Posted on 02/19/2012 10:16:11 AM PST by Altariel
By AUDREY BARNES/myfoxdc
CULPEPER, Va. - Investigators are trying to figure out what led to a police shooting that killed a 54-year-old woman in Culpeper.
A telephone pole on North East Street is where police say the confrontation between Patricia Cook and a five-year veteran of the Town of Culpeper Police Department ended.
Ironically, it began about 75 yards up the street outside of the church Cook attended. And if you had to pick a person least likely to be shot and killed by police, the victim's next door neighbor said it would be Patricia Cook.
“She’s always talked really nice, and always smiling and laughing with you,” said Robin Herndon, a neighbor of Cook’s. “It’s just a shock.”
Investigators say she was shot and killed by a Culpeper Police officer responding to a call about a suspicious person at around 10 a.m. Thursday.
“Some sort of altercation took place and some shots were fired. The vehicle ended up traveling south on North East Street about 75 yards and ended up striking a telephone pole,” said Town of Culpeper spokesman Wally Bunker.
After the initial shots, witnesses said Cook drove her Jeep up North East Street, taking out a street sign before hitting the light pole. There are unconfirmed reports from witnesses that the officer fired more shots as Cook tried to drive away.
Instead, Herndon says Cook, a petite woman with blond hair always in a neat bun, didn't have children of her own, so she would make gifts for her neighbor's children, and always took the time to say hello.
Virginia State Police are in charge of the investigation now. The officer is on paid administrative leave.
Police have not said how many times Cook was shot or what might have prompted the officer fire his weapon.
Speculation...
I’d like one question answered.
Has this officer had any complaints of sexual or other harassment made against him?
Might help me answer the other questions I have...
What motivated this previously law abiding lady to flee from this officer?
What was his arm doing inside her vehicle, if indeed it was?
Another thing, it is reported...
“He looked totally distraught,” said Forster who heard the officer say repeatedly, “why did she do that, why did she do that.” . . .
Reminds me of an abuser who cries out, ‘Look what you’ve made me do’.
Right, Immerito.
One would think it a rather foolish course of action (but then, sticking one’s arm in a person’s car would be a rather foolish, illegal action as well.
Hopefully the woman’s murderer will be brought to justice.
It wouldn’t be surprising if he had made a pass at her and she rejected him. Some officers do that if they find a woman attractive. The honorable ones take no for an answer and move on; the dishonorable ones retaliate.
And yes, it is telling that the killer is blaming the victim for what he has done.
Wouldn’t his arm still have been in the window when the car crashed? When and how was he able to get loose as she dragged him? This story does not add up.
The cops claimed they were called to the scene because someone was suspiciously loitiering. Who called in the report? That is their claim, not fact.
They also claimed she refused to turn over identification. That is a claim, not fact.
They claimed that the officer had his hand in the woman’s car, an action which, if true, was not at all mandated by the situation. Cops do not need to reach into cards to retrieve IDs. So, what was his hand really doing in the car, if it ever was there? (And a witness has said it was not).
Furthermore, where are the objective physical signs that the officer was dragged: torn clothing, wounds, bleeding; etc.? When officers are in the right, they are quick to release that information. When they are not in the right, they bottle it up.
Why would the officer claim that the dash claim “malfunctioned” when it was not even on in the first place?
I’m perfectly willing to let this play out before assigning blame. But, from what I’ve read, the officer didn’t have his blue lights on, which may have led to her suspicion about his actually being a police officer. This is a woman who apparently doesn’t have a lot of first person experience with the law.
Women are constantly reminded that there are some who pose as police officers and pull over women driving alone. Women are instructed in that circumstance to get away from the person posing as a policeman. As I read, it seems it was an otherwise empty parking lot. There was no one to help her if this was a fake cop.
If, in fact, the officer put his hand inside her vehicle (say, to take her license and registration) that was not too professional, either. Again, if she was already suspicious, she’d have logically closed the car window as quickly as she could once his hand entered her vehicle.
Her concern might have been compounded by the disappearance (so far as I recall, unsolved) of a Johns Hopkins graduate student after last being seen in Culpeper on her way to Charlottesville (c. 1995).
Culpeper Police Department,
forty-two sworn police officers, ten reserve and auxiliary officers, and nine civilian employees. ...
Might be worth looking over investigation totals for the past 5 years given the officer was a 5 year 'veteran'...
I am pro-police. I would say they provide a lot more general help for me than they cause general harm.
That said, when they screw up, they really know how to circle the wagons and cover up any wrong doing. As much as it sucks for a department, if an officer exercises terrible judgment that results in an innocent avoidable death or severe injury, that officer should be fired and give some other guy a chance for the job.
It is such a rare occurrence than an officer makes a genuine idiotic or criminal mistake that covering it up just makes all police look corrupt. Taking out the trash would go a long way to solidifying police support among the middle class. Instead you have a parade of wrong no-knock raids, dog shootings and harm or death to innocent people that is rapidly creating suspicion of police among the middle class and creating a social wedge of us-vs.-them that used to only exist between police and the lower class.
Keep this up and the middle class will begin to think that cops are only their to protect rich people and the rest of us be damned.
I hate the escalating police state.
Ah, a standard and well-accepted excuse. Convenient. Cops are good at covering their tracks.
Well said.
Bingo. All this would be settled with a video of him being dragged away. Instead, taken in total, this stinks to high heaven.
Is it impossible she dragged him? No, anything is possible. Just I am coming to trust the police less and less in these matters that just conveniently have no dash cam, etc.
With any luck we will hear of real evidence in the future such as if he suffered injuries from being dragged and if he was shooting up at her head from below as would be the case from being dragged, rather than shooting down and into the car, etc.
Also the fact remains that he fired 5 shots at the car after he claims he was dragged and only one into the car while being dragged. I have no clue if this would be consistent with being dragged or not. If he was dragged and shot the window and fell off the car, he must be one hell of an athlete to scramble immediately to his feet while retaining his gun, assume a firing position and get off 5 accurate shots. Sounds like something from an action movie.
Like I said, this whole thing just stinks. I can’t reconcile the facts with an offer dragged and firing on the car. The facts seem to fit much better against an officer up on his feet and actively shooting at the car as it drives off.
But what do I know. I doubt we will ever get the facts.
Here in Yuba City, we had police kill a woman in her home after responding hours a complaint by a Census taker that she had been chased off hours earlier. We’ve never learned the facts in that case beyond the initial police claim — she ignored police commands to quit aiming her shotgun at them. At least, that is what they claim.
I still think they were flaming idiots to come back in the dark of night to investigate with a car full of uniforms instead of just going back the next morning.
I don’t see any problem with chasing off Census takers myself. They aren’t invited. They are trespassing.
All they have to do is check the crank on the window. If its all the way up the cop is lying. If its partially down he is probably telling the truth.
To take a tangent off your comment about the escalating police state... It seems to me that a civilian police officers job should be to de-escalate a situation. A police officer is should not use their weapon until a clear threat of violent force is made by the suspect and police weapons should be a last resort to deal with someone presenting an immediate threat to the police or others. The police are the professionals with training, weapons, communications tools, information tools and many levels of backup support available to them when dealing with private persons.
In a situation like this it seems that the only tool this officer really exercised prior to the woman’s death was the weapon. When he came up to her in his car he could use the information to assess that the owner of the vehicle was someone with no criminal history. To take the officer’s story at face value, he reached into her vehicle indicating a lack of professionalism. Once out and away from her vehicle and no longer in danger, he could have used his radio to report her vehicle running from the scene (assuming he really had cause), proceeded with pursuit and call for assistance from other units.
In too many of these case it seems the officers enter the situation, immediately escalating to weapons ready and using them at the first sign of resistance, even if that ‘sign of resistance’ is the fight-or-flight reaction to the unexpected violent intrusion of the police. The problem is the police departments policies are not geared to protect citizens, but to protect the police in ways that put citizens in danger when confronted by the police. Complicating the situation is that when bad cops hurt people the whole system unites around them so that it becomes difficult to trust the process that judges their actions. And as reticent as they are to negatively judge the actions of it’s officers, they are even more reticent about the systems failings.
There should by a full review every time a civilian is injured, much less killed, by police action. If the officer are found to have violated procedure, they should be busted from the force and prosecuted to the full extent of the law and further procedures should be made to limit the chances of other officers making the same mistakes. If they are found to have followed procedures and an unarmed civilian is injured, then then those responsible for the procedures should be held liable, bear some cost for the injuries, so they will make fundamental changes to the procedures to prevent re-occurence. These things happen too often and the system just blames the outcome on the victims or forces the cost onto the taxpayers and gives itself a pass.
Sadly, it seems that many people in the system are not only content with the status quo, they actually defend it.
It’s concerning that even some Freepers are defending acts like these.
I guess the moral of the story is, just hand over your freaking driver’s license if a cop asks to see it.
Or risk being gunned down even though unarmed and no threat? Are you going to admit on FR that you are just fine with this?? I'd like to know, in case I run across a post from you in the future.
I can’t disagree with a word you wrote, or would want to.
When I was young 50 years ago, all of us middle class guys knew the cops were there to protect us. Today, cops are acting like everybody is the enemy.
I feel sorry for big city cops. Has to be a tough job. But Culpeper, Virginia has less than 15,000 people. If their cops are getting trigger-happy, that bodes badly for the rest of us. This is almost a Mayberry town.
I think there’s a class action lawsuit to be made against the makers of those dash cams. Seems like they malfunction every time a cop shoots someone under suspicious circumstances.
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