WASHINGTON — A man is in police custody after a Fairfax County domestic assault and an incident where he hid in the back of the victim’s vehicle and tried to grab her while she was driving.
Police say it all started after a report of an assault near Fordson Road at Dunbar Street in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 10 at about 12:30 a.m. A 28-year-old woman got into an argument with an acquaintance, 29-year-old Mark Ricks of Alexandria, according to Fairfax County police.
He reportedly beat her and then fled in her vehicle.
Emergency crews transported her to a hospital and while she was there, Ricks arrived and was looking for her. Police couldn’t find Ricks, but found her vehicle and returned it to her as she left the hospital.
Around 6 a.m. the same day, the victim was driving with her child when she heard something unusual coming from the rear of the vehicle. The suspect was hiding in the vehicle and attempted to grab the victim as she was driving, police say.
The struggle led the victim to veer off the roadway and crash near Holland Road and Sherwood Hall Lane in Alexandria.
While police were responding to the scene, Ricks fled on foot, police say. Police caught up with him a short time later in the 3000 block of Fordson Court.
Both the victim and Ricks were taken to the hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Ricks was transported to jail and has been charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, strangulation, abduction, domestic assault and reckless endangering of a child. Additional charges are possible, police say.
