Staunton Police have been working with organizers of the political protest rally scheduled for Saturday at the Augusta County Courthouse, two weeks after separate incidents at a rally in Downtown Staunton sparked concerns among local residents about a failure of security planning and police favoritism.
“Our law-enforcement services captain has spoken with them. As far as our actual plan for the weekend, I can’t really go into that, because that would potentially be able to be released and defeated. But we will have dedicated staff assigned to the event, and there are steps being taken. I just can’t get too specific,” Sgt. CD Ammons told us on Thursday.
That there is a plan going into this weekend’s rally is good news, in light of what Police Chief Jim Williams told Virginia Public Radio in an interview for a story published on Monday, in which Williams revealed that the PD had only learned of the April 5 Hands Off! protest rally “on Facebook,” and because police “didn’t know a lot about it ahead of time, we didn’t know it was going to get as big as it was going to get.”
ICYMI
“We didn’t, obviously, think that this was going to be the kind of event that was similar to Unite the Right or anything like that, or we would have put together a much more comprehensive plan,” said Williams, detailing to VPR that only “three or four officers” were available to police the event.
Two incidents involving threats toward protest rally attendees at the start of the April 5 protest rally stretched those thin resources dedicated to the event by the PD even thinner.
The first, documented in a police report obtained by AFP, involved what witnesses described as an “agitated man” in a white truck driving west on Johnson Street in front of the rally site, brandish a weapon from the front seat of the truck, before driving off.
ICYMI
One of the witnesses who spoke with us about the incident said the man, sitting in his truck at a stoplight, proceeded to “reach over and pulled a gun out of a black bag sitting on the front passenger seat,” the witness said.
“He kind of held it up for show,” the witness said, and at this moment, another witness at the scene said aloud, “He has a gun!”
Police took the report and decided against taking action against the man with the gun, with Williams telling VPR that “it didn’t rise to criminal brandishing a firearm.”
The witness who spoke with us indicated a desire to file a criminal complaint in the case.
I don’t know the status of that one.
I do know the status of the second, because I played a role in this part of the story turning into what it is.
ICYMI
A magistrate issued an arrest warrant for the driver in what police described as a “rolling coal” incident that disrupted the April 5 rally.
It literally took me swearing out a complaint and presenting evidence to the magistrate on Tuesday to get this to happen, because Staunton Police had no apparent interest in the case.
Jeffrey Wayne Armentrout, the owner of the Staunton-based Armentrout Towing/Old Dixie Towing, was identified as the driver of the 2000 Ford F-350 with neo-Nazi insignia on the front bumper that blew a tower of smoke through a modified smokestack located in the bed of the truck, then drove at a high rate of speed and squealed tires past the rally site on West Johnson Street around 12:40 p.m. on April 5.
Armentrout was stopped by police after a brief pursuit, but only given a verbal warning, with Ammons, on behalf of the police department, telling us in an email on April 7 that the officer only gave Armentrout a warning “as they did not witness any reckless driving themselves.”
Ammons noted in the April 7 email that the driver had been identified, “and anyone who witnessed him spinning tires can obtain a reckless driving summons on him if they want to by coming to the police department and going before the magistrate.”
We got the ball rolling on that after getting the email back from Ammons on April 7, the first act being, posting an item on our AFP Facebook page asking anyone who had attended the rally, held in conjunction with more than 1,200 rallies nationwide to protest the overreach of the Trump administration, Elon Musk and DOGE, and had photos or videos of the incident to feel free to share what they had with us.
In short order, readers shared video of Armentrout driving through the scene at a high rate of speed, and photos of the suspect vehicle showing the proximity of the vehicle to rallygoers on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse.
We also heard from readers who shared more of what they knew about Armentrout and his towing business, with allegations that Armentrout is well-known to Staunton Police because the police department uses his towing service to tow cars involved in car accidents.
I was able to corroborate this relationship from online reviews of Armentrout Towing/Old Dixie Towing, which include numerous complaints from people who were forced to pay into the thousands of dollars to retrieve their vehicles.
The allegation from the tipsters is that Armentrout leverages his relationship with local law enforcement to his advantage, which could be an explanation for how he was able to get off with a warning from the April 5 incident at the rally.
Josh Knight, the engagement and communications manager for Staunton city government, confirmed in an email to AFP that Armentrout Towing/Old Dixie Towing had been a part of the city’s rotation of towing providers, but was removed from that list in October 2024, though no reason was given for the company’s removal.
One reason could be issues with licensure. The Virginia Online Case Information System has records from a Jan. 7, 2025, incident in which Armentrout was charged with operating a motor vehicle without a license and for operating as a tow truck driver without the required state licensing from the Department of Criminal Justice Services.
Both charges were ultimately dismissed, but they are the tip of the iceberg from his rap sheet, which includes charges dating back to 2018 for pointing/brandishing a weapon and malicious wounding, petit larceny and annoying phone calls, all of which were also ultimately dismissed.
The long list of alleged offenses, and the lack of repercussions, would seem to fit the narrative from our tipsters about the Staunton PD being willing to look the other way because of its relationship with Armentrout’s towing business.
Knight, the city spokeperson, countered this with the observation that “(w)hile some reports and speculation have circulated about the individuals involved, the city and police department remain committed to basing any further action on verified facts, not rumor or assumption.”
“(W)e would also note that several of those charges were, in fact, brought forward by the Staunton Police Department itself, as part of the department’s ongoing responsibility to enforce the law regardless of the individual involved,” Knight wrote in his email to us.
Which gets us back to this weekend.
ICYMI
Staunton Police weren’t ready ahead of April 5.
They say they are ready for this weekend.
Last word here to Jim Williams, from his interview with Virginia Public Radio.
“We protected the KKK when they came to town. We marched with Black Lives Matter, protecting them. We’re not picking sides,” Williams said. “Under the U.S. Constitution, you have a right to say things, and you have a right to assemble, and you have a right to protest, and we believe strongly in letting them do that.”
A right to say things, a right to assemble, a right to protest, and I’d add, a right not to be threatened while doing those first three things.
That’s the part the Staunton PD needs to work on, if you ask me.
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Chris Graham
