Three men from Baltimore were arrested during a drug bust in Warren County, Virginia, that ended with one of them wounded by an officer’s gunfire after an investigator was struck by the suspects’ vehicle.
Virginia State Police said the men — Darius J. Coleman-Galloway, 32; Donate M. Glenn, 26, and Everette W. Schwartz, 31 — were the focus of an undercover narcotics operation.
Schwartz was shot by a special agent with Virginia State Police while in the car’s front passenger seat. He was taken to the hospital and treated for serious injuries that are not life-threatening, according to a news release.
The operation was carried out on Thursday around 8:30 p.m. at a parking lot in the 9800 block of Winchester Road near the Intestate 66 interchange in Front Royal, Virginia.
The men had driven from Baltimore and planned to deliver an illegal supply of fentanyl.
Members of the Northwest Virginia Regional Drug and Gang Task Force surrounded the suspects’ vehicle on foot. One of the members of the task force — a Frederick County Sheriff’s Office investigator — was knocked to the ground after being struck by the vehicle the men were in as they were trying to get away.
The investigator was taken to the hospital and has minor injuries.
Virginia State Police said the suspects accelerated in an attempt to disperse the officers, and even did a U-turn in the parking lot and headed back toward them.
That’s when members of the task force fired at the three men’s vehicle, causing it to veer off the edge of the parking lot and up an embankment where it came to a stop.
The three men are each charged with one felony conspiracy count of possession with intent to manufacture/sell/distribute a Schedule I/II drug.
Coleman-Galloway, the driver of the vehicle, was charged with one felony count of malicious injury to a law enforcement officer and one felony count of assault as well.
Schwartz is also wanted in Baltimore on multiple arrest warrants, including counts for murder.
One of the officers who fired at the vehicle is a special agent with Virginia State Police, and has been placed on leave pending an investigation.
Below is the area where the incident happened.
