Deputy shot in court attack home

The wife of the Fauquier County sheriff’s deputy who was shot in a courthouse attack Wednesday in Warrenton said her husband is expected to fully recover.

“He is limping around and on crutches,” said Tiffany Embrey, reached at home New Year’s Day, of her husband Deputy Charles Embrey, a Fauquier County native and 18-year veteran of the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office. “But he is in good spirits.”

The couple has been married 10 years and has two young sons.

Embrey, 38, was shot in the upper leg during a perilous incident that occurred as he and fellow Deputy Thomas Leake, 41, transported inmate George Golder Phillips II of Culpeper from a holding cell to the nearby courthouse.

Embrey was released from INOVA Fairfax hospital Thursday night while Leake is still hospitalized.

“We were in bed by 7,” Mrs. Embrey said, asked about their New Year’s Eve.

She said her husband “would be fine” and that he came home with a few stitches. Mrs. Embrey said the outpouring of phone calls and support had been tremendous, for which they are appreciative. She said her husband had never before been injured in the line of duty.

“Obviously, I was horrified,” Embrey said of learning that her husband had been shot. “I am doing OK now — we are just trying to work through things.”

She said their sons, aged 2 and 5, aren’t exactly sure what happened to their dad, only that “he has some boo boos.”

The attack could have turned out been much worse, Mrs. Embrey acknowledged. “We are just grateful things happened they way they happened. We are very thankful.”

According to Fauquier authorities, deputies Embrey and Leake were injured Wednesday around 1 p.m. while transporting Phillips to the courthouse for a hearing on charges stemming from a 2008 bank robbery.

“While in the holding cell area, an incident occurred,” said FCSO Lt. James Hartman at a news conference Wednesday in Warrenton. “One deputy was stabbed in the face with an unknown instrument — the other deputy was shot in the leg.”

In a separate statement, authorities said Phillips stabbed Leake near the eye with a self-made weapon as he entered the cell. While struggling with Leake, the suspect gained control of the deputy’s gun and shot Embrey as he came to assist. In spite of their injuries, authorities said, the deputies were able to subdue Phillips.

Phillips, who is being held in an undisclosed location, is charged with one count of attempted murder of a police officer. He is due to return to court Jan. 7 on that charge.

Hartman told the Star-Exponent Thursday that although no new charges had been placed against Phillips, additional charges were “anticipated soon.”

Leake is still recovering at Fauquier Hospital, Hartman said. Leake, who has about two years with the force, was listed in stable condition as of Wednesday. A woman manning Fauquier Hospital’s patient information line Friday would not provide an update on Leake’s condition, saying they do not provide that kind of information.