Two Hispanic men were critically wounded in a Wednesday night shooting at a Sheetz in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, in what authorities said appeared to be a hate crime.
Douglas Wayne Cornett, 57, of Caroline County, Virginia, has been arrested and charged with aggravated malicious wounding and firearms violations. Cornett is white and, preliminarily, the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office said the shooting “appears to be hate/bias related.”
“Hate crimes are a stain on our society and have no place in a civilized world. As a society, we must stand united in denouncing and combating hate crimes in all forms,” Sheriff Roger Harris said in a news release.
The shooting happened just before 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Sheetz in the 5000 block of Mudd Tavern Road, in the Thornburg area, the sheriff’s office said. When deputies arrived, they found two men, aged 29 and 45, with multiple gunshot wounds.
Both men were taken to the hospital with critical injuries, according to the sheriff’s office. The men who were shot are from Prince William County
Through witnesses and surveillance footage, detectives got a description of the suspect and a vehicle that left the scene. Cornett was later arrested by the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office and Spotsylvania detectives.
Below is a map of where the shooting happened.
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