CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Isaac Sampson is incarcerated at the Correctional Center in Chesapeake.
He is accused of firing three shots at police while an officer used a Taser on him. Police said he was then able to get into the police car and steal it, crashing it down the street.
“I did not point the gun in his direction. It was not my intention to hurt anybody. I was trying to get away,” Sampson told 10 On Your Side during a jail interview in Chesapeake.
Police and Sampson both said he was stopped in a parking lot on Campostella Road. He refused to identify himself, so the officer tried to put him under arrest.
Here is what Sampson says happened:
“When he grabbed me, we wrestled. I backed up off him, and that’s when he tased me. That was when he pulled out his Taser, and I went out and around the car and I had a firearm in my possession, and I went around the car, and when he was tasing me. I grabbed the firearm and it discharged because I couldn’t control what was going on. I was being tased.”
ABOVE: Jailhouse interview with man accused of shooting at Chesapeake officer
Video we have seen shows Sampson running around the back of the cruiser, hunched over, and jumping in while the officer was in front of the police cruiser pointing his gun toward Sampson. By the time the officer pointed his gun, Sampson was behind the wheel.
“He was in the front of the car saying he was going to shoot me, and I just pulled off… I don’t know how I was able to do it,” he said.
Sampson got about three blocks when he crashed the police cruiser into a yard, slamming it into a tree. He was then taken into custody.
“When I crashed the police car, I wasn’t in my rightful mind. A lot was going on. I was not rational, and I couldn’t rationalize things,” he said.
Here’s the problem: Sampson is 48, and he says he has spent over 30 years incarcerated on gun charges. He says he has served sentences of 11 years, seven years, five years and 3.5 years.
We asked Sampson why he has broken the law again — a convicted felon in possession of a firearm,
“That’s the choice this day in age. Everyone has guns,” he said.
But we reminded him, he’s a repeated convicted felon, he’s served hard time for it, and now he’s done it again.
“I understand, sir… I am very remorseful, and I apologize to anyone I’ve offended or anyone I could have potentially hurt people. I did not mean to hurt no one… This doesn’t look good, does it?” he said.
Sampson was denied bond and appeared via video for his arraignment on Thursday.
His next court appearance is set for August 3.
Court records show that Sampson faces the following charges:
- identity theft
- use of a firearm in the commission of a felony
- grand larceny: auto theft
- eluding/disregarding police
- destruction of property
- shooting in an occupied building
- pointing/brandishing a firearm
- not having a drivers license
