Wreck follows stabbing
A former employee of Lusentz Electronics, 7557 Centreville Road, stabbed the manager during an argument, according to Prince William police.
The former employee then fled in a vehicle with another worker, only to hit a telephone pole while traveling more than 80 mph on Yorkshire Lane, police said.
Police would not release the names.
Lusentz employee Jay Lu said the argument between his boss, Mark Thomas, and a former worker, known only to his co-workers as “Jay,” was caused by a dispute over a spare tire and a cell phone charger.
Jay, who had been fired two days before, stopped by at the business a little before 4 p.m., demanding Thomas return a spare tire. Thomas told Jay that he wanted Jay to give him his cell phone charger first, according to Lu.
“They kept on arguing over and over for 15 minutes,” said Pedro Lopez, another employee.
Lopez said he saw Thomas run at Jay, shattering an empty Arizona Ice Tea bottle over his head. Jay then pulled out what looked to Lopez like an inch-thick knife with serrated edges.
“It was a pretty scary knife,” Lu said.
Jay stabbed Thomas twice, cutting his upper left arm and his right chest, according to Lopez.
Thomas, who was later transferred to Prince William Hospital in Manassas, suffered minor injuries, according to Prince William police spokeswoman Kim Chinn.
After the stabbing, Jay and another worker, only known to her co-workers as “Heidi,” sped off in a dark-colored compact car.
Kenny Roper, of 8516 Yorkshire Lane, said he was watching television at about 4 p.m. when the ground shook and the electricity went out in his house.
Roper walked outside to see that a small, dark-colored car had smashed into a telephone pole out front, snapping it clear in half. The car was traveling so fast that wood from a neighbor’s mailbox had been thrown about 40 feet.
Joined by neighbors David Amia and Matt Popish, Roper ran up to the car, finding a man and a woman inside.
“She was just in shock. But she looked around. We couldn’t get the man to respond. He wouldn’t move,” Roper said.
The three men tried to pry the door open but backed away after a transformer, hanging above them with half a telephone pole, began to blow.
Prince William Fire and Rescue soon responded to the scene. The man in the car was flown to Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., and remained in critical condition Wednesday night, according to Chinn. The woman, who suffered less severe injuries, was transported to Prince William Hospital.
No charges had been filed as of Wednesday night, Chinn said.
Staff writer Chris Newmarker can be reached at (703)368-3101, Ext. 119.