The Associated Press
WARRENTON, Va.- A man was charged Sunday with shooting a Fauquier County sheriff’s deputy in the face, after a 23-hour search turned him up at a hotel.
Justin Charles Willard, 20, was charged with malicious wounding of a police officer. A woman who was also found at the hotel, 20-year-old Amanda Leigh Shouse of Dale City, was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
State police and sheriff’s deputies from three counties had been looking for Willard since early Saturday morning, when police say Willard shot deputy Sean Healey, 25, once in the face on U.S. 29, just north of Warrenton.
Fauquier County Sheriff Joseph Higgs Jr. said Healey had pulled Willard and Shouse over because their truck was traveling less than 40 mph on a 55 mph-highway. When Healey asked Willard for his driver’s registration, Willard pulled a gun from under a coat and shot him in the cheek, according to police.
Willard’s truck was spotted four hours later at a motel in Warrenton. Police tracked the ownership of the truck to a man in Prince William County, who gave police Willard’s name and address in Stafford County.
The Stafford County sheriff’s office was familiar with Willard and helped locate him at the hotel in Falmouth.
Healey, a three-year veteran of the force, was in good condition Sunday at INOVA Fairfax Hospital. Higgs said he still has a small amount of shrapnel from the bullet lodged in his jaw.