A Sad Goodbye to A Great Educator And Local Hero

This is one of those that just makes you want to sit down and cry.

Young teacher who grew up here in the region and was making a big difference…

Successful, beloved D.C. principal found fatally shot at his Montgomery home

Until Brian Betts mysteriously failed to appear at work Thursday morning, this is what his many admirers knew about him: He was the energetic new principal of a long-troubled urban school and, within a D.C. school system desperate for heroes, a superstar.

But by the end of that day, a group of worried colleagues had found him shot dead in his Silver Spring home, and the upbeat narrative of Betts’s two decades of work had become a tragic tale.

The celebrated educator is now at the improbable center of a murder mystery. His blue Nissan Xterra is missing, as is some property in his home. But there was no sign of forced entry into his two-story brick colonial, and it was not ransacked. A source close to the investigation, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said police theorize that Betts was killed by somebody he let in.

Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said, “It’s still possible this was a random killing, but right now we don’t think so.”