STAFFORD, Va. — A 26-year-old man is facing charges after a police manhunt in Stafford Monday morning.
According to the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office, investigators worked with the drone team and K-9 units to track down Devin Laws in the woods behind the Rappahannock Landing subdivision.
The manhunt began after a woman called deputies minutes before 7 a.m. The caller said she was parked in a driveway when a stranger, believed to be Laws, approached her car with a chainsaw in one hand and a hammer in the other. The man reportedly grasped the car door handle before attempting to swing the hammer toward the car window.
The woman was able to drive away before she could be harmed.
Deputies began to search for the suspect when they were flagged down by a neighbor. The neighbor told deputies he woke up to a noise in his home around 6:30 a.m. When he went to investigate the noise, he said he found Laws, who ran away after seeing the homeowner.
The sheriff's office received several more reports of the suspect ringing doorbells in the area and later deputies found pieces of the suspect's clothing and the chainsaw, which was reportedly stolen and later given back to the rightful owner. The K-9 unit then began to track Laws toward Interstate 95.
While tracking Laws, deputies say they recovered a handgun believed to have been dropped by the suspect. Once deputies located Laws, they say they found a pair of brass knuckles in his pocket.
While Laws was being taken into custody, another resident reported the man had tried to get into their home on Denison Street in Celebrate, Virginia, with a handgun. Investigators say Ring camera footage confirmed it was the same handgun recovered by K-9 during the track.
Laws told deputies he was in the area to do some landscaping work. He remains at the Rappahannock Regional Jail without bond on charges of 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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