Arrests Made in Mob Bat Beat Down

Fredericksburg Police have arrested three suspects in relation to a mob attack on two petty vigilantes who thwarted an attempt by one of the suspects to steal beer from a city gas station. 

Around 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 12, police went to a residence in the Camden Hills apartment complex to try and find a suspect on charges unrelated to the mob assault. Upon arriving at the apartment, a woman there allowed the officer to enter the house. At that point, the officer noticed four men hanging out at the apartment, three of whom matched descriptions provided by the victims in the assault. The person the officer was originally after was not around.

The officer then casually struck up conversations with the present men, getting them to tell him their names. Upon leaving the apartment complex, the officer notified police headquarters, who posted two officers at the residence to shadow the three suspects until police could arrange a photo line-up and warrant could be obtained. 

"Luckily we were able to get ahold of the victims and asked them are you available right now to look at these?" Said Fredericksburg Police Public Information Officer Natatia Bledsoe in an interview. "Everything really came together here."

Police already had photographs of the three men from prior encounters, which sped up the process of arranging the photo lineup. 

Mark Haigler, 20, of Spotsylvania was arrested for shoplifting and two counts of malicious wounding by mob. Schira Eura, 28, and Marcus Robinson, 27, both of Fredericksburg were each arrested for two counts of malicious wounding by mob. All three were incarcerated at the Rappahannock Regional Jail under no bond.

The whole affair began shortly before 9 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11, when one of the attackers stole a single beer from the gas station cooler and ran across Route 1. At the time, there were at least three people in the store; the clerk and two neighborhood residents, a married couple in their 20s who frequent the gas station convenience store. The clerk pointed out the minor theft which just occurred to the couple. This prompted the two regular customers to follow the shoplifter by car. They caught up with the shoplifter a short while later in front of the nearby Camden Hills Apartments and were able to retrieve and return the beer to the store. 

Shortly afterwards, the shoplifter returned to the gas station with four others and began arguing with the couple in the parking lot. The confrontation quickly turned physical, and the husband was hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat. A second victim, a neighborhood resident who happened to be walking by at the time of the fight, ran to assist the first victim, who he knew. The second victim told police that at one point during the fight, a knife was drawn. As he was  trying to help his friend, he was hit in the hand with a baseball bat, causing him to drop his cell phone. One of the suspects then grabbed the phone before the group of assailants fled on foot. 

Police are still searching for two other suspects believed to have been involved in the altercation.