A 41-year-old Alexandria man is being held without bond after allegedly throwing away a handgun on Interstate 395 while eluding police.
The victim’s girlfriend called police on May 5 and reported that she was the victim of domestic assault and battery at her home in the 700 block of N. Ripley Street, according to a search warrant affidavit. The woman told police that her boyfriend threatened her and that he was known to carry a firearm.
Police found the suspect in his car and ordered him to stop, but the suspect “backed over a median and fled northbound on N. Van Dorn Street at a high rate of speed,” police said in the search warrant affidavit.
Police chased the suspect seven miles, through Arlington and then back into Alexandria on I-395. The suspect’s car then started to have mechanical problems, and police saw the suspect “throw a handgun style firearm out of the driver’s side window,” according to the search warrant affidavit.
The suspect was arrested on I-395 just before the exit for Washington Boulevard in Arlington. Police also recovered a Jimenez Arms J.A. 380 on the side of the road.
The suspect was then charged with assault and battery, abduction by force/intimidation, carrying a concealed weapon, driving on a revoked/suspended license, possession of Schedule I and II drugs, reckless driving, eluding police and discharging missiles at a train/car.
All the charges were dismissed in court on June 21 except eluding police and being a nonviolent felon in possession of a firearm, both of which were transferred to the Circuit Court for a grand jury trial. The trial date has not yet been set.
Alexandria’s Sexual Assault Center and Domestic Violence Program is open, and hotlines are available 24/7 at 703-684-7273 [Sexual Assault Hotline] or 703-746-4911 [Domestic Violence Hotline].
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