After a series of alleged early morning incidents, including a manhunt, Stafford County Sheriff’s Office has filed a list of charges against a 26-year-old Blackwater man who reportedly claimed to be landscaping.
At around 6:30 a.m., on March 4, a resident on Musselman Rd. heard a noise in his home and found that a man had entered. Upon seeing the homeowner he ran, SCSO reported.
Not long afterward, a woman was parked in her driveway on Musselman Rd. when the same man allegedly approached her vehicle with a chainsaw in one hand and a hammer in the other. He “grasped her door handle and brought the hammer up in a motion to swing it toward the car window,” SCSO said, but the woman drove drove off.
SCSO said additional calls continued to come in reporting the man going up and ringing doorbells.
When Major Shawn Kimmitz issued a public statement shortly before 8 a.m., he said the man “has since dropped the chainsaw. We are unsure if he still has the hammer.” Police later reported that as they searched, they were also recovering various pieces of the suspect’s clothing.
Kimmitz also informed the community that there were reports that the man was headed toward I-95.
SCSO said, during the K-9 tracking, deputies recovered a handgun the suspect dropped. The drone continued to watch from the air as residents continued to report sightings of the man.
Finally, after nearly three hours, the suspect was located in the woods behind the Rappahannock Landing subdivision.
He was arrested and identified as Devin Laws, age 26. SCSO said he had brass knuckles in his pocket.
Additionally, as Deputy J.A. Buzzard was transporting the suspect to the magistrate, another resident reported Laws had attempted to enter his home on Denison Street in the Celebrate Virginia community with a handgun displayed. SCSO said Ring camera footage confirmed it was the same handgun recovered by the K-9.
Laws reportedly told police he was in the area doing landscaping work. SCSO said the chainsaw he had was stolen and was returned to the owner.
Laws is now in Rappahannock Regional Jail being held without bond.
He’s charged with breaking and entering, attempted carjacking, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, carrying a concealed weapon, carrying a concealed weapon after a felony conviction, petit larceny, and vandalism.
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