BRISTOL, Va. – A woman typing away on a laptop computer was the last thing city fire Capt. Mark Garrett expected to see late Thursday morning in the smoke-clogged apartment.
But he wasn’t at all surprised to spot a man trying to wave away the smoke after already spraying air freshener – in an attempt to mask the chemical stench of what police said was a meth lab flare up.
Police said the emergency call for smoke resulted in the arrests of four people from a first-floor unit at the Downtown Plaza Apartments.
The two in the apartment – Jessica Justice, 19, and Joshua Skeens, 24, both of Bristol, Va. – and two others who left through the front door as firefighters entered were each charged with manufacturing methamphetamine and conspiracy.
In turn, police said, a tip from the suspects led to a search across town for a meth lab in a Rice Terrace apartment, where Justice lived. Narcotics officers decked in protective clothing were seen entering that apartment moments before dusk Thursday.
Sparking the arrests was a simple call at 11:03 a.m. to the Bristol Virginia Fire Department about smoke billowing from an apartment window on Newton Street, where Skeens lived.
“There was a problem during the (meth) manufacturing process,” Bristol Virginia Police Detective Aaron Hankins said.
Soon after arriving at the Downtown Plaza complex, Garrett tracked around the back of one building looking for the smoke. He had just spotted the column rising from an open window when someone closed the window from inside.
So Garrett went to the front door.
“We knocked three times, and we were getting ready to knock the door down when they walked out,” he said.
A man and a woman – Cynthia Stuart, 24, and Jeremy S. McCloud, 29, both of Bluff City, Tenn. – each carrying something wrapped in a blanket, strolled out the front door. Police nabbed them moments later.
Garrett and other firefighters, all donning oxygen masks, pushed into the smoke to find Justice and Skeens still in the apartment.
A blazing trash can was the source of all of the commotion, Garrett said.
“It was mainly just smoke, but it had the potential to get away from them and out of hand,” Garrett said.
Even with the fire out, the fire department had some advice to share. Jail officers called the fire department asking how to decontaminate the four suspects.
“We told them the shower at the jail would do,” Garrett said.
mowens@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2549
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