Crime and Public Safety
MGN
This week’s special General Assembly session on gun laws will cover proposals that state lawmakers generally consider every year — but never at a time when full public attention is paid to this one issue. Most proposals to tighten state gun laws died in committee this year, but there are calls this time for all such proposals to get full House and Senate votes. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
From the Henry County Sheriff’s Office: At approximately 1:41pm on July 6, 2019 the Martinsville-Henry County Emergency 911 Center received a call of a gunshot victim at a business located at 7640 Axton Rd. in Axton, VA.
The Henry County Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene. Prior to their arrival, the victim, Craig Keen of Axton, VA, was transported via personal vehicle to the UNC-Rockingham Health Care Emergency Room. Through the course of the investigation, it was determined that an unknown subject entered into the Image Improvement Barbershop during the course of business hours and held Keen at gunpoint and robbed Keen of U.S. Currency. During this incident, Keen suffered a non-life threatening gunshot wound. The suspect then fled the scene in a newer model, SUV or hatchback style vehicle bearing an unknown North Carolina registration.
Keen is currently being treated for non-life threatening injuries. This incident is being investigated by the Henry County Sheriff’s Office
Anyone having information pertaining to this or any other investigation is asked to contact the Henry County Sheriff’s Office at (276) 638-8751 or Crimestoppers at 63-CRIME (632-7463). The Crimestoppers Program offers rewards up to $2500.00 for information related to crime. The nature of the crime and the substance of the information determine the amount of reward paid.
ABINGDON, Va. (AP) — A Massachusetts man accused of fatally stabbing a hiker on the Appalachian Trail has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial. James L. Jordan was returned to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service on Wednesday after U.S. District Magistrate Judge Pamela Meade Sargent found that he is not mentally fit for trial. The 30-year-old Jordan, from West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, is charged with murder and assault with intent to commit murder for allegedly attacking two hikers with a knife on the Appalachian Trail in southwestern Virginia on May 11. Ronald Sanchez Jr., 43, of Oklahama, died after being stabbed repeatedly, and a female hiker was seriously hurt. Authorities have not identified the woman. Jordan’s public defender, Lisa Lorish, declined to comment on the finding.
Virginia was ranked middle of the road on a study of the best states for police officers because the Commonwealth was 48th in “Quality of Life”. WFIR’s Ian Price has more:
Photo: BCSO
A Botetourt County man is charged with threatening sheriff’s deputies with a firearm and a crossbow in a standoff today that lasted about two hours. Officials say it started with a domestic disturbance call around seven a.m. and ended when 55-year-old John McCarty walked out of the Fincastle-area home around 9:15. Nobody was hurt.
NEWS RELEASE: On 07/02/19, at 6:56 am Botetourt County Sheriff’s Office Deputies responded to Big Springs Road in Fincastle for a domestic situation where dispatch had received a 911 call that was disconnected while they attempted to get information on situation. Upon the first Deputies arrival they were met outside the residence by an agitated male subject later identified as John A McCarty Sr. age 55 of Fincastle. The subject retreated inside the home, came back out with appeared to be a firearm, and demanded the Deputies to leave his property. The Deputies on scene asked for additional units to respond as other units arrived the subject came in and out of the home using a parked vehicle as cover, at one point subject retrieved a cross bow and took it back into the home. Around 7:30 am, the subject went into the home and refused to come out. While the subject was inside the home, Deputies observed him through a window holding what appeared to be a firearm and he made threats to shoot Deputies on the scene. The subject also loaded the crossbow and placed it in window. Deputies took a position of cover and began negotiating with subject to come out. Deputies on scene along with Deputies from dispatch center (where the subject would call into demanding the Deputies to leave and asked Federal agent to respond to his location) negotiated with subject. At 9:15 am, the subject came out of residence and was placed in custody without further incident. After subject was placed in custody, Deputies recovered the weapon, which was a 22caliber air rifle and the crossbow. McCarty was transported to the Botetourt Craig County regional jail where he is being held for brandishing a firearm and willfully or maliciously prevent or obstructing one from summoning law enforcement. He is being held at this time without bond.
(from Virginia State Police) At 7 a.m. Friday, the Virginia State Police and Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of individuals securing themselves to equipment being used for the Mountain Valley Pipeline construction. State police spent several hours trying to negotiate the surrender of a male subject who had secured himself to an excavator at the pipeline work site in the 3000 block of Bradshaw Road. State police notified the individual that warrants for his arrest had been obtained and requested that he come down off the excavator. He complied and released himself from the “sleeping dragon” device he was using to secure himself to the construction equipment. With the assistance of two troopers and a mechanical lift, he was lowered to the ground. Medical assistance was offered to him, but he denied any injury and refused treatment.
At approximately 11:45 a.m., Michael J. James -Deramo, 26, of Blacksburg, Va. was charged with §18.2-121 entering property of another for purpose of damaging it, etc.(Code of Virginia 18.2-121) and breaking, injuring, defacing, destroying or preventing the operation of vehicle, aircraft or boat (18.2-146).
Suspects have been detained in connection to the murder of Roanoke cardiologist, Dr. Gary Swank, and his tour guide Mario Graniel in Belize. News 5 Belize says among the people taken into custody was a female who reportedly played a key role in the murders of Swank and Graniel in a lagoon near San Pedro on Sunday morning. Authorities believe Graniel was the target, while Swank was “collateral damage.”