By rssfeeds-admin FCSO said that around 9 a.m., the county’s communications center got a call from an individual who said he had used a lost phone app to track his missing phone to the 7-Eleven convenience store in Middletown.
Middletown Police Chief Gary Benedict responded to the scene just after 9:35 a.m. FCSO said that just after 9:40 a.m., Benedict started calling for help on the radio, saying that he had been hit by the suspect’s vehicle.
Officers responded to the scene, but the suspect — later identified as 41-year-old Juan Vashuan Payne of Martinsburg, W.Va. — had escaped and instead abandoned his car in the travel lanes of northbound I-81.
Traffic had to slow and merge to get around him, when he supposedly opened the passenger door to a work van and asked for a ride to the next exit.
There, Payne reportedly took the van at knifepoint and started to escape towards Clarke County. Around 10:25 a.m., Payne was in the van in Clarke County when Virginia State Police and other authorities started a chase that eventually crossed into West Virginia.
FCSO said that during the chase, Payne reportedly hit several West Virginia law enforcement cars. He then hit a civilian’s car in a crash that disabled his stolen van. He was taken into custody there just before 10:40 a.m.
Payne was already wanted on a warrant out of Winchester, Va., FCSO said. He now also faces charges of felony assault on law enforcement, felony hit and run, felony carjacking and grand larceny in Frederick County.
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