The man fatally shot by James City County police after stabbing a woman Wednesday afternoon had a history of assault convictions and had been involuntarily committed to mental treatment in North Carolina, Williamsburg Watch has learned.
He was identified by the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s office as Stephen Thomas Ball, 33, from Newport, North Carolina.
Ball randomly attacked a woman shopper leaving the Ross Department store off Mooretown Road on Wednesday afternoon and fled to the nearby Home Depot, according to police.
James City County police were first on the scene and were directed by store employees to the tool department, where the man grabbed a claw hammer and charged two officers.
James City Police Chief Mark Jamison said police ordered the man to drop the hammer several times. “The individual refused,” he said.
“He lifted the hammer over his head and …