On February 26, 2021, 48-year-old Stanley Police Department officer Dominic Nick J. Winum was shot and killed during a traffic stop on Judy Lane in Stanley. The shooting occurred about 3:15 p.m. when the driver, identified as 29-year-old Dakota G. Richards, emerged from the vehicle and opened fire before Winum could exit his patrol car. Officer Winum died at the scene.

A multi-agency manhunt followed. Richards fled into the woods and was later found hiding in a barn off Marksville Road. When deputies from the Page County Sheriff’s Office confronted him and he made a threatening movement, Richards was shot and killed. The Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Culpeper Field Office investigated both the line-of-duty death of Officer Winum and the subsequent fatal officer-involved shooting of the suspect.

Winum, born August 31, 1972, had served ten years with the Virginia State Police before joining the Stanley Police Department in 2016. He was a husband and father of four children. Does anyone in the area have information about the traffic stop or the moments leading up to the shooting?