New details emerged Wednesday about what led Prince William County police to charge a 36-year-old man with two counts of murder, after two women were found shot to death in a Manassas, Virginia apartment.
It started early Tuesday morning at approximately 12:45 a.m., when a man reported an armed carjacker stole his Toyota Camry in Manassas, according to a news release from police. Police were already in the area, after getting a separate call about a man with a gun.
Prince William County police entered the information into the National Crime Information Center/Virginia Criminal Information Network database. The national database is used to enter or search for information about wanted or missing people, stolen property, criminal histories and to access the National Sex Offender Registry.
Several hours after county police entered the information, police said they were informed a man, Edward James Jackson Bland, 36, of Manassas, was being detained in Shenandoah County.
According to police, the Toyota that Jackson Bland was driving “became inoperable” in the area of Interstate 66 and Interstate 81, and he walked to a nearby convenience store.
“The vehicle was located on Stoney Creek Road, in Edinburg, just west of I-81,” Major Kolter Stroop, with Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office, who said the convenience store was located “at the Shell station on Stoney Creek Road.”
While current technology allows law enforcement to remotely disable a stolen car, Kolter said “To our knowledge the vehicle was not disabled by anything digital, but the driver may have been having some type of vehicle issues.”
Investigators were notified, and they confirmed the vehicle had been stolen from Prince William County. Jackson Bland was detained, police said.
“During the investigation, additional information was learned prompting concern and a welfare check at an apartment on Porter Ridge Lane in Manassas,” according to news release from Prince William County Police.
When nobody answered the door, police said officers forced their way in just after 5 a.m. and found the bodies of 34-year-old Leann Renee Harris and 22-year-old Asia Payne. Both had been shot to death.
Jackson Bland was arrested and charged with two counts of murder, carjacking, plus three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
“He was arrested without incident,” said Stroop.
Jackson Bland remains in custody in Shenandoah County.
The women who were killed are both from Manassas, police said.
Prince William County police said Jackson Bland and the two victims knew each other, but none of them lived in the apartment where Harris and Payne were killed. Police have not publicly released a possible motive.
Prince William County Lieutenant Jonathan Perok said whether the gun used in the armed carjacking was similar to the caliber of weapon used in the fatal shootings is still under investigation.
Online court records do not reflect when Bland Jackson will make his first court appearance in Prince William County.
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