By By GREG KATSKI
Community Editor
An attempted carjacking put a school, nursing home and an entire neighborhood under a lockdown from Tuesday night until Wednesday morning.
The carjacking occurred just before 7 p.m. Tuesday in front of Andrea’s Salon &Spa at 147 Avon Ave. in Washington. An employee who closed the salon was walking to her sport utility vehicle when a black man approached her at gunpoint, said Lt. William Chrismon with the Washington Police Department.
According to a fellow employee (who asked to remain anonymous), the carjacking victim was by herself when the carjacking occurred.
“He (the suspect) might have been waiting for her,” the fellow employee said.
In the process of getting in the driver’s seat, the carjacking victim “mashed” the speed-dial button on her cell phone and made contact with her husband, according to Chrismon and media reports.
The suspect, described as a 6-foot tall, 200-pound black man with dreadlocks and wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt and white baseball cap, pointed a handgun at the victim and forced her to drive, Chrismon said.
The victim’s husband stayed on the line and listened to the conversation between the victim and the suspect, the victim’s co-worker said. The victim tried to relay where she was driving to her husband while not tipping off the carjacker.
The victim drove the SUV on Avon Avenue and made a right turn onto Highland Dr. The victim stopped the SUV in the driveway of a two-story house adjacent to Ridgewood Manor and fled on foot to the nursing home’s lobby, said Mike Kelly, administrator of the nursing home.
The suspect tried to drive off with the vehicle, but he drove it into a drainage ditch in front of the residence and stalled, Chrismon said. As the suspect got out of the SUV, he was approached by the house’s tenant and victim’s husband, who had just arrived in the area, according to next-door neighbor Jeffrey White.
The suspect fired more than one bullet at the approaching individuals in an attempt to escape, Chrismon said. The suspect then fled on foot into the woods directly between the nursing home and Slatestone Road.
After being shot at, the victim’s husband followed the victim into Ridgewood Manor’s lobby, where the nursing home’s staff called emergency services, Kelly said.
At approximately 7:03 p.m., officers with the Washington Police Department responded to the call. Within minutes, the officers, with the help of deputies from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, had Highland Drive from Slatestone Road to Keysville Road under a lockdown. Traffic coming in and out of the neighborhoods located on Highland Drive, including Ridgewood Manor, was halted. The nursing home and Washington High School, which can be reached from Highland Drive by a dirt path that the suspect was seen fleeing toward, were put under lockdown until 10 a.m. Wednesday.
At about the same time the suspect fled toward the woods near the high school, a varsity soccer game was finishing at J.G. “Choppy” Wagner stadium on the school’s campus.
Chrismon said Washington police officers went to the school to notify officials there about the lockdown.
“The game was dispersing,” he said. “We made sure everybody was safe.”
Beaufort County Schools spokeswoman Sarah Hodges commended the work of the officers and WHS Athletic Director Darin Vaughan in getting the students, parents and fans off the school’s campus in a timely manner.
The police department called in 25 officers to conduct a ground search of the wooded area into which the suspect fled. The officers used police dogs, thermal-imaging devices and other specialized equipment during the search. The ground search was called off at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, but officers continued to patrol the area. At first light Wednesday, the officers began another ground search, which was followed by a large sweep using all-terrain vehicles.
Following the search, Chrismon said, “Nothing has really turned up.”
The police department collecting evidence and treated the SUV as a crime scene, according to Chrismon.
“We don’t know if it will help in the long run,” he said. “If we had a suspect, it would go a long way.”
White, who lives at 1645 Highland Drive and across from Ridgewood Manor, described his neighborhood as “quiet and peaceful.”
White said he was surprised the suspect hadn’t been caught as of Wednesday evening.
“I’ll be glad when they find him. Everyone will be at ease,” White said.