Local News

Body camera footage details circumstances of Ralph Ennis’s April 2 traffic stop

Published

4 years ago

May 3, 2022

After two Warren County Sheriff’s Office Press Releases explaining the circumstances of the arrest, injuries, and hospitalization of 77-year-old Ralph Ennis on April 2nd following a low-speed chase southbound on Route 522 north of Front Royal in Warren County, the bodycam and dashboard camera footage of a Front Royal Town Police officer have been released by the Front Royal Police Department in the wake of media Freedom Of Information Act requests.

Monday, May 2, Royal Examiner acquired the video and an incident report written by FRPD Cpl. R.D. Lowery through a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request. Lowery’s written narrative describes his involvement and observations at the scene culminating in the 7/11 parking lot adjacent to Royal Farms in the Crooked Run Shopping Center area. Also linked here are the two WCSO press releases, including the account of a previous interaction with Mr. Ennis on March 11, during which sheriff’s office personnel helped secure Mr. Ennis’s safekeeping while family or institutional help was sought during an endangered missing person alert due to pre-existing conditions impacting Mr. Ennis’s cognitive abilities.

As reported previously, Ennis was initially transported to Warren Memorial Hospital (WMH) after his arrest, then transferred to Winchester Medical Center with a suspected brain bleed, and later to Blue Ridge Hospice, where he died on April 15. Mr. Ennis’s body was transported to the Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office in Manassas, where an autopsy was performed; the findings of the Medical Examiner have not been released.

The Virginia State Police are investigating the circumstance of the arrest and Ennis’s death; and a Special Prosecutor, the Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, has been appointed in the event charges result from that state police investigation.