Posted on 11/21/2012 6:07:18 PM PST by Altariel
The widower of the woman shot and killed by a Culpeper police officer on North East Street in February was found dead in his Friendship Heights apartment Tuesday, seven months after his wife’s untimely death.
According to Virginia State Police, a maintenance crew who entered Gary D. Cook’s apartment to conduct routine service for the apartment complex discovered his body. He was 62.
Preliminary findings of an autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Manassas revealed Cook died of natural causes, according to VPS spokeswoman Corinne Geller.
Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to Cook’s residence around 10:29 a.m. for a report of a deceased male. According to Geller, the CCSO contacted the VSP Bureau of Criminal Investigation Culpeper Field Office to handle the circumstances regarding the “unattended death.”
Yellow caution tape, Virginia State Police troopers, Culpeper County Sheriff’s deputies and detectives flanked the apartment building of 1000 Friendship Way, forbidding onlookers from getting too close to the scene while they waited for a search warrant to investigate this case.
Cook filed a $5.35 million wrongful death lawsuit in May against former town police officer Daniel Wayne Harmon-Wright who stands accused in the shooting death of Patricia Ann Cook, Gary Cook’s wife.
Harmon-Wright, 32, of Gainesville pleaded not guilty to the following charges: murder, malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle, malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle resulting in a death and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the shooting death of Patricia Ann Cook on Feb. 9 in downtown Culpeper. Meanwhile, Harmon-Wright, a U.S. Marine and Iraq War veteran, is free on $100,000 bond awaiting his jury trial in Culpeper County Circuit Court on Jan. 22 at 9:30 a.m.
Harmon-Wright, a five-year veteran with Culpeper town police, was terminated in June after formal charges were filed against him.
According to the Virginia State Police, Harmon-Wright responded to a report of a suspicious woman sitting in a Jeep Wrangler parked in the Epiphany Catholic School’s middle school parking lot in the 300 block of North East Street around 10 a.m.
Fauquier County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Fisher, special prosecutor in this case, described the encounter between Harmon-Wright and Cook as a “brief struggle at the window of this particular motor vehicle,” before she was shot several times.
According to testimony during Harmon-Wright’s bond hearing in June, Harmon-Wright fired his department-issued Glock seven times – two at the driver’s side window behind which Cook was sitting, inflicting non-fatal wounds.
Harmon-Wright shot Cook in the head and back with bullets lodging in her brain and another fatal shot severing her spine going into her heart and lungs.
In May, Cook’s widower, Gary Cook, filed a $5.35 million wrongful death lawsuit in Culpeper County Circuit Court against Harmon-Wright.
Two months later, Gary Cook’s lawyers expressed interest in possibly expanding the wrongful death lawsuit to include Culpeper Police Chief Chris Jenkins and former chief Dan Boring, now a Culpeper Town Councilman.
Poor man. May he rest in peace.
The detectives may want to look into whereabouts of the accused killer, since he obviously benefits from the death of the opposing party in the lawsuit.
Define natural causes with a little more detail by an autopsy by a doctor.
Natural causes = shot three times in the back of the head
“Poor man. May he rest in peace”
The only comfort that I can take from this tragedy is that the man is now with his beloved wife. Little comfort, I know...
The next of kin can take up the lawsuit.
54-Year-Old Woman Patricia Cook Killed in Police Shooting in Culpeper (February 2012)
These are the jackboots the libs want to restrict gun ownership to.
To FR's resident boot lickers.....remember this the next time you are sitting in your car in a church parking lot.
It’s very convenient for the plaintiff in such a matter to pass away. Isn’t 62 a little young for natural causes as far as death? Did Mr. Cook have health problems?
Seems I recall from the original story that officer claims his arm was caught in the window when Mrs. Cook rolled it up, then driving away causing him to be dragged. Is this a correct recollection? I ask because some models of Jeep Wrangler don’t have side glass windows to roll up. They have snap out, flexible clear plastic panels.
This story smelled when it first came out and it smells worse now, imho.
Yep, this bears watching. It could be he died of grief, it could be he died of something more sinister.
Oh, DON'T go back! It's been ruined. It's overbuilt with strip malls and yuppie crap. I swear, the traffic is worse than midtown Manhattan all day long. Wouldn't be surprised if traffic was a factor in this tragedy.
I go down 29 (also uglied up) to 522 a few times a year. I used to love to stop @ Baby Jim's in Culpeper. But, the traffic makes it a nightmare. And pulling in & out of the lot is deadly.
Seriously. If you grew up there, it will break your heart.
Are you available to post a new thread . . . the verdict is in.
http://www.dailyprogress.com/starexponent/article_6e81c74c-6a5d-11e2-8af0-001a4bcf6878.html
http://www.northernvatimes.com/culpeper/
ping
Update:
Patricia cook’s killer found guilty of manslaughter.
Ping
Good
Sad, but I am glad his personal pain is now over.
Yes he did. trouble with his story is her Jeep had hand cranked windows. No way his arm was going to be caught by them
I’m shocked that the cop actually faced trial at all. Usually the “officer safety, I feared for my life” routine lets them skate. Now this piece of garbage needs to face an 18USC242 prosecution ao he can get the death sentence he so deserves.
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