Ohioan faces 17 charges in Virginia

7/4/2003

A Carey, Ohio, man arrested in rural Virginia as an alleged accomplice in a bank robbery faces 17 charges, the Charlotte County Sheriff's Department said.

David Thompson, Jr., 20, is charged with attempted first-degree murder, use of a firearm to commit a felony, use of a firearm, breaking and entering, carjacking, shooting into an occupied dwelling, eluding police, two counts of destruction of property, four counts of attempted murder of a police officer, and four counts of using a firearm in the attempted murder of a police officer.

Mr. Thompson was the suspected get-away driver in the June 27 robbery of a small bank in Phenix, Va. According to Charlotte County sheriff's investigator Howard Hobgood, a second man, Lonnie Russell, 26, of Carey, was shot and killed by deputies after he robbed the bank and led officers on a nearly 30-minute chase through two counties.

Though Mr. Thompson didn't enter the bank or steal the car used in the chase, he is charged with those offenses under Virginia law that allows officers to charge someone with the crime of another if he had prior knowledge of the activity, Mr. Hobgood said.

Mr. Thompson is to be arraigned Tuesday in Charlotte County General District Court.