Fatal shooting of officer leaves neighborhood numb

CHESAPEAKE

Portlock residents who saw a deadly police shooting unfold on their “quiet street” are finding it difficult to return to normalcy. The man accused of killing Detective Jarrod Shivers said he had no idea the man he shot was a police officer until it was too late.

Redstart Avenue, a street that dead-ends at a church, still was reeling Friday after a police officer was fatally shot there the night before. The residents say they are in disbelief after realizing that a 28-year-old neighbor is a suspect.

“It shocked me to death,” said Mavis Cosner, who has lived on the street since 1960. “I’m still a little nervous.”

Shivers, a 34-year-old father, was shot as was trying to enter at the house in the street’s 900 block around 8:30 p.m. He and several other officers were there with a search warrant as part of a drug investigation, police said.

Shivers was pronounced dead at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. He left behind a wife and three children – ages 2, 8 and 14.

After the shooting, detectives on scene retreated for their safety. The home, which sits in the middle of the block, remained surrounded until the SWAT team arrived and entered.

Police arrested 28-year-old Ryan David Frederick, who lived at the home, and charged him with first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He is being held in the Chesapeake City Jail.

Frederick said in a jailhouse interview Friday he had no idea a police officer was on the other side of the door when he opened fire.

“No, sir,” he told WAVY-TV. “I just wish I knew who they were,” he said. “I didn’t want any trouble.”

Frederick said he was in bed when he heard someone trying to come into the home.

“I thought it was the person who had broken into my house the other day,” he said.

Frederick said his home had been burglarized two or three days earlier.

Frederick’s family could not be reached for comment, and he declined to speak to The Virginian-Pilot.

Police did not say whom they were investigating when they executed the search warrant. Other than a few misdemeanor traffic violations, Frederick has not been convicted of any felony crimes in Chesapeake, according to online court records.

Chesapeake police spokeswoman Christi Golden said she could not comment on specifics of the incident, including whether the officers who tried to serve the narcotics warrant were in uniform.

“They are undercover detectives,” Golden said. As such, they would typically be in street clothes. But, when serving warrants, even undercover officers “usually have something that says 'police,’” she said. “They are identified in some way, shape or form.”

Cosner described Frederick as “a quiet boy.”

“Goes to work every day and comes home every night,” she said.

Frederick made local news in 2005 when he sued Dr. Sidney Loxley for $1.7 million, accusing the Chesapeake physician of medicating his mother to the point that she became addicted and later died of an overdose. Frederick’s mother, a former Chesapeake Sheriff’s Department employee, died in 2003.

“It does make you very nervous,” said Sandra Brooks, a Redstart Avenue resident. “Last night I had a hard time sleeping. I just feel so sorry for the poor police officer doing his job.”

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

“Our work is inherently dangerous,” said Jack Crimmins, president of the Chesapeake Coalition of Police. “I think a lot of people take our work for granted. Unfortunately, these types of events are increasing instead of decreasing. And it’s a very sad trend.”

Jack Bider, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said all attention now turns to Shivers’ survivors.

“The FOP will pull together,” Bider said. “We’re concerned about the family, and we’re making sure they’re taken care of.”

The thought of not making it home is in the back of every officer’s mind, he said.

“Every time we wake up in the morning, with a weapon on our hip and a badge on our chest, we think about it.”

 John Hopkins, (757) 222-5221, john.hopkins@pilotonline.com