PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) - A man who tried to hit a Virginia state senator with a car has been charged with attempted murder, police said Thursday.
Sen. Louise Lucas was unharmed, Portsmouth police said in a statement. The suspect has been identified as James Taliaferro, an ex-employee of a business that Lucas runs providing housing and services for adults with intellectual disabilities.
The trouble began Monday when Taliaferro drove through Lucas’ yard and then rammed his SUV into the front door of Lucas’ business, breaking the glass, according to court documents. Taliaferro told police he later felt remorseful and left two or three blank checks, which displayed his name and address, on Lucas’ porch.
Lucas was quoted by The Richmond-Times Dispatch as saying that the next day, she saw Taliaferro sitting in a vehicle across the street from her office. She said she tried to take a picture of his vehicle in a parking lot after he drove to a Family Dollar. Before she could take it, she said he came back out and jumped in his vehicle and tried to hit her.
“I never thought he’d go like that on me,” Lucas said.
Taliaferro was arrested the next day following a brief police chase.
Lucas told the Times-Dispatch that Taliaferro had been let go from the business she runs because of a background check. It had turned up a conviction for a crime that bars him from working in that field.
Taliaferro did not have a lawyer as of Thursday afternoon, according to Portsmouth court officials.
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Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.richmond.com
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This story has been corrected to reflect that the senator’s name is Louise, not Louis.
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Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.richmond.com
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