All officers were wearing body armor during Shivers shooting

CHESAPEAKE

Officers were wearing body armor and helmets marked “POLICE” when they climbed the three brick steps at 932 Redstart Ave. last week to serve a narcotics warrant, a department spokeswoman says.

According to Christi Golden, officers did a “knock and announce” – in which they approach the door and declare their presence before entering.

Shots were fired from inside the house and police narcotics Detective Jarrod Shivers was hit, Golden said. On Wednesday, the medical examiner’s office said Shivers died from a single gunshot wound to his arm and chest.

A confidential informant told Chesapeake police that Ryan David Frederick was growing marijuana in a detached garage beside the house he lived in, according to court documents.

The documents, made available Wednesday, said police did find marijuana and drug paraphernalia there.

Frederick, 28 , was arrested in Shivers’ death and was charged with first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

He said in an jail interview with a local television station that he had no idea a police officer was on the other side of the door when he opened fire. Frederick has declined three requests to speak to The Virginian-Pilot.

After the shooting, a second search warrant was executed . Police seized a Bersa “Firestorm” .380-caliber handgun, three bullet casings and ammunition from the house, according to court documents. Police also took a broken door, a television set, a pry bar, a battering ram, a shoe and a flashlight.

In the neighborhood Wednesday, Frederick’s neighbors described him as quiet and unassuming.

Residents along Redstart Avenue remain stunned by Shivers’ death.

Neighbor Sandra Brooks, 31, said she is tormented by what she heard. The screams from anguished police officers were “worse than the sound of panic,” she said. They keep her up at night. She was in the front yard with her dog a few houses away when police descended on Frederick’s house. She stood on her porch watching and wondering what was happening.

“I think about them down there screaming and then about that officer’s family,” she said Wednesday.

“I don’t think he would have hurt a flea,” mail carrier Carlton Pugh Sr. said of Frederick as he stuffed mail into boxes along the street. “He’s a nice guy.”

Pugh said he has worked his route on Redstart for seven years and known Frederick for four.

“This kid down here, he was not selling drugs,” said Jon McReynolds, a neighbor two doors down who heard police enter Frederick’s home.

“I heard a bam,” but no warnings from police, McReynolds said. “There was no police sirens, nothing.” Standing on his porch Wednesday and pointing to the spot on the sidewalk where emergency crews tried to save Shivers, McReynolds said nothing adds up in his mind.

“It’s a tragedy; it’s two lives wasted, and for what?”

Detectives had gone to the house looking for marijuana, packaging materials and scales, according to an affidavit for a search warrant issued Jan. 15. Police verified that Frederick lived at the address through phone and DMV records, according to the affidavit.

A document filed Wednesday in Chesapeake Circuit Court shows that detectives found an undisclosed amount of marijuana, six lights, three transformers, smoking devices and a fan among other things at Frederick’s home.

Amy Couteé, (757) 222-5216, amy.coutee@pilotonline.com