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Hampton police file charges against man shot by officer after baseball bat attack
By Peter Dujardin
Daily Press |
Hampton Police officers investigate a shooting that involved a police officer in the 1000 block of West Mercury Boulevard in Hampton Tuesday January 4, 2022. (Jonathon Gruenke/Daily Press)
Hampton Police filed charges Thursday against a man who was shot by an officer this week after he allegedly struck a police sergeant in the head with a baseball bat.
Police have taken out warrants charging Christopher Clayton Rice, 30, of Newport News, with malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer and trespassing. The incident took place Tuesday morning at a car dealership on Mercury Boulevard in Hampton's Coliseum area.
The warrants, sworn out at the Hampton Magistrate's Office, haven't yet been served on Rice, who remained hospitalized Thursday. Hampton Police Division spokesman Sgt. Reggie Williams said he's in "stable but critical condition."
Christopher Clayton Rice, 30, of Newport News, chaged with malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer and police say he struck a police sergeant in the head with a baseball bat on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. (Hampton Police Division)
Rice's brother told the Daily Press Thursday that he was shot three times — in the upper chest, arm and leg ― and that he's undergone surgeries and is on a ventilator and under heavy sedation at Riverside Regional Medical Center.
"He's not out of the woods yet," the brother said, though he said the prognosis was hopeful and he believed Rice would eventually be released from the hospital.
The shooting took place at 11:37 a.m. Tuesday near the front entrance to Wynne Ford, a car dealership on the 1000 block of West Mercury, as cars passed by on one of the city's main thoroughfares.
A dealership employee had called police just after 11 a.m. after workers saw Rice in the parking lot with the baseball bat. Police said Wynne Ford's employees, who sheltered in the back of the business during the incident, had past interactions with Rice.
Williams said the three responding officers called their supervisor, a female sergeant with 20 years on the force, to the scene when Rice refused to put the bat down.
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Police said the sergeant was attempting to get Rice to drop the bat when he suddenly made an aggressive move, swinging at her and striking her in the head.
One of the other three officers, who's been with the force since 2019, then shot Rice.
Police Chief Mark Talbot on Tuesday described the police sergeant's head injury as "severe," though not life-threatening. She was released from the hospital Wednesday.
Malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer is a felony punishable by between five and 30 years behind bars under Virginia law.
Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com
Peter Dujardin
Peter Dujardin has been a reporter at the Daily Press for 24 years. He has mostly covered courts and criminal justice issues for the past 14 years. That includes policing issues, and criminal and civil cases in both state and federal courts.
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