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.
No, an an honest question. A liberal’s assumptions would mandate him to believe the government employee’s story above a non government employees story, because liberal idolize government employees.
A conservative, however, should have a healthy distrust of government employees, particularly when said government employee is *personally* responsible for the death of a 54 year old law-abiding citizen who was not legally detained nor accused or charged with any crime.
How does one “suddenly” close a cranked window (not a power window)?
How does an officer become dragged with no mention of hospitalization for injuries, drag marks, blood or torn clothing produced as evidence of said dragging?
Yes of course, funny how many cops get their arms caught in windows these days.
must be in a manual somewhere to stick your arm in the window and get dragged
Of course, the badge-lickers will always hoot "probable cause".
I don’t know about the lizard people and there are conflicting reports about the FEMA camps but the killings by police under suspicious circumstances seem to be more and more common lately. Do you have some reason to say otherwise or am I mistaken in taking your comment for sarcasm?
I will go so far as to say this, if you don’t believe we are ALREADY living under a police state you aren’t paying attention.
Think about it this way there are tens of thousands of “militia members “ in this country that alone doesn't scare the FBI types, but then there are tens of millions of ordinary folks who when Obama got elected started going to the gun stores & buying Ar-15’s, AK-47 clones FN-FAL’s ,Armailite 180’s etc & billions of rounds of ammo & that does make the Federal Bureau of Incinerators nervous .
Combined with an approval rate for members of Congress in the single digits & multiple financial calamities that will cause govt. checks to bounce, they see what is happening in
Greece happening here in the USA only a great deal more violent & definitely having blood ankle deep in the streets.
The State Police should wrap up the investigation in a week or two and I see no reason why they would want to cover anything up. It is infuriating because there is NO information coming out and we want answers. Logic tells us the officer overreacted, considering the information we have.
I am willing to wait a bit longer to become outraged..
CULPEPER, Va. (WUSA) — An eyewitness to a fatal police shooting in Culpeper, Virginia is contradicting the State Police version of the story.
Kris Buchele says he saw a Culpeper Town Police officer shoot 54-year-old Patricia Cook to death in the Epiphany Catholic School parking lot at around 10 a.m. Thursday, February 9.
Buchele is a carpenter who was working on the house next door. He says he heard loud arguing outside and looked through a window where he had a clear view of the school parking lot. Cook was in her Jeep Wrangler .
State police say Cook rolled up the window, catching the officer’s arm inside, and then dragged him.
Buchele says it didn’t happen that way. He describes an encounter which looked and sounded like the officer shooting a person a point blank range, not because he feared for his life, but because the woman did not obey his order to stop rolling up the window.
“He was right next to the vehicle. He had one hand on the door handle and one hand on his weapon. And she was rolling the window up. And they were exiting out of the parkng lot.
The window was half way up he said ‘stop or I’ll shoot.’ I really didn’t think he was going to do it. But she got the window all the way up and that’s when he shot. And then she took a left out of the parking lot here and he stepped out in the street and fired five more times,” said Buchele.
Buchele says the officer was not dragged and that he shot her before she drove away. He says he didn’t have his arm caught because the officer’s left hand was on the door handle and right hand was holding a weapon. Also, he says he distinctly saw her roll up the window all the way before the officer shot out the glass and killed her.
“I’m angry, frustrated, sad, and fighting back tears right now, “ said Gary Cook, Pat’s husband of eight years. He doesn’t understand why a police officer would shoot his unarmed wife multiple times.
“Personally I think it may be an overreaction, maybe excessive force, but I can only surmise that,” Cook said.
Cook says he doesn’t know why his wife was in the parking lot of the Epiphany Catholic School. Their couple’s pastor at Culpeper United Methodist Church thinks she may have been there searching for work with children because she loved her volunteer role teaching Sunday school at their church.
Gary Cook is filled with questions along with grief over his wife’s killing. He is contacting an attorney to pursue possible legal action.
No charges have been filed. The Virginia State Police are investigating with the assistance of Culpeper Police and the Culpeper Sheriff’s Department.
Virginia State Police say that the police officer had his arm caught in her driver’s side window, and was dragged alongside the vehicle as she drove away.
According to Virginia State Police, at approximately 10 a.m. Thursday, Culpeper Police got a call about a suspicious women sitting in a Jeep Wrangler in a church parking lot in the 300 block of North East Street. The officer started talking to Patricia A. Cook, 54, of Culpeper. State police say that for some reason, while the officer was trying to get her identification, Cook “suddenly closed her driver’s side window trapping the officer’s arm and started driving away dragging the officer alongside.”
Police say the officer repeatedly asked her to stop but the car kept going. Then shots were fired, and the Jeep wrecked in the 200 block of North East Street.
Cook was shot by the officer and died at the scene.
Her remains have been transported to the Office of the Medical Examiner in Manassas for examination and autopsy, police said.
“The Culpeper Town Police and Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office are assisting State Police with the ongoing investigation,” police said.
I'm a middle-aged woman, close to Mrs. Cook's age. I do a lot of driving in my job.
I find it puzzling that anyone thought it was "suspicious" that she was sitting in a parking lot. I can think of all kinds of reasons someone might have done that, because I do that all the time. I tend to avoid school parking lots, for my own reasons, including that schools and common sense seem to have parted company some time ago.
I frequently pull over into various parking lots to make or get telephone calls or text messages (we aren't supposed to do that while driving, after all); to reset my GPS; to check a map (the GPS is not infallible); to pick up something I've dropped; to clean my glasses; to decide what I'm going to do next; to grab a quick snack; to take a couple of Tylenol for a headache; to check on something that's making a funny noise; to do a little paperwork; to rest for just a minute; to listen to something on the radio; to make a "wardrobe adjustment;" and so on and so forth.
If this woman did not have a criminal record I don't understand why the assumption was that she was up to no good, and the encounter went so bad so fast.
It's scary because it could easily happen to me.
Good point. The claim is the cop was dragged when his arm was caught in the suddenly closed window.
Yep - would be lots of evidence. Scuffed shoes, bruises, where was the window glass - some no doubt ended up on the pavement. Should be plenty of evidence to hold up the cops story.
“It’s scary because it could easily happen to me. “
It could easily happen to any Freeper here.
What was her crime? Turning down the cop’s request for a date? Resisting when he fondled her? Why was his arm inside her vehicle at all?
Good find. According to the eyewitness she was tried, judged and executed by that cop. Bad stuff.
He knew he had mortally wounded her. The streets are safe again.
If I was the husband I’d hope they turn him loose. I could make his life a little more miserable for a time before he showed up on the missing persons list.
According to the Virginia State Police release,
“at about 10 a.m. Thursday (Feb. 9),
Culpeper Police received a call concerning a suspicious woman sitting in a Jeep Wrangler
that was stopped in a church parking lot in the 300 block of North East Street.
A Town of Culpeper Police Officer responded and engaged in conversation with the woman.
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.
The officer repeatedly commanded the woman stop the moving vehicle.
She refused and shots were fired.
The Jeep then wrecked in the 200 block of North East Street.”
http://culpepertimes.com/news/2012/feb/15/investigation-ongoing-fatal-shooting-officer-patri/
You make more logical fallacies in your response. Quite ignorant of you.
The “eyewitness” is the only one caught in a lie. He told the media one story at the beginning, and then changed his story later on.
Other than that, you don’t have a clue about what happened, so you make assumptions filtered through your hatred for police.
By the way, the military are also government employees, so we should automatically discount what they say when they are charged by liberals with war crimes, right?
See the irony there?
Forget forensics. Where is the dash cam? If he was dragged by a car, it would be clearly on the dash cam. If they don’t release that video, then we know he wasn’t dragged. If they had it, they would have already released it.
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