She was legally barred from owning a gun due to a prior felony charge of malicious wounding filed in August 2020.

Under Virginia law, malicious wounding is defined as intentionally shooting, stabbing, cutting, or otherwise causing bodily injury to another person with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill. The statute is considered one of the most serious violent crime offenses in the state’s criminal code.Thompson-Hairston was a juvenile at the time of the malicious wounding charge, and those case records remain sealed under laws protecting minors, said the report.

Prosecutors later dismissed the firearm-related charges after determining that the earlier malicious wounding charge had been reduced to a misdemeanor under a plea agreement. The change in classification meant she was no longer legally barred