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
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arkangel
You need to start taking those drugs that were prescribed to you. You've been off your meds for to long. Policing in this country started with the colonists who came here from England. It did not start with slavery.
Continued from below
society to enforce moral behaivior at the barrel of a loaded gun.If you look at the 2nd and what it means,it is clear that it is all of our duties,as american citizens,to "police" our own communities.
Further,if you were to look at the reason "police" came into being in this country,you would note that it all started with slave control in the south.
I would like to stress that I do not use drugs,whether street bought or prescribed,that alter my state of mind or disrupt my natural equilibrium,and that I respect the law when it respects my civil rights,as a society cannot exist without certain codes of moral ethic and behaivior.But there is a limit as to what is acceptable to impose as restraint on a free people.Specially entitled persons who violently attack our homes using modern military weapons and tactics is simply not acceptable in a free nation.
I'm horribly sorry for the
I'm horribly sorry for the families of all the people involved and the children especially,they are the true victims here of a war on our freedoms.
But the truth must be told.The "war on drugs" is constitutionally illegal,based on very poor science and sociology,and its time for a constitutional revival in this nation before another person is killed by these fallacies.
If people understood exactly what the second amendment entitled and entrusted the people of this nation with,they would see that there is no need for the ridiculously militarized and out of control police forces in America.In fact,the 2nd entrusts the people with "the security of the free state",and entitles them to bear arms in order enforce it.For people to write here about how anyone in dissent with the current police state nature of our nation must be committing crimes themselves is absurd in this light.For people to excuse the excesses and abuses of police by blaming the voters is also quite absurd.The fact is,it takes a special kind of power hungry,authoritarian person to be a cop.Police enjoy the sense of power and control they get on their jobs,and they insist that they be the only priviliged members of soc
christinew87360
Thank you. You just saved me a lot of typing. You couldn't have said it any better.
Are You Serious?????
Are you soo delusional and stupid that you are putting this on the police. DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER! Police officers don't write laws, they don't have the authority to pretty much do anything but follow orders and try to keep from getting killed themselves. Politicians make laws, people are responsible for who become our politicians and for the issues we are asked input on.
Police have a job to do like everyone else. They work for us, the cities in which we live. Their actions are based on their expectations and job descriptions. If you hate police, your problem is that you are breaking the law and you want to get away with it, and basically do whatever the hell you want to do despite how it affects others. We, the people that do obey the law, pay for police officers to protect and serve our community. There is no such thing as a bad cop, there are only bad people that are able to become cops. Bad people are in every occupation from truck drivers to teacher, preachers and actors.
If you have a problem with police, do your freaking job, and change the laws WE pay them to enforce OR even better become a police officer yourself...... oh, I forgot your too busy break
so i no this kid
ryan is a good kid i no him..he didnt no it was a cop.
cops just act like they can do anything. bet they will think before they kick up in the next house.
he would not hurt a fly
Where are the drugs?
Still no info on what drugs we were talking about. The guy had no history of drugs and no criminal history. How does anyone know he was protecting his drugs?
I ask you all, what would you do if you heard someone kicking in your door in the middle of the night? Would you take the time to find out why the men in jeans and t-shirts where doing or would you try and protect yourself and your home?
Again, dont worship the police.
Ask anyone in New Orleans who wanted to stay in their homes and protect their family with a gun what they think of Cops kicking in doors and taking guns. Protect us? I dont think so. They are just a tool to keep people in line and New Orleans showed us that.
The second amendment was created for this very reason people. Read a history book. Dont let local governments turn into para military or you will all have doors kicked in because someone might think you have drugs or you might have spanked your child one day. Think I am crazy? Ask me in 20 years if I am crazy.
We need to cool the heck down
First, let me say that my thoughts and prayers are first and foremost with the late Detective Shivers' family and comrades. Secondly, we don't know the circumstances of this case yet. There is, as of yet, no evidence presented that this man was involved in narcotics in any way. The police have not released any information about what evidence supported their warrant nor about what evidence was recovered at the scene. This case is part of a disturbing pattern in which no-knock warrants result in injury or death to police officers or members of the public. The Kathryn Johnston case in Atlanta was one egregious example. Whatever the facts of the case, the preventable death of an officer should encourage us all to take a critical look at this policy.
Stop the Drug War
Sad, sorry story but not a particularly sad result. The drug war must end.
Let reason number 999 for ending the drug war be this: Lots of really good people -- repeat -- LOTS of really good people can't feel much but rage against the drug war madness when confronted with stories like this.
In a more American America, the shooter would be commended for his preparedness.
2nd Amendment was created for this very reason.
Most of you are not going to like what I have to say but this is the very reason why we have a 2nd Amendment. This is not Nazi Germany and the government can not just kick in doors while dressed in plane clothes. How many of you who own guns and say you support the 2nd Amendment, would let a group of men dressed in blue jeans and t-shirts just kick in your door and start to order you and your family to the ground. Our founding fathers made sure the 2nd Amendment existed to keep the government from taking our guns or this type of activity would take place every day. It is sad this man had to die and leave behind a family but Nazis had family too and felt they were doing what they did for the “greater good”. I am sure this man felt he was out to protect the citizens but he and his team of “Law Enforcement” crossed the line with this. I am sorry but cops in plain clothes have no right to just kick in a door and not expect the person to act on their own rights of self defense. 1st Degree murder? I don’t think so.
mass2VA asaks - "What have you done?".
Good question. This being a Military area, I would hazard a guess at at least 14% of the respondents here are "X" military, and of the 86% left, at least another 25% have a family member associated with the military.
Personally? 10 Years, USN, (SS).
A lot of missing information
I am sure the Chesapeake Police Dept. had good reason to search this young man's home. However, whenever you try to enter a home with force even with a warrant-you should be uniformed. With all the freaks out there today-if a man in street clothes announced he was coming through my door with a search warrant-I'd probably shoot first and ask questions later. This death is a shame and heartache for this Officer's family. For this death not to be in vain, the Chesapeake Police Dept. should use this example as a way to teach their current and incoming officers how to properly serve a search warrant.
just doesn't add up
This is a terrible event and I really do feel sorry for the surviving family...but...something...just is not adding up on the citys side of this story...there are alot of hard questions to be answered and to date not one has been...there are questions to be asked to both sides for that matter. It just doesn't add up so far.
Remember, Remember the Forth
I can almost guarantee that the actions of the police force were illegal and unconstitutional.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The Virginia Declaration of Rights also had much to say about this. As Virginians you should be sensitive to this and supportive. I applaud those of you who are, but for those not, it isn't too late to move back to jolly old England.
If the officer in question was acting outside the law, even if his department and a judge were accomplices, he still should not be considered a police officer in this case. All military, police, and public servants otherwise take an oath to the Constitution, not some arbitrary needs of safety for unAmericans.
All this aside, the law is way too vague on just how liberally people should be able to act in protecting their homes.
Something is seriously wrong with this
If you broke down my door, I'd shoot you too. There's a lot more to this than we are being told. Cops break down the wrong doors all the time and if this man has no record, how do we know he was selling drugs as claimed? Send uniformed cops through the door, not bearded, shaved-head biker look-alikes and they will be much less likely to get shot.
Det Shivers
To the person who stated that "he got what he deserved", you are a really lowlife and insensitive person. Anyone knows when firing a weapon, you find the target. He had no kids in the house to protect....why not wait until he could see the "suspects". A person has lost his life and it seems to me that (according to some of the comments that were posted) some people in Hampton Roads could care less. Det. Shivers was a great Police Officer, Husband, and Father to 3 great children. He was out there every day protecting us from scumbags, but it seems nobody cares about that. Give Det. Shivers some respect and credit for doing something that not a lot of people have the guts to do. For the rest of you who have written negitive comments, feel free to take care of your own problems next time you need the police, like a domestic complaint,car accident or anything in between. REST IN PEACE DET. SHIVERS
As a citizen of Chesapeake,
As a citizen of Chesapeake, it disgust me to hear the way everyone assumes the Chesapeake Police Department would would cause the events leading up to one of there own being killed. When they serve search warrants they are clearly identified as Police Officers and they have to announce themselves. This guy was scared for a reason. Who gets robbed and does not call the Police to investigate? Someone who has something to hide thats who. Everybody wants to make the Police the fall guy. But when you need help who do you call? The Police. They are the first ones to show up when someone is shooting, a house is on fire or your car is broken down on the side of the road. Lets blame who is really at fault, The guy who shoots through the door. Maybe if he would have looked out the window first, he would have seen the police cars parked in front of his house!!
God bless Det. Shivers, his family and the Chesapeake Police Department. Thank you for serving our great city. Thank you to all the Officers who put their life on the line everyday so we can be safe.
All for under $36,000/yr. you too can become a police officer
Yep, you can become a Police Officer for under $36,000/yr and put your life on the line every day to deal with public vomits of society. Where do I sign up for this job? NOT! The Police Entrance exams are being "fixed" for the Educationally Challenged but if Police would use COMMON SENSE they'd be alive today. Do you stand in front of a door (serving a warrant) NOT knowing what's on the other side? Hell no. Why not KNOCK on the door...or ring the doorbell and STAND ASIDE from the door so a BULLET wouldn't hit you (DUH)! How about announcing "Police! Please open the door." I think if Police Officers would use their VERBAL skills first...they'd become SMARTER Police Officers. Do they teach COMMON SENSE in the Police Academy? Maybe they need to stress that MORE.....
Innocent until proven... for BOTH SIDES
Det. Shivers lost his life, his family lost a husband, father, son, brother, his comrades lost a brother in blue, and our community lost one of our protectors. A person that risks his own life--working undercover in a city where he also LIVES! For goodness sake people, I am sure the man that shot this officer has a lot to say... but NONE of us were there. Allow the investigation to continue... for a fallen Officer to be laid down to rest with respect and honor with the thankfulness of our community. Think of his children, his wife, his parents--and do something for your own community. From what we have seen so far, Jarrod Shivers was a man that gave over 16 years of his life to protecting our way of life--first in the military and then here in the city of Chesapeake--what have you done? Remember that as you lay your head on your pillow at night--even the man that killed him, is sleeping in a safe, warm place with three meals a day, needed medical care, and (I am making an assumption) a state appointed attorney to represent him and the rights Mr. Shivers helped to do all he could in his life to assure we ALL have!
My prayers are with the Shivers family and all our men and women tha