Newport News police said an officer shot and killed a man who pointed a gun at them Friday afternoon while they attempted to perform a welfare check.
As of Saturday evening, police have not provided the name of the man killed.
According to a police department statement posted roughly seven hours after the shooting, the officers attempted to perform a welfare check on the man about 12:20 p.m. in the first block of Davis Park Drive, near the Davis Mobile Home and RV Park community just south of the intersection of Mercury Boulevard and Warwick Boulevard. This was in connection to a tactical operation performed Thursday at 1:43 a.m. that dealt with an armed, suicidal person, according to a news release from police.
The NNPD Tactical Operations Unit performed the welfare check Friday and were to serve an arrest warrant issued for the man in Chesapeake.
Officers made numerous attempts to contact the residents of the trailer by phone and PA system but did not receive a response, the release said.
The front door began to open, and was left open, but nobody exited the trailer, police said. Officers again attempted to get the residents to leave the trailer when they said they heard a woman screaming in what they believed to be distress.
Officers entered the trailer at about 2 p.m. and witnessed a “violent struggle” between a woman and a man who was holding a gun. As soon as officers entered, the man pointed the gun at the officers, the release said. One officer shot at the man, striking him. The man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 2:30 p.m.
Officers removed the woman, who was unharmed.
The investigation is ongoing. The officers involved in the incident were placed on administrative leave.
One of the neighbors of the man killed, Norman Coles, was in his home when the shooting occurred. Coles said what initially caught his attention was the sound of police using a bullhorn to say “come out.” He recalled police saying that they had a warrant and that they knew the man was in the trailer. Coles said he didn’t watch the events unfold, but he said that 20-30 minutes after first hearing the bullhorn he heard shooting and a woman scream.
Coles didn’t know the name of his neighbor, saying that people in the trailer park tend to keep to themselves. He said he stayed in his trailer, as police were advising people to stay inside.
Another neighbor on Davis Park Drive, who requested to remain anonymous, said she never met the man who had been killed.
“I’ve seen him drive his truck around here but never spoke to him,” she said. “Now my husband, he’s spoken to him a couple of times.”
She recalled when the police came early Thursday morning, “in the middle of the night,” she was woken up by the sound of a bullhorn announcement from police telling the man to “come out with your hands up.” She remembered police being present several hours that morning. Police said the Thursday tactical operation ended at 5:50 a.m.
On Friday afternoon, while her husband was at work, the neighbor said she went outside of her trailer to smoke and said she saw roughly 10 police cars fill up Davis Park Drive, blocking the entrance.
“They said his name, ‘come out with your hands up,” she recalled. “If you come out peacefully, I can guarantee your safety out of One Davis Park Drive. If you don’t come out quietly, I cannot guarantee your safety or anybody else’s safety.’ That’s almost verbatim.”
The neighbor recalled how scared she was watching the situation unfold from her window. She watched police enter the trailer and said she heard three rounds of gunfire.
“You know if there’s any stray bullets, these things, they’ll come right through you,” she said. “But I found a place to hide.”
The Daily Press asked police about the name of the man who was killed and the woman involved in the incident and the nature of the arrest warrant. Police did not provide additional information on Saturday.
Newport News Police Department Public Information Officer Matt Michalec said Saturday he doubts there will be a news conference this weekend but “likely next week.”
He did not answer whether there was body camera footage, but said, “NNPD does not release body cam footage for ongoing investigations.”
Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com
Waldy Diez, waldy.diez@virginiamedia.com
