Stolen Radio Recovered
From the Richmond Times Dispatch
Police chief's son charged in hoax
4 teens accused in fake emergency calls made in Rockbridge
Friday, Mar 28, 2008 - 12:08 AM
By REX BOWMAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
The son of Lexington's police chief is in trouble with the law. He and a few buddies are accused of using a stolen emergency radio to make fake emergency calls that had law-enforcement officers scrambling in Rockbridge County this month.
A series of calls over a law-enforcement channel -- "Shots fired! Shots fired! Shots fired!" a voice screams in one of the transmissions, then "Two men down!" -- sent five deputies and several Virginia State Police troopers racing to a rural area of the county, where they found nothing but an empty stretch of Stoner Hollow Road.
Now, Justin Crowder, 18, son of Lexington Police Chief Steve Crowder, has been charged with falsely summoning police and willfully transmitting false information about an emergency. Both charges are misdemeanors.
Two other adults, Koubun Timothy Matsumoto, 19, and Byron Jones, 18, face charges of falsely summoning police, and Jones, accused of swiping the emergency radio, also faces a grand larceny charge, said Rockbridge sheriff's Lt. Tim Hickman. A 17-year-old juvenile has also been charged with falsely summoning police.
The incident began to unfold just after 9 p.m. on March 15, when a local volunteer firefighter who works at a convenience store placed his emergency radio on a counter. When he returned for it, it was gone.
About an hour later, a county dispatcher began receiving the frantic transmissions. "Shots fired!" a voice says in the first of the transmissions, a tape of which was obtained by television station WSLS in Roanoke. "Shots fired! Shots fired! Shots fired!" a voice says in a second transmission. The third: "Two men down! We still need backup. Stoner Hollow! Stoner Hollow Road!" And the fourth: "Two suspects with a gun."
WSLS is owned by Media General Inc., which also owns the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Hickman said surveillance footage from the convenience store showed the radio being taken. Investigators then took the images to a local high school resource officer, who recognized the suspects, Hickman said.
He added that the emergency radio has been recovered.
"It's here on my desk."