OCEAN CITY — A Virginia man was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree assault last weekend after allegedly brandishing a handgun and threatening three victims.
Around 4:40 a.m. last Saturday, an Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officer responded to the area of 22nd Street and Baltimore Avenue for a report of two males threatening a group of three people with a handgun. Upon arrival, the officer met with three victims who reportedly told police they had been approached by two males. The victims told police the two males wearing hooded sweatshirts had asked them for a lighter and struck up a conversation with them, according to police reports.
The victims told police they walked away from the suspects, later identified as Leslie Harris, Jr., 18, of Winchester, Va., and an unidentified juvenile, but the suspects continued to follow them and began harassing them, according to police reports. The victims reportedly told Harris and the juvenile to stop following them and harassing them, at which point one of the suspects threatened to shoot them, according to police reports.
Harris and the juvenile then ran toward a nearby hotel and one of them yelled to the victims, “I got something for you,” and ran toward a nearby hotel, according to police reports. Harris and the juvenile reportedly then ran through the hotel parking lot toward the victims, yelling they were going to shoot them.
One of the victims reportedly pulled out a pool cue he was carrying to defend himself and the others in his group. Harris and the juvenile then retreated toward the hotel. Officers interviewed the victims separately and they each provided the same version of the events.
One of the victims reportedly told officers she was sure both Harris and the juvenile were carrying guns. One victim told police the juvenile displayed a handgun during the incident, and Harris made furtive moves to the pocket of his sweatshirt as if he was carrying a gun, according to police reports. The victim said only after she pulled out her phone to call police did the two suspects flee toward the hotel.
Security footage reportedly showed two males matching the descriptions of Harris and the juvenile entering the hotel and running toward the elevator about three minutes after the initial call was received. Later in the morning, as officers were reviewing hotel security footage, they observed Harris walk out of the hotel and onto the Boardwalk, where he was detained. He was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree assault and three counts of second-degree assault.
