WashPo: Shop owner’s gun apparently will land him back in prison

I've been meaning to write about this for weeks as it affects a Congress Heights business owner and his family. This is so very unfortunate, I really hope something can be done to bring this man home. Please take a moment to read this article by Mike DeBonis.

Excerpt:

Unlike a lot of people in his position, Malcolm Hines left prison in 2007 with a plan to avoid ever going back. 

Before his 2003 conviction on cocaine-dealing charges, Hines had invested about $10,000 in blue-chip stocks — Exxon Mobil, Hewlett-Packard, Sirius satellite radio. By the time he was released, the D.C. native had doubled his money, which he then invested in a much riskier proposition: a shoe shop in Congress Heights. 

Hines kept out of trouble and built City Beats into a thriving business on retail-starved Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, selling the latest styles from New Balance, Timberland and Nike, even though the store was hit by a string of burglaries and holdups. 

But now Hines, 40, is back behind bars, awaiting sentencing on felony gun charges after police found a loaded shotgun his sister-in-law had stashed inside his shop for protection.
The conviction has Hines, his wife and neighboring business owners frustrated. They complain that dozens of gun-related crimes in the area go unsolved, while an otherwise upstanding entrepreneur faces three years in prison.

To submit an article or to inquire about advertising send an email to Advoc8te@congressheightsontherise.com.