Va. man faces weapons charges after grenade launcher, arms, military maps found in NJ motel

Va. man faces charges after arms found in NJ motel

SOMERSET, N.J. — Authorities in New Jersey say they seized a cache of weapons and ammunition including rifles, a grenade launcher and a night vision scope from the motel room of a Virginia man arrested by officers responding to a report of a suspicious person.

Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne Forrest said Lloyd R. Woodson, 43, of Reston, Va., also had maps of a U.S. military facility and a town in another state. He is set for arraignment Tuesday on charges including unlawful possession of weapons, possession of prohibited weapons, obstruction of justice and resisting arrest.

Forrest said Woodson was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle concealed under his green, military-style jacket when officers encountered him at a Quick Chek store in Branchburg shortly before 4 a.m. Monday.

As officers started to question him, Woodson fled on foot toward a trailer park, Forrest said. Officers found him hiding in bushes and tackled him when he tried to run. The officers used pepper spray to subdue him.

Forrest said the rifle Woodson was carrying had a defaced serial number and had been altered to fire .50-caliber ammunition.

Detectives later searched the room where Woodson had been staying at the Red Mill Inn in Branchburg. Forrest said they seized another Bushmaster .308-caliber semiautomatic rifle with a defaced serial number, a 37 mm Cobray grenade launcher, a second bulletproof vest, a Russian-made night vision scope, a police scanner, the maps, and hundreds of rounds of .50-caliber and .308-caliber ammunition.

Woodson was being held at the Somerset County jail. Prosecutor’s spokesman Jack Bennett said the prosecutor’s office did not know whether Woodson had a lawyer.

Forrest said investigators from the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have joined the investigation.