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1 posted on 02/19/2012 10:16:23 AM PST by Altariel
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To: Altariel
Investigators are trying to figure out what led to a police shooting that killed a 54-year-old woman in Culpeper.

Since when do they have to have a reason?

2 posted on 02/19/2012 10:20:41 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the fascists.)
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To: Altariel

Did they have a chance to kill her dog if she had one?


3 posted on 02/19/2012 10:23:59 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: Altariel
Related.

According to the eye witness, the cop apparently executed her for failing to respect his authority...

6 posted on 02/19/2012 10:30:52 AM PST by piytar (Rebellion is here! Free Republic is on the front line! NEVER SURRENDER!)
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To: Altariel
This story is full of holes. She attended a church but not the one that owned the parking lot. The lot actually was for a private school owned by a church (not the one she attended). Not sure why she was in the parking lot at that time. The state police are doing the investigation of the event but shooting was done by a town police officer, a veteran of the force for five years. According to a witness, the officer had his hand in the window when she rolled up the window and started to drive away. Later, the witness evidently changed his story and the officer's hand was resting on the car not in the window. The investigators won't say if the Jeep Wrangler had power windows or hand-cranked ones. The office told her, “Stop or I will shoot”. The first shot was at point blank range. As the jeep moved down the street the officer fired as many as nine more shots, according to witnesses. No information is being released so we don't know which shot killed her, why the argument ensued, how many shots were actually fired.. nothing. Not even the officer's name. He is on administrative leave.
8 posted on 02/19/2012 10:40:38 AM PST by ArtDodger (Reread Animal Farm (with your kids))
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To: Altariel
Let's see what more information is released, if ever.
10 posted on 02/19/2012 10:45:22 AM PST by starlifter (Pullum sapit)
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To: Altariel

’ a five-year veteran of the Town of Culpeper Police Department ‘

cops aren’t veterans unless they’ve been in the military.


13 posted on 02/19/2012 11:00:02 AM PST by AlmaKing
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To: Altariel

How many cop shootings aren’t later determined to be justified. Heck even that case in SF where they had that guy in the train station in custody when they shot him was almost dismissed.


16 posted on 02/19/2012 11:12:03 AM PST by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Altariel

He was probably hitting on her and she refused his advances so he killed her. No witnesses that way.


17 posted on 02/19/2012 11:12:38 AM PST by microgood
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To: Altariel

Murdered!


24 posted on 02/19/2012 11:46:06 AM PST by Bon mots ("When seconds count, the police are just minutes away...")
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To: Altariel

But why she was in the nearby parking lot of the middle school at Epiphany Catholic Thursday morning remains a mystery to many, including Michael Watts of Culpeper, whose children attend the small private school that fronts on Main Street.

“As a parent, I have questions about what the woman was doing at our school. Why was she walking around the middle school and why wouldn’t she leave when asked by school staff?” he said.

Watts said he appreciated the routine safety precautions in place at Epiphany and seeing them smoothly implemented during Thursday’s shooting, including putting school facilities on lockdown.

http://www2.starexponent.com/news/2012/feb/14/controversy-mounts-police-shooting-housewife-ar-1687358/


27 posted on 02/19/2012 11:54:20 AM PST by kcvl
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To: Altariel

WTF?

These cops are getting really out of control.

Apparently she didn’t a dog or it would have been two civilians murdered.

Getting harder to find the warm and fuzzies toward those who ‘serve and protect’.

I wonder how many of these doofuses are on steroids.


32 posted on 02/19/2012 11:59:37 AM PST by x1stcav (I'm voting for anyone in 2012 but an Ivy Leager.)
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To: Altariel

CULPEPER, Va. (WUSA) -  State police say Kris Buchele changed his story about what he saw Thursday morning when a five-year Culpeper police officer shot and killed 54-year-old Patricia Cook. Buchele says he told state police and reporters the same thing...then and now... that the officer’s arm was not stuck in Cook’s window and he was never dragg

http://wusa9.com/news/article/190763/188/Va-State-Police-Say-Kris-Buchele-Of-Culpeper-Changed-His-Story-About-Officer-Involved-Shooting

Defendant:
BUCHELE, KRISTOPHER M. Sex:
Male Race:
White Caucasian (Non-Hispanic) DOB:
04/20/****
Address:
CULPEPER, VA 22701
Charge:
POSSESS HEROIN


33 posted on 02/19/2012 12:07:21 PM PST by kcvl
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To: Altariel

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.

http://wusa9.com/news/article/189808/373/Witness-To-Fatal-Police-Shooting-Says-Officer-Was-Not-Dragged


49 posted on 02/19/2012 1:08:01 PM PST by kanawa
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To: Altariel
I find this pretty darned scary.

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.

50 posted on 02/19/2012 1:14:45 PM PST by susannah59
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To: Altariel

someone, anyone, please tell me what car window goes up so fast, ppwer window or hand crank, that one wouldn’t be able to get your hand/arm out of it before it got shut on you?


63 posted on 02/19/2012 2:39:11 PM PST by qaz123
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To: Altariel; All

There are many additional details in this article concerning the investigation, autopsy, the firearm, etc...

http://culpepertimes.com/news/2012/feb/15/investigation-ongoing-fatal-shooting-officer-patri/

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller described Monday what is involved when the State Police step in for an investigation.

“In this case, we were asked by a local agency for assistance,” said Geller.

“This will be a comprehensive investigation conducted by a police shooting investigation team which has been dispatched to handle this case. These teams are made up of more veteran investigators who will be looking at a variety of things from interviews to forensic testing.”


65 posted on 02/19/2012 3:01:17 PM PST by deks ("...the battle of our time is the battle of liberty against the overreach of the federal government")
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To: Altariel

No dashcam. What a surprise.


88 posted on 02/19/2012 5:07:43 PM PST by Ken H (Austerity is the irresistible force. Entitlements are the immovable object.)
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To: Altariel
Special Prosecutor to Handle Culpeper Shooting

Feb 15, 2012

http://www.nbc29.com/story/16941006/special-prosecutor-to-handle-culpeper-shooting

91 posted on 02/19/2012 6:27:22 PM PST by Ken H (Austerity is the irresistible force. Entitlements are the immovable object.)
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To: Altariel

A cop investigates a report of a suspicious loiterer hanging around in a school parking lot. The cop confronts the suspicious loiterer and the loiterer, rather than simply hand over valid ID to the investigating cop, tries to roll up her window and flee the scene while the cop is standing right next to the loiterer’s vehicle. The cop shoots the school parking lot loiterer and now she’s dead.

Does that about wrap up this latest episode of ‘Tales of Darwin’?

(shrug) I guess the moral of the story is, just hand over your freaking driver’s license if a cop asks to see it.
Stay alive. There’s plenty of time to run around in circles screaming, “Tyrannical oppression!” later.


117 posted on 02/20/2012 8:45:03 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Altariel

‘A little light that shone’

An ashen sky punctuated Sunday’s somber memorial service for Patricia Ann Cook, a Culpeper resident and churchgoer remembered for her wit, creativity, gentleness, kindness and servant’s heart.

The untimely observance was held at Culpeper United Methodist, where Mrs. Cook was active in the children’s ministry, quilters’ guild and in the church kitchen, where she would try out new dishes to serve to fellow parishioners on Wednesday nights.

“She always called me kid,” said church member Lori Davis, remembering Cook’s recipes, cooked with a lot of love, she said. “Pat was very eager to help.”

Everyone else was “hon,” others recalled.

But her passion was children, said Davis, who like others recalled Cook’s Sunday School crafts and special treats. Childless herself, Cook gave endlessly to the children at church and in her own neighborhood.

“There was a little light that shone through Pat,” Davis said. “It was God’s light.”

A picture emerged at the memorial service of a faithful homemaker, loving wife and loyal friend who loved to read her Bible, collect seashells and give to others. This portrait, repeated time and again, made it even more difficult to comprehend the manner of Cook’s death.

Just two days after she turned 54, the retired cosmetologist, originally from Illinois, was shot dead February 9 in a reported physical altercation with a Culpeper Police officer on East Street.

Virginia State Police say the unidentified officer had his arm trapped in the driver’s side window of Cook’s Jeep and was being dragged alongside the vehicle as she pulled away from the parking lot of Epiphany Catholic School. The officer was called to the scene for a report of a suspicious person.

It remains unknown why Cook was in the school parking lot that morning or exactly what happened to cause her violent death. An eyewitness has said the officer’s arm was never trapped, and that he was not being dragged.

The VSP has not released any new information since the days following the tragic incident that has left the Culpeper community angered and stunned.

Cook left behind a husband of nearly eight years, Gary Cook, and a brother and mother, both residents of New Jersey.

The Rev. Randy Orndorff, pastor at Culpeper United Methodist, acknowledged the mixture of emotions surrounding Cook’s sudden passing – rage, anger, sadness and grief – and that there remained more questions than answers. In addition, he spoke of love, compassion and forgiveness in a message, “Weave Us Together, Lord.”

Orndorff asked for prayers for Mr. Cook and Mrs. Cook’s brother, in attendance Sunday, and her mother, who was not there. The reverend also said, “We do pray for the police officer and his family and everybody involved.”

“There is still much to work through,” Orndorff said. “We have to find ways to move forward.”

A palatable sense of disbelief permeated the sanctuary Sunday, where examples of Cook’s simple works were displayed. Her quilts decorated the altar, and at the entrance were her crafts and crafts made for her by the church’s children – a butterfly of tissue paper and a clothespin, a dragonfly of popsicle sticks and glitter.

Photographs of Mrs. Cook showed her surrounded by children, including a large image projected at the front in which she had her arms raised as if in song.

“To be such a petite woman, Pat had a tremendous heart,” said Davis.

She had a sense of humor too, noted Pastor Nancy Palmer, saying what she most remembered about the fellow parishioner was when she would complement Cook on her meals.

“She would always say, ‘Well, kiss the cook,’” Palmer said.

Pat always tried to make others feel special, Orndorff said, and her passing leaves a lot of hurt.

“How do we handle it? Through our faith,” the pastor said.

Patricia Cook made the most of her 54 years, Orndorff went on, sharing a lesson he knows from experience having lost his teenaged daughter in a car accident: “Be careful not to focus on what you lost, and I know you lost a lot. Focus on what you had.”

In addition to church friends and family, several town government officials attended Sunday’s service including Culpeper Mayor Chip Coleman and Culpeper Police Chief Chris Jenkins.

http://www2.starexponent.com/news/2012/feb/20/little-light-shone-ar-1702078/


121 posted on 02/20/2012 10:24:26 AM PST by kanawa
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