LUNENBURG COUNTY, Va. (Scripps News Group) — An off-duty police officer accused of shooting a woman multiple times Sunday afternoon has been taken into custody, according to Virginia State Police.
Charles A. Stokes, 44, of Lunenburg, faces charges of aggravated malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Charles Stokes (Scripps News Group of Richmond)
VSP said Stokes was taken into custody without incident around 6:30 Monday evening at a residence in the Town of Kenbridge in Lunenburg County. He is currently being held at the Meherrin River Regional Jail in Alberta, Va.
Stokes is a member of the Kenbridge Police Department, police confirmed, and was off duty at the time of the shooting.
The incident occurred around 2:43 p.m. Sunday when law enforcement was notified that a woman had been shot inside her vehicle in Lunenburg County, according to a Virginia State Police news release.
The woman was taken to the hospital for treatment. Her current condition has not yet been released.
Police said Stokes fired into the vehicle multiple times before fleeing.
A family member of Stokes told Scripps News Group that the shooting actually took place outside Stokes’s home and involved a woman with whom he shares a “tumultuous” relationship and a one-year-old child.
The family member said the victim is a former Kenbridge police officer.
Stokes initially fled in a vehicle that was later recovered on Sunday at a business in Henderson, North Carolina.
Police believe he then stole a 2007 silver Honda Civic with Virginia license plates TGL 9143.
The family member told Scripps News Group that Stokes contacted them Sunday night using a burner phone. When family members urged him to return home, he refused and has not made contact since, the relative said.
“It’s always been tumultuous,” the family member said of the couple’s relationship, adding they did not know what triggered Sunday’s violence.
This story was originally published by Scripps News Group of Richmond.
