The police activity that drew attention away from the Dulles Town Center's Liberty Festival July 1, actually started inside the Dulles Town Center's Nordstrom department store.
A deputy working with the store was watching its video-surveillance monitors when he noticed a man taking items from the store.
Stephen Delante Young, 46, of Suitland, Md., took two pairs of jeans, valued at $172 a pair, and five shirts, valued at approximately $70 each, from Nordstrom without purchasing them, Kraig Troxell, the Sheriff's Office spokesperson, said.
The Sheriff's deputy in the store followed Young out of the store, where Young dropped some of the merchandise before jumping in a nearby vehicle driven by Albert Lee, 54, of Washington, D.C. As the deputy on duty approached the vehicle, the car drove away.
In their attempt to escape the deputy, the suspects drove towards the command center the Sheriff's Office had set up for the Liberty Festival, Troxell said.
Alerted to the situation, the deputies at the festival approached the vehicle as residents attending the July Fourth celebration looked on. Young and Lee exited Lee's vehicle at gun point and were promptly handcuffed.
"Both men were held without bond that night," Troxell said.
Young was charged with grand larceny and conspiracy to commit grand larceny, Troxell said, and was released on $20,000 bond July 5.
Lee was charged with conspiracy to commit grand larceny and with aiding and abetting a suspect who had committed a felony. Lee's bond was set at $7,500, but as of last week he had posted bond.