites. Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Feinmel and police investigator D.C. Wood said at a preliminary hearing that two defendants and juvenile witnesses who appeared in court yesterday have ties to two well-known street gangs, the Bloods and the Crips.

Fairfax City police have charged a Prince William County father and his 17-year-old daughter with recruiting students to a gang.

Three members of the notorious MS-13 gang pleaded guilty yesterday to stabbing a man and leaving him for dead inside a Hispanic nightclub in Chesterfield County last fall. One of the victim’s five stab wounds to the chest punctured his heart in the Oct. 18 attack inside a restroom at Valentino’s restaurant on Jefferson Davis Highway. The victim, who they mistakenly believed was their bitter rival, nearly died.

A birthday party, a credit-card purchase and gang rivalry have doomed the leadership of a gang operating in the Richmond area. In brief hearings yesterday in Henrico County Circuit Court, key members of the Tiny Rascals Gang pleaded guilty to multiple gang participation and recruitment charges as well as robbery and firearms violations.

A pilot program to reduce gang membership and violence has been so successful in South Richmond that authorities are taking the initiative on the road. Next up is an area of North Richmond that includes the Highland Park and southern Barton Heights neighborhoods. “There’s a demonstrated need for it,“ Assistant Police Chief David M. McCoy said yesterday as police, prosecutors and community leaders gathered at Trinity Baptist Church on Fendall Avenue to announce the expansion of the Gang Reduction and Intervention Program.

Elizabeth Walter spent a week in the hospital after her boyfriend stabbed her 14 times. She was 14 years old. Since then, her boyfriend has been sent to prison and now, four years later, Walter spends her time highlighting the dangers of becoming involved with gangs. She speaks to children and teenagers at local schools, and though she never officially joined a gang, her boyfriend was a gang member. She said she was drawn to him and the dangerous lifestyle when she was younger. While she was with her boyfriend, Daniel, she had his name tattooed on various spots on her body, most prominently on her right shoulder.

PETERSBURG—Gang leader Kalvin B. Kelley was sentenced to 25 years in prison yesterday for conspiring to kill a city police detective and other crimes associated with his control of a Bloods-affiliated gang in the Tri-Cities area. Given the chance to apologize or offer any explanation for his actions, the 21-year-old Kelley chose to say nothing before Circuit Judge Pamela S. Baskervill pronounced the sentence.

PETERSBURG—Gang leader Kalvin B. Kelley was sentenced to 25 years in prison today for conspiring to kill a city police detective and other crimes associated with his control of a Bloods-affiliated gang in the Tri-Cities area. Noting his leadership of the G Shyne gang and plan to kill a detective who arrested him in a series of gang-related robberies in Petersburg, Petersburg Circuit Judge Pamela S. Baskervill sentenced Kelley, 21, to 45 years in prison with 20 years suspended on five felony counts.

It’s a misconception that homegrown gangs are less of a threat than national gangs such as the Bloods or Crips, a law-enforcement official told retailers yesterday in Henrico County. “They’re the ones that you probably have to be more concerned about, because they’re more prevalent,“ said April D.R. Crawford, a gang-awareness coordinator for the Virginia Attorney General’s office, referring to homegrown gangs.

Nationwide, homicide has dropped significantly from its peak in the 1990s. There is considerable debate about why, but there is general agreement that the following have had at least some effect:

A drug dealer will not face a longer sentence in connection with the slaying of the FBI informant who helped convict him two years ago. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled yesterday there wasn’t enough evidence to show that Danny Damon Smith killed Fannie “Patsy” Beard, which would have permitted a stiffer prison term when he is sentenced next month on a drug conspiracy conviction.

PETERSBURG—A Petersburg gang leader was convicted yesterday of conspiring to kill a city police detective who had arrested him last year in a series of gang-related robberies in the city. Kalvin B. Kelley, 22, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit capital murder of a police officer, threatening death to a police officer by mail, criminal gang participation, and two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery. In exchange, prosecutors withdrew 19 other charges, including multiple counts of robbery, abduction and felonious use of a firearm.

After tolerating gang markings on a utility building within eyesight of the Yowell Meadow Skate Park for months during the summer, the town of Culpeper could now take the hard line on gang graffiti.

Justice Department officials yesterday praised a faith-based, anti-crime program in Richmond as a national model to fight gang violence.