Somber anniversary
By James Cullum
Holding candles outside their Burke home, the family of Simran Singh stood with members of the Sikh community and said the 21-year-old had no enemies.
It was a year ago last week that Singh left his house on his mother's birthday, told her he would be gone for half an hour, but never returned.
Singh left with a friend from Lorton, Henry Agbemble, a Marine who had been to Iraq. The pair went to Agbemble's house. Once there, Singh and Agbemble, a male roommate and two young women went to two Washington, D.C., nightclubs.
A few hours later Singh was dead, and blood was all over the inside of the car.
According to forensic reports, Singh had been drinking heavily. Police reports indicate that he became violent while the group drove home along I-395 in Arlington, and the other occupants of the car tried to restrain him.
To calm down his friend, Agbemble put Singh in a choke hold for 10 minutes, court records indicate.
When Singh was found unresponsive, the driver pulled over, CPR was administered and police were called. Singh had dozens of bruises all over his body.
According to the Medical Examiner's Office, the official cause of death was an "acute stress-induced cardiac arrhythmia due to acute restraint."
The death was eventually ruled as accidental, and early this year the Arlington County Commonwealth Attorney's Office declared it would not file charges against any of the people in the car, including Agbemble.
"I have no motive to live. Simran's future is finished. What did he do that they had to kill him?" asked Neena Singh. "I'm not going to stop until the last breath of my life, until I find out what happened to my son."
The family is looking for answers. Why were they not allowed to view Singh's body at the hospital? Why were the passengers of the car not given polygraph tests? Family members also wonder why Arlington County officials "decided not to prosecute anyone for [Singh's] death, even though Simran had over 37 contusions and abrasions on his neck, his torso, his abdomen [and] when found by police, the car was completely filled with blood," said family attorney Steven Cundra.
"They have refused even under lawful subpoena to supply any of the evidence they had gathered," Cundra said.
Within a month, Cundra will attempt to use Fairfax County courts to enforce the subpoena. Then, with the evidence, if investigators believe the death was not accidental, the family will most likely enter into a civil suit, seeking millions in punitive and compensatory damages, according to documents provided by Cundra.
The Arlington County Police sent this statement to The Times regarding the Singh case: "We are satisfied that our detectives fully investigated all aspects of Mr. Singh's death at the time that it occurred. The department presented the specifics of the case to the Commonwealth Attorney; he weighed the evidence, and decided against prosecution."
To view a Web site for Simran Singh set up by family and friends, go to www.justiceforsimran.com.