Police: Dumfries Shooting Suspect Is Behind Bars

Image: Robert Lee Shorts (PWCPD)

The Fairfax County police on Wednesday arrested a Stafford County man who was wanted in the shooting of a teenager last month in Dumfries.

Robert Lee Shorts, 20, of the 100 block of Eaton Court in Stafford, has been charged with aggravated malicious wounding and use of a firearm in commission of a felony, according to the Prince William County police. He’s being held without bond in the Prince William-Manassas regional jail, and his next date in court was unavailable, the police said.

The Prince William police did not release details on how or where Shorts was apprehended by the Fairfax County police. He allegedly fled on foot from the scene of the June 21 shooting towards a wooded area, eluding a search by the Prince William police that included a helicopter and a K-9 unit (an officer with a trained dog).

The shooting occurred in the 18100 block of the Triangle Shopping Plaza in Dumfries. The shooting victim, a 19-year-old man of no fixed address, told police he was walking to the plaza along Fraley Boulevard when he encountered Shorts, an acquaintance.

They got into an argument that escalated, according to a police report. Shorts then allegedly pulled out a handgun and shot the victim in his lower body.

The victim was flown to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries, police said.