A woman in her 70s died after an encounter with Chesterfield County police on Woodpecker Road, after she reportedly left her home armed and was later confronted by officers near a wooded area. Two officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave while investigators try to determine exactly what happened.
Police received a call about a woman in crisis who had left home with a loaded handgun. Officers were called to the 10800 block of Woodpecker Road at about 6:46 a.m. Wednesday for a report of a woman in her 70s who was described as being in crisis, had left home and was reportedly armed, according to WRIC.
Hours of Searching Before Shots Were Fired
Officers spent hours in the area before the confrontation. The station's report states that the woman emerged from the wood line armed with a handgun shortly after 9 a.m., and shots were fired. Officers then provided immediate aid, but the woman died at the scene, per the same account.
The timeline of the shooting itself is not entirely settled across news outlets. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that the shooting occurred around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, while other reported accounts, including WRIC's, place it shortly after 9 a.m. that same day.
Key Details Remain Unclear
It remains unclear whether one or both of the two officers fired their weapons, and how many shots were fired in total, the report notes. No officer was injured in the encounter, according to the Progress-Index. Both officers involved have been placed on leave as the circumstances surrounding the shots fired remain under investigation, per the same account.
The officers were wearing body-worn cameras, which the police chief believed were recording during the encounter, though the footage will not be released to the public, according to Fox Richmond.
How Virginia Reviews Police Shootings
Any findings from this case would eventually factor into state-level reporting requirements. Virginia law requires the Department of State Police to include officer-involved shootings, and whether each was determined justified, in the annual Crime in Virginia report, according to the Virginia Code.
Determinations of justification in these cases can take weeks or months to reach. In Carroll County, a Commonwealth's Attorney determined that a deputy's fatal shooting of a woman was justified only after the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation completed its review, according to WSET. No such determination has been announced in the Chesterfield case, and the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain under investigation.
