BY NANCY DRURY DUNCAN, Eastern Shore Post —
A Chincoteague Island man who gained notoriety when, at the age of 14, he carjacked a vehicle belonging to a member of the Accomack County Board of Supervisors, is headed for prison after pleading guilty to firing a gun into a vehicle.
Dabreon Lamont Tankard, 23, will serve seven years in prison, have five years of post-release supervised probation, and was ordered to be on good behavior for 10 years.
Retired Circuit Judge W. Revell Lewis III, who presided over the case, reminded him that Supervisor Reneta Major — the hijacking victim — advocated for him at his trial.
“This court remembers the carjacking. It was a dramatic event. You had weapons and ordered her out of her car,” Lewis said. “Though you were tried as an adult, she was supportive of your getting help and staying in the juvenile justice system instead of going to prison. You got a job and a place to live. Everything was going good and then you started getting in trouble.”
Tankard was convicted earlier this year of firing a gun into a vehicle and injuring the driver.
The incident stemmed from a fight that began at Four Corner Plaza in July 2023.
A man who told police he was involved in the altercation said he followed the car occupied by Tankard and a woman to Washington Street next to the Wendy’s restaurant.
A shot was fired into his car, said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney William Fox.
A woman who was in the car with Tankard said the man who was shot at was harassing her and Tankard and she thought he had a gun.
When the woman saw the car pull up behind them, she said she stopped and tried to fire a warning shot with her .45 caliber Glock pistol.
She told police she was not able to fire it and handed it to Tankard and told him to shoot, said Fox.
Tankard fired at the victim’s vehicle and they sped away, later throwing the gun into a field near Wachapreague, she said.
The victim was injured by the glass from the broken windshield.
Tankard entered into a plea agreement that amended his charge of maliciously shooting into an occupied vehicle to unlawfully shooting into the vehicle, a lesser felony.
Tankard has had other brushes with the law. He spent four years in a juvenile detention facility and was still on probation when in September 2021 he damaged a car with a cinder block and punched a car door when the mother of the person he wanted to see would not let him into her house.
