Chesapeake police officer killed in shooting
Posted to: Chesapeake Crime News
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Video: Police surround the house where the shooting took place. (Steve Earley | The Virginian Pilot)
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A Chesapeake police officer was fatally shot Thursday night as police attempted to serve a narcotics warrant at a home in the 900 block of Redstart Avenue. (L. Todd Spencer/The Virginian-Pilot)

By Steve Stone
The Virginian-Pilot
© January 18, 2008

A Chesapeake police officer was fatally shot Thursday night as police attempted to serve a narcotics warrant at a home in the 900 block of Redstart Ave., authorities said.

Police sources said two people were in custody late Thursday. It was unclear when they were arrested.

Police spokesman Officer Charles Thiebaud said the officers went to the residence about 8:30 p.m. The shot officer was taken by ambulance with a police escort to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, soon followed by other officers and department officials.

Later, two Police Department sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the officer had died. The officer's identity was not released.

After the shooting, scores of officers and heavily armed SWAT team members descended on the scene.

Officers went door to door, evacuating the residents of several nearby houses and telling other neighborhood residents to stay indoors.

Several blocks around the shooting scene in each direction were closed off with yellow police tape.

Police would not say if they knew whether anybody was still in the house where the warrant was being served or, if so, how many people were there.

Just before 10:30 p.m., police began calling for the surrender of anyone inside the house. An officer on a loudspeaker called out the house number, saying "You need to put your hands up and come out. You need to do it now."

After 11 p.m., police escorted some residents back to their homes but a wide area continued to be closed to the public.

Residents of the Avalon neighborhood were stunned by the violence.

"This is generally a very quiet place," said Zach Blankenship, 25, a yacht carpenter. He said he was in his house a block from the shooting scene and watching a movie when he heard a gunshot.

"It was definitely a gunshot, no doubt about it," Blankenship said. "I really didn't want to believe it."

Even then, Blankenship said, he didn't think anything bad had happened. Only minutes later when he thought there was lightning outside did he look out his window.

"That's when I saw there were plenty of police," he said.

Blankenship said he looked down the street a short time later and saw medical personnel working on someone on the ground.

"They were doing chest compressions," he said. After several minutes he said the victim was placed in an ambulance.

Another resident, Catrina Mitchum, 23, said she also heard what sounded like a single gunshot. It surprised her, she said, because the neighborhood is "always quiet."

Mitchum, a graduate student at Old Dominion University, said she has lived there about nine months, but spoke with a longtime resident.

"They said this is the first time anything like this has happened around here," she said.

The last Chesapeake officer to die in the line of duty was Michael Saffran, 45, on Oct. 8, 2005. Saffran was shot and killed after responding to a bank robbery.

When he arrived on the scene, he spotted a vehicle speeding away and began pursuing it. The vehicle crashed a short distance away at the intersection of U.S.17 and Yadkin Road.

As officers exited their vehicle, they saw a man in the car they'd been chasing pull a female hostage from the car. She soon broke free, however, and the man and the officers then exchanged gunfire.

The man, Officer Saffran and the hostage were all struck by the gunshots. The man died at the scene. Saffran and the woman were taken to a hospital where Saffran later died.

Staff writer Dave Forster contributed to this report.

Steve Stone, (757) 446-2309, steve.stone@pilotonline.com