Norfolk police chief gives details on fatal shooting of girl

NORFOLK

Police Chief Bruce P. Marquis said Tuesday that officers thought they had incapacitated 17-year-old Tameika Jordan with a Taser gun when they entered an apartment where she lived last week.

Once inside, however, they found her sitting on a couch pointing a handgun at police, he said. A 12-year veteran of the police force immediately fired a burst at Jordan with an M-4 assault rifle, Marquis said.

She recoiled, then again pointed the gun at police, he said. The same officer then fired another burst, killing Jordan. The officer's identity has not been publicly disclosed.

An autopsy revealed she was shot eight times, Marquis said.

Tests showed that the Taser only partially hit Jordan, meaning it had little or no effect on her, Marquis said.

Marquis, who spoke to the City Council on Tuesday via conference call from out of town, said that officers tried for nearly seven hours to negotiate with the teenager. Her mother told police that she had bipolar disorder, Marquis said.

Jordan, who was about to begin college, was buried Tuesday. Her mother, Catrina Jordan, disputed the chief's version of events.

She never told police her daughter was bipolar, she said in a phone interview, and she said she does not understand the force that police used.

"It was too excessive," she said. "That's it for me."

"I heard the gunshots," she said. "I heard them shoot my baby."

Marquis also told the council that the teenager had fired a gun twice during the night. Catrina Jordan said she did not find a gun in her daughter's belongings before the standoff, and her daughter did not fire any shots that night.

"No gunshots in the house at all," Catrina Jordan said. "We went in the house and took pictures, and there were no holes in the wall at all."

Marquis said the standoff began at 10:30 p.m. Aug. 9 in the 2200 block of Maltby Ave. when Catrina Jordan called the police. She had been going through her daughter's personal belongings.

"The daughter didn't like that," Marquis said.

At least two gunshots were heard in the apartment, the last at 2:14 a.m. Aug. 10, he said. At 4:53 a.m., Jordan broke off communications with the police, who had been speaking with her by telephone.

Police responded by firing tear gas into the apartment. "That apparently had little effect on Tameika," Marquis said.

Marquis said police again briefly communicated with Jordan in the hallway of the apartment building. She was partially behind a door but appeared to be unarmed, he said.

When they were unable to persuade her to surrender, police decided to incapacitate her with a Taser, which fires two electrodes that can temporarily subdue someone with electric shocks.

"Because she was in the doorway without the gun in her hand and because they believed the Taser had some effect on her, the decision was made to enter the apartment," Marquis said.

Tests later revealed that one of the electrodes fired by the Taser was lodged in the door.

Council members said very little after Marquis' spoke.

Councilman Paul R. Riddick, a frequent critic of police, said he was satisfied with the chief's explanation.

"It seems that they tried to do everything they could do," he said.

Councilwoman Daun S. Hester said her heart goes out to Tameika's mother.

"She was trying to do the right thing," Hester said, adding that it seems as if the mother suspected her daughter had a gun.

Asked Mayor Paul Fraim: "What is a 17-year-old doing with a gun?"

Pilot writer Matthew Bowers contributed to this report.

Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com