Usually I read about police shootings and pass by them giving benefit of doubt to the officer. I am not sure why this one is bothering me, maybe because it is so close to home. But it all ended up w/a 54 yr old woman dead....
Eyewitness statements claim the officer had his gun in one hand and the other on the door handle. Also, the Jeep had manual roll up windows....just a sad story. I will think about this if I am ever stopped and had a serious talk w/my wife about being stopped. This just scares the shart out of me!
Police: Officer who shot woman was being dragged - The News Desk
Police: Officer who shot woman was being dragged
RELATED:Fatal police shooting was first in 66 years
BY DONNIE JOHNSTON
State police say the Culpeper town police officer who shot and killed a woman Thursday did so after his arm became trapped in the window of her vehicle as she began driving away.
According to Sgt. Les Tyler, the officer had approached Patricia A. Cook, 54, of Culpeper, while she was parked the Epiphany Catholic School parking lot on East Street. The officer, whose name has not been released, was responding to a report by school authorities about a suspicious person in the lot.
“While attempting to retrieve her identification, the woman suddenly closed her driver’s-side window, trapping the officer’s arm, and started driving away, dragging the officer alongside,” Tyler said in a news release Friday.
The state police is investigating the shooting.
A witness reported seeing the officer with his gun drawn yelling, “Stop or I’ll shoot!”
Carpenter Kris Buchele, who was working in a second-floor apartment in an adjacent house, said he then saw the officer fire through the glass as the Jeep Wrangler started south on East Street.
The officer then ran into the street and fired as many as five more rounds before the Jeep rolled into a utility pole about 70 yards away, Buchele said.
Cook was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the officer was slightly injured.
Police have offered no explanation as to why the woman was parked in the school lot, which is immediately adjacent to East Street.
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By Phil Jenkins on February 10th, 2012 1:29 pm
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