Staunton Police confirmed that they are investigating a reported incident involving a man with a gun at the April 5 Hands Off! protest rally, and one of the witnesses to the incident told AFP on Wednesday that he intends to press charges against the man.
First, to the documentation that we have on hand, limited as it is: the Staunton PD responded to a Freedom of Information Act request from AFP by providing a heavily redacted incident report, the only parts of which that were visible revealing to us the nature of the alleged offense, brandishing a weapon, and the time of the alleged incident, 12:16 p.m. on the afternoon of April 5.
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We learned back on Monday night the basic details of the incident – that witnesses had seen an agitated man in a white truck driving west on Johnson Street in front of the rally site, the Augusta County Courthouse, brandish a weapon from the front seat of the truck, before driving off.
One of the witnesses who spoke with police on Saturday agreed to speak with us today.
The witness was standing at the top of a set of steps near the sidewalk on Johnson Street leading to the courthouse ahead of the scheduled 12:30 p.m. start to the protest rally.
Traffic, backed up at the Johnson Street-Augusta Street stoplight, was at a standstill, the witness said.
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“Directly in front of me, maybe 30 feet away, I see this man in his truck, and he looked very agitated,” the witness said.
The passenger-side window was down, “which I thought was odd,” the witness said.
The man 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!”
At this point, the man reached back into his bag, “still clearly agitated,” and took off the hat he was wearing and slammed it down into the passenger seat.
At this moment, the stoplight turned green, traffic started moving, and the man drove off, the witness said.
“This all happened in a period of about 15 seconds,” the witness said.
The witness was able to get the license-plate number from the truck, and that information has been shared with the police department.
Of note here: the white truck in the brandishing incident is not the one that was responsible for the “rolling coal” incident involving a driver at the same intersection that I was witness to about a half-hour later.
ICYMI
Another eyewitness to that incident shared a photo with me of the suspect vehicle in the “rolling coal” incident that gave a clear view of the license-plate number for that vehicle, a 2000 Ford F350, and the vehicle’s front bumper, which features the words “Iron Cross” and an image of an Iron Cross, symbols associated with the neo-Nazi movement.
The driver in the “rolling coal” incident was pulled over by police after a brief pursuit, and we were told by a police department spokesperson on Monday that the driver was given a verbal warning.
I asked, in my FOIA request to Staunton Police, for a copy of an incident report in that case, and the answer back was, there is no incident report in that case.
We did get a brief snippet of video from another eyewitness of the “rolling coal” incident that would seem to provide evidence to police that the incident could be treated as reckless driving or even aggressive driving, given the speed and squealing tires at the intersection at a scene with a number of pedestrians within close distance.
The warning to the driver did little to curb his threatening behavior – witnesses reported that he drove through the intersection at least two more times with the loud engine noise and smokestacks engaged.
Reckless driving and aggressive driving are both Class 1 misdemeanors under Virginia law, with exposure to up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Brandishing a weapon is also a Class 1 misdemeanor, with similar legal exposure.
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Chris Graham
