AXTON, Va. (rbs news now) — Virginia State Police have taken over the investigation into a reported stabbing that left a man with a puncture wound to the neck and led to the detention of a Henry County Sheriff’s Office employee, according to Sheriff Wayne Davis.

Deputies were dispatched around noon Monday to the 58 Food Corner convenience store and Exxon gas station on A.L. Philpott Highway in the Axton area.

“We received multiple 9-1-1 calls to respond here to the 58 Food Corner,” Sheriff Davis said. “One of those 9-1-1 calls was from a female who alleged that a male subject had assaulted her and she had in turn cut and or stabbed that individual.”

Davis said there were three 9-1-1 calls in total reporting a domestic disturbance at the location.

“When our deputies arrived, they found one male subject who’d suffered a single puncture wound to the neck area,” Sheriff Davis said. “There was a female who had applied pressure, rendered medical aid for that individual upon our arrival. She has since been detained.”

The injured man was treated by deputies and Henry County Public Safety before being flown to a medical facility in Virginia.

“Previous to leaving the scene, he was alert and conscious and was able to provide deputies with a statement before he was actually flown out,” Davis said.

Davis said the woman told dispatchers she stabbed the man during a domestic altercation, but the man gave deputies a different account.

“The male subject provided a different version of events to our deputies that multiple Hispanic subjects had followed him here to this location and the altercation ensued. But based upon the female’s 9-1-1 call as well as both witnesses, we know that’s not true,” the sheriff said.

Davis said he requested that Virginia State Police take over the case because the woman detained is a non-sworn civilian employee of the Henry County Sheriff’s Office.

He said turning the case over to state police ensures transparency and avoids any appearance of bias.

“It’s in everyone’s best interest that the Virginia State Police conduct this investigation. They can take a 100% nonbiased look at it,” Davis said. “It’s important that we be transparent to the community. I made a promise we’d be transparent and that’s what we’re standing here today to be transparent.”

According to Davis, the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations will handle the case and forward its findings to the Commonwealth’s attorney, who will decide whether charges will be filed.

Davis also said the two people involved had been in a long-term relationship with alleged domestic violence.

“What we can definitively say is this has been an ongoing relationship at least five years that we’re aware of. There’s an allegation of ongoing domestic abuse in this relationship,” he said.

The investigation remains ongoing.

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