HENRY COUNTY, Va. – Four Henry County deputies have been suspended without pay while Virginia State Police are investigating the use of force.
”This took place 24 hours into being sheriff,” Sheriff Wayne Davis said.
Davis is facing scandal less than a week into his term as Henry County Sheriff.
“It takes time to get new strategies and new things into place and there just was not time unfortunately before this incident took place,” Davis said.
Four of his deputies are now suspended without pay after Davis says deputies used force on a man who was being uncooperative after being brought in for arrest.
“We try to de-escalate every situation and avoid any use of force,” he said.
Davis called in Virginia State Police to investigate, saying he wants to be transparent with the community.
“We’re going to get it done and we’re going to get it done to the best of our abilities,” he said.
When asked about what changes Davis wants to make to the department, he focused on the age of deputies.
“Effective today we will take the minimum hiring age back to 21 years old,” he said.
The age previously was lowered to 18 in an effort to hire new employees for the new adult detention center, a decision Davis did not agree with.
Henry County confirmed in their press conference Friday roughly 30% of their deputies are under 21.
“It’s not necessarily because of this incident, but it’s one of the things we determined needs to be looked at again,” he said.
Across our five zones, there is a wide range of minimum ages for deputies. From 18 in Roanoke City, to 21 in Rockbridge, Lynchburg, and now, Henry County.
Increased training will be added for new deputies according to Davis, to try and avoid another incident like this.
“A field training program will be implemented for all new supervisors, so they all do things the same way and they understand the processes to try and alleviate any incidents from happening,” Davis said.
Davis says he will work to get to the bottom of what happened.
“We will seek the entire truth,” he said.
No information regarding the victim has been released.
10 News reached out to Virginia State Police for an update on the investigation, as well as video footage of the incident, but have not heard back.
We’ll continue to keep you updated on the investigation as it unfolds.
