Store owner: Suspect was at Pawn Mart during manhunt

Was Gregory Lee Wallace the man who fled Culpeper County sheriff’s deputies Monday after a violent home invasion and car chase?

The owner of a local business says it’s impossible.

Steve Cox, who owns Pawn Mart on James Madison Highway, said Wallace, 27, of Remington was at his store for “five or six hours” Monday afternoon installing a stereo in a white minivan.

During that time, the Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies were conducting a massive manhunt for a suspect — repeatedly identified by the CCSO as Wallace — who fled on foot into the Brandy Station battlefield area, several miles northeast of Pawn Mart on U.S. 29 at Alanthus Road.

Wallace has claimed to have no involvement in the incident, saying he was in Orange before driving to the Pawn Mart.

On Thursday, a Star-Exponent reporter showed Wallace’s picture to Cox, who confirmed it was the same man in his store.

“He was this far from my face,” Cox said, gesturing about six inches away. Cox added that both men were in the van while installing the stereo.

Wallace was arrested early Tuesday morning by sheriff’s deputies and questioned about the crime. However, the CCSO chose not to bring charges against him, and he was released on $10,000 bail on unrelated charges filed by town police — obstruction of justice and cocaine possession.

Sheriff Jim Branch did not immediately return a cell phone message Thursday afternoon to comment on the latest aspects of the case.

The CCSO has not issued any comments about why Wallace was not charged; the agency also is not commenting on whether a second suspect is still on the loose. During the manhunt, the CCSO said the suspect was possibly armed.

Only one man is jailed in connection with the incident. Darryl T. Wallace, 18, of Washington, D.C., faces felony charges of breaking and entering, robbery, abduction by force, malicious wounding and using a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Darryl Wallace, the cousin of Gregory Wallace, was arrested immediately after the chase Monday, which ended on Brandy Road just off U.S. 29.

Gregory Wallace says he has no knowledge of if his cousin was involved in the home invasion, in which a male victim was beaten and forced at gunpoint to drive the getaway car.