Three people were taken to a hospital with minor illnesses Saturday after a pepper ball was discharged inside a Wawa convenience store in Stafford County.

Stafford County Fire and Rescue crews responded around 5 p.m. to a hazardous materials call at the Wawa on Warrenton Road at Litchfield Boulevard. Firefighters isolated the area while investigating. The source was identified as a pepper ball, a self-defense tool that fires a projectile filled with a powdered chemical irritant, similar to pepper spray, and can be launched up to 150 feet.

A ribbon-cutting event will be held Monday, August 31, at 3:30 p.m. to mark the completion of the Staffordboro Boulevard Sidewalk Project at the entrance of the Park and Ride lot near the Route 610 intersection, Stafford County reported. The $2.1 million project built approximately 1,200 linear feet of sidewalk between the Juggins Road Connector and Pike Place, along with new crosswalks at road crossings.

The work, finished on schedule this spring with paving completed this summer, is the first of four locally administered road projects under Stafford County’s $70 million investment to improve roads, safety, accessibility and congestion. The new sidewalk connects several communities to existing paths and park-and-ride lots, with ADA-accessible ramps and detectable warning surfaces to better serve pedestrians.