A knife-wielding man who allegedly tried to rob a restaurant near Potomac Yard was hiding under his mother's bed four blocks away when Alexandria police finally caught up with him, following a trail of his own blood the whole way. Stanley Tirone Rivers, 64, is now being held without bond on a charge of attempted robbery with a weapon after employees at the restaurant fought back and sent him fleeing, heavily bleeding, into the night.
According to a search warrant affidavit cited by ALXnow, Rivers walked into a restaurant in the 3100 block of Richmond Highway on September 1 carrying a large hunting knife and demanded that employees open the cash register. Rivers allegedly told workers, “Imma kill you, open the register, gimme the money,” per the affidavit. Rather than comply, three employees turned the tables, injuring Rivers with a large grill scraper and throwing objects at him until he ran.
Police say Rivers was wearing a green beanie, a dark New Balance shirt, a black mask, light-colored pants and light-colored shoes during the attempted robbery. The Alexandria Police Department reported that he fled the scene on foot while heavily bleeding, and an APD K-9 officer picked up his trail and followed the blood for four blocks. That trail ended in the 300 block of Hume Avenue, where officers found Rivers hiding under his mother's bed, according to the affidavit.
From Commercial Strip to a Residential Bedroom
The 300 block of Hume Avenue sits in Alexandria's historic Del Ray neighborhood, situated four blocks west of the commercial Potomac Yard shopping corridor along Richmond Highway, according to the City of Alexandria. The short distance between the storefront where the confrontation happened and the residential street where Rivers was ultimately found underscores how tightly the area's commercial and residential blocks are woven together. Medics transported Rivers to Inova Alexandria Hospital, the same report notes, before he was charged with attempted robbery with a weapon, a Class 5 felony, on September 2.
Under Virginia Code § 18.2-58, which state lawmakers overhauled in July 2021, committing robbery by using or displaying a deadly weapon other than a firearm in a threatening manner is classified as a Class 5 felony, according to the Code of Virginia. That change replaced Virginia's old blanket robbery sentencing range of five years to life with more specific classifications. Under Virginia Code § 18.2-10, a Class 5 felony carries a potential state prison sentence of one to 10 years, or, at a court's discretion, up to 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500, per the same code. Because Rivers is accused of an attempted rather than completed robbery, Virginia Code § 18.2-26 structures the punishment tiers for attempt charges based on the maximum sentence tied to the underlying completed offense.
A Documented History in the Same Stretch of Del Ray
Rivers's arrest echoes a case from five years earlier involving the same suspect in the same immediate area. In 2021, ALXnow reported that Rivers, then 59, was arrested after DNA and fingerprint evidence linked him to two separate convenience store break-ins and robberies on Mount Vernon Avenue in Del Ray and Arlandria. In that earlier case, police collected blood evidence left on a shattered front glass door during a January 2021 7-Eleven break-in, and state lab testing matched it to Rivers five months later, the outlet's reporting from that period shows.
Rivers also has more recent legal trouble on his record. He was found guilty of petit larceny on September 9 for an unrelated incident from July 22, and received a suspended 45-day jail sentence. He is also scheduled to appear in court October 28 for an assault and battery charge stemming from a June arrest. The Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission publishes sentencing guidelines for robbery.
What Comes Next in Court
Rivers is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on October 9. Felony robbery charges in Alexandria originate in Alexandria General District Court, where a judge determines probable cause before the case can proceed to Alexandria Circuit Court for trial or final disposition, per Virginia Criminal Laws. The attempted robbery and assault charges remain pending.
The Alexandria Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division investigated 1,412 cases last year across eight specialized units, including a dedicated Robbery and Gang unit, per a separate report.
