TOWSON, (AP) — A Woodlawn man charged in the weekend stabbing death of a woman at a Maryland liquor store had a run-in with police, who used a stun gun to subdue him after finding the man naked outside a Pittsburgh-area mission a day after the attack, authorities said Wednesday.
Police Officer Von Lacock said he found David Briggs, 23, preaching unclothed before the altar of the Washington City Mission on Sunday night in Washington, Pa.
“He was completely naked,” Lacock said. “He was just standing there reading and preaching. He wouldn’t stop talking. He was standing up there like he was giving a sermon.”
Police using a stun gun subdued Briggs, who stands about 6’4″ and weighs about 300 pounds, and then took him to a hospital.
“We warned him several times to get on the ground, but he just wouldn’t listen,” Lacock explained.
Pennsylvania State Police said they had found Briggs sitting by an exit on Interstate 70 and took him Sunday to the mission, where he was waiting for his father to come from Baltimore to get him.
On Monday, Baltimore County police identified Briggs as the suspect in the slaying of 24-year-old Aysha Ring, said Baltimore County police spokesman Cpl. Mike Hill.
Ring was waiting in line at a liquor store in Catonsville on Saturday when Briggs stabbed her in the neck from behind, police said. The woman died later at a hospital.
Briggs was arrested at his home Monday and charged with first-degree murder.
Security camera footage and evidence recovered from Briggs’ home link him to the killing, police said.
The slaying appears to be random and authorities have not been able to find any connection between Ring and Briggs, according to Hill.
Briggs was the same man involved in the incident in Washington, Pa., on Sunday, Hill said. But he could not comment on whether the incident in Pennsylvania was related to Ring’s slaying a day earlier.
Briggs is expected to plead not criminally responsible and not competent to stand trial, according to Arthur M. Frank, an attorney who has represented Briggs in the past and will represent him in the preliminary stages of this case. Briggs waived a bail hearing scheduled for Wednesday, he said.
When asked if something had happened that might have led to the slaying that Briggs is accused of, Frank said something occurred but he didn’t want to comment further.
“Obviously, he has some mental problems,” Briggs’ father Carlton told the (Baltimore) Sun on Tuesday. “I just found out what happened. I’m heartbroken.”
A message left Wednesday by The Associated Press at a listing for Briggs’ family was not immediately returned.
