NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — CORRECTION: This story has been updated to remove information that was incorrectly attributed to the York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office in an earlier version of this story. Additional comment from the Sheriff's Office has also been added.
In early January, Raymond Copeland became a wanted man.
A Facebook post by the York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office named him as a suspect in a January 6 shooting in York County that Copeland says he was nowhere near.
“l looked at it initially and was like, haha somebody's playing a joke...” he said.
When Copeland heard the news from friends, he thought it was a prank, but when his family reached out, reality set in.
“I was just terrified," he said.
Over the next few days, his life was turned upside down, as local news outlets — including 13News Now — reported he was wanted for conspiracy to commit malicious wounding.
A person who was injured in the shooting near Penniman and Low Ridge roads had been transported to a local hospital, according to the YPSO's Facebook post, and Copeland's face appeared on a WANTED photo.
“So it aired on that Sunday, I think the seventh of January. I went to work on Monday and was escorted out,” Copeland said.
He was out of work for a week and a half as he looked for a way to clear his name and avoid going to jail.
Copeland said someone stole his wallet on Christmas Eve at a local Target store while he was finishing up last-minute shopping.
“I didn't put two and two together until my mom was like, you might need to check where your wallet was,” he said.
“I discovered that I [had received] a message on Facebook, like December 28, and asked why my wallet was in the suspect's car, the victim’s car, and I didn't see that message until January 11,” he said.
From there, Copeland began working with Sheriff's Office to clear his name and get his job back. Now, he’s back at work, doing what he loves, and moving freely. However, Copeland is considering legal action to right what he feels has been wronged.
“This is something that shouldn't have happened at all … just do your job a little better ... so no one ever has to go through what I'm going through," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Sherriff's Office told 13News Now that they do not believe Copeland was involved in the January shooting.
"He was initially a suspect because he was identified to us by the victim, who had been shot. That turned out to be a case of mistaken identity," she explained in an email.
The spokeswoman did not explain the circumstances around how the victim came to identify Copland, and she said Sheriff Ron Montgomery was not available to provide comment or do an interview for this story.
When asked about Copeland's wallet, the spokeswoman said it was "alleged to have been stolen in Newport News" and that the Sheriff's Office had advised him to file a police report with the Newport News Police Department.
