CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A disturbing late-night incident has left a local couple grateful to be alive, and seeking answers.
According to Chesterfield County Police, it all happened on Sunday around 3:30 a.m. The couple was abducted, assaulted, and held against their will in their own home – at the 4500 block of Centralia Road – by their roommate, 29-year-old Christopher Courteau.
The couple told 8News Courteau had been on edge recently but said he showed no signs of doing something so heinous. Kris Klenotiz and Kayla Hypes said they are still processing what happened.
“It looks like he had two different types of bullets. The one has like those spread-out pellets. And then the other one… yeah there’s like a lot of damage from that,” Hypes said.
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Bullet hole comparison in the house -
Bullet hole comparison in the house
The couple said the night was one they would never forget. Klenotiz said he was beaten inside the bathtub while his girlfriend was tied up in the other room.
“The second shot I thought hit me. I didn’t know. I felt his hand on my face. Then I heard a shot and it was a big gun, then about two seconds later I was still alive and was trying to logically think how I can get out of this,” Klenotiz said.
A situation that they still don’t understand. Klenotiz said they were tortured for some type of information Courteau thought they had.
“His mind was saying we had some kind of information. He was torturing me for some information I didn’t have,” Klenotiz said.
Hypes keeps replaying the scenario in her head and said she can’t believe it happened, and that it still doesn’t feel real. The couple said Courteau had been staying with them for a few years, and Klenotiz has known Courteau since he was a teenager. But that night, Courteau was a different person.
Klenotiz said, somehow, he’s not mad. Instead, the couple has been left wondering “why?”
“You wanna get mad, you wanna be mad, but that’s not the kind of person I am. That’s not why I helped him in the first place,” Klenotiz said. “He needs help. He needs to get fixed. Everybody deserves a second chance.”
For this couple, their second chance came when Hypes became a hero. While Klenotiz was being beaten, Hypes was able to get loose and run to a neighbor to call the police.
“She saved everyone. She was the brave one,” Klenotiz said.
When police arrived at the house, officers said Klenotiz ran out of the house. Courteau then went downstairs to greet the officers while wearing body armor and holding a revolver. He originally ignored orders to put the gun down, but officers said he eventually put the gun on a table, and then immediately charged an officer.
Police said several officers were then assaulted in a brief struggle before Courteau was handcuffed and taken into custody.
Courteau is facing 22 charges from this incident:
- two counts of abduction
- two counts of attempted capital murder
- three counts of brandishing
- three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony
- five counts of assault on a law enforcement officer
- shooting into an occupied dwelling
- malicious wounding
- unlawful wounding
- attempt to disarm a law enforcement officer
- possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
- use of body armor while committing a crime
- felony obstruction of justice
He is currently being held without bond at Chesterfield County Jail.
Police continue to investigate this incident. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Chesterfield County Police Department at 804-748-1251 or Crime Solvers at 804-748-0660
