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
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Police shootings
As a former law enforcement professional, I know that officers are taught, once they decide to fire, to continue to fire, until the threat is put down. Only 3 things bother me in this case. Where, when, & how. If no weapon was seen in the child's possession while the officers saw her through the door, where was it? If the officers, upon seeing no weapon, burst in, when did the child have the time to get a gun & seat herself? Lastly, if the officers burst in, right at the time they saw the child unarmed, how did they allow her to go get a gun? All police shootings should be investigated by outside entities.
Geez
Ches37, that comment wasn't thought through was it? Where do you think that bullet is going to go? What about the people that live upstairs? Geez.
Here's your sigh.
r u kidding me!
to ches37..... required to tell them to drop the gun? Then you have to fire a warning shot in the air? are you kidding me. If they are pointing the gun at you, I'm not saying anything, I'm shooting. What do you think happens to the bullet when its fired into the air? It's gotta come down somewhere sometime. Can't shoot a juvenile in some states? Holy cow....now you have to ask the age of the offender before you shoot. Maybe you should read what you are writting before you type it or respond. That has to be some of the craziest I've heard in a long time
Everyone gets hurt in tragedies like this...
These sorts of tragedies hurt all parties involved. It is a shame that we have to resort to insulting language.
Comment administrator
It looks like you deleted Lamarr's comments. Please repost them. People need to see just how pathetic and deep racism runs in some people! His/her comments are so far out in left field that anyone who reads them would have been as disgusted as I was with them.
ches37, you live in fairyland
what dream world do you live in?? if a person aims a gun at ANYONE, the potential victim has the legal right to instantly kill the shooter to defend his own life. there is no "please don't shoot me" or "please put down the gun". any delay at all by the potential victim makes it likely the victim will die and the shooter will live. wrong outcome!! if you hold a concealed carry permit and have taken the training like I have, you would see how ludicrous your approach is.
Ches, you watch too much TV
Warning shots? I don't know of any state that requires a warning shot, especially if the policeman believes his life is in immediate danger.
Nor is the officer required to check the person's driver's license to determine age.
It is sad this young woman is dead, but she pretty clearly forced the decision to shoot on the policeman. Why, we may never know, but the policeman's first concern has to be self-defense, just as it would be for you or me.
What did ches37 say?
Police do not fire warning shots. Point a gun at a police officer in uniform and you will be shot. Police are not required to wait for you to respond to a order to "DROP THE GUN" if you take threatening action toward the officer i.e. point the gun at him. Juvenile or not you will be shot. You watch to much t.v.
The whole story is a tragic example of how society has failed the youth of today. The mother has lost a daughter and the officer has to live with the fact that he was forced to take a life.
Use of force by Police is never pretty and sometimes can be tragic. The officer did his job and should not be second guessed by people who have no idea of the how the job is done.
Glad
I came back and read the updated version of this story. Sad that the young lady had to lose her life. What was so important that she couldn't give up and just go downtown? If she was bi-polar, that would have definitely been taken into consideration regarding her actions. If Mom didn't tell the cops about her bi-polar illness, how did they know? As much as I don't like this particular police chief, I don't believe he'd pull a comment like that out of a hat. I still don't understand how she was able to circumvent the tear gas. The taser...yes..she blocked it w/the door(why shoot the taser w/a door in the way?) I'm sure the Mom is laying the groundwork for a lawsuit w/her comments. I wonder how much she'll be asking for as payment for her daughter's life. It sounds as tho the cops did as much as humanly possible to subdue her w/o incident...unfortunately she chose a different route. And who owns that gun? The cops have it (if it exists...which I think it does). I'm sure they'll trace it. Sad. Sad..Sad
wake up!
when are people going to realize that everyone doesn't want to stick around because they have been taught that something so grand happens after you're dead. i don't even remember Jesus having too much to say about being dead and in the history of people bringing people back from the dead , if he had said something , then i'm sure we would have heard about it since there is a whole book about him attached to the jewish religion book ,"the torah " with attachment "the bible" . But waiting or assuming that god is going to do something to the police officer for doing another job with a gun that was made to either scare you into behaving ,so that you wouldn't have to deal with the consequences of your own decisions is totally ridiculous. guns were made to have an easier way for people to kill other people and sometimes yourself, whether you had enough courage to pull the trigger yourself and supposedly face e
RE: don't point gun
"The only thing wrong with the gun laws is the idiots that have guns and do not respect what a gun can do. Find a new soap box to get on people, our first amendment rights will not be changed "
The only thing wrong in this case is the 17 year old did not own that gun and she got it from someone who did. Whoever owned that gun is irresponsible at best, and needs to be punished. Life is not all that complicated.
This is not about color
Please quit trying to pull the race card. This is not about race, this is about a girl who pointed a gun at a police officer and lost her life because she refused to follow what the police officers told her.
My heart goes out to the mother who tragically lost her child, but if the child had bi-polar disorder, I can only hope and pray the mother was having it treated and following up on her daughter's care.
As for the mother not finding a gun with her daughter's possessions, the cops would have bagged it as evidence which is why mother couldn't find it.
drop the gun!
You people are missing the point! The Officer is required to announce "Drop the Gun" and after a reasonable period of time, if the person still is pointing the gun in a threatening manner, then a warning shot is required to be fired in the air. Most states do not allow an Officer to shoot a juvenile and thats where we need to get our Governor involved. Failure to show any patience has created a sad incident.
Answer to Police doing their job
The amount of 'MURDERS" that have happened to Black persons in the community and labeled as 'justfiable hoomicide' has always been questioned by the Black comunity. When the Norfolk 'white Police officers killed Raymond Chandler and broke his neck after spraying him with pepper spray, where were all these persons who never see any worng that Norfolk police do? Those police oficers almost received a medal for doing theior job in killing Mr. Chandler. I have personally worked with the families of every vitom that has been killed by the Norfok Police going all the way back to Lymas fauntleroy who was shot three times in the back by two 'white Norfolk Police officers' who exonerated of all charges. But if a Black man is accused and suspected of rape iunvolving a 'white woman' whether he is guilty or not, he will rot in jail in Virginia. Think I am lying ask Wayne Scott an inmate in Nottaway Correcti
I can't believe it...
Did I really read, "There seems to be an all out war on killing people of color" or was I seeing things?
Most, if not all of the shootings in Norfolk, occur between people of the same race!
As for the police, they are trained to shoot and aim for center mass, if prompted to. Meaning, if you point a gun in the direction of the police, especially if they have repeatedly told you to give yourself up, they are going to shoot you. It's not rocket science folks. Had that girl been a different color, the end result would be the same. The only thing the mother can do now is move forward. It no longer matters if she was bipolar, off her meds or on her meds. She made a huge error in judgement, and is now with God. Maybe that's what the mother should concentrate on.
sick
Sounds like the NPD grew impatient.
When I read these comments, it's apparent the shooting victim isn't the only person who is mentally incapacitated.
One Less
"One less gun on the streets... That is all this means to me."
And one less criminal we have to worry about. NPD did a fantastic job.
We all did when we were "young"
For anyone to suspect or think that this mother didn't do everything she could to be the best mother possible must do not have kids of there own. Maybe none of you were ever teenagers and just skipped from 12 to 20.
I'd like to think that everyone who has commented on this site had a loving and caring mother, but the truth is that we have all did somethings that our mothers wouldn't have approved of. Some things were worst than others but we were just fortunate that we didn't get caught, go to prison, hurt someone else or lose our life.
The point is yes, she made a horrible mistake "if" she did point a gun at an officer, or anyone. I would have did the same thing the officer did and im not in uniform. For everyone who is bashing the mother about not being there, I hope you feel the same way when your child is the one who has went astray and everyone is pointing the finger at YOU ! Bottom line is if you have kids, espec
Race card
Whenever someone uses the race card to justify their point of view, it's because they lack the mental capacity to make intelligent comments. It's the easy way. You should feel sorry for them.
Shoot don't shoot
Police are trained to kill not maime. No one knows what happend, only the people present. With all they say was done, I don't beleive that a person could stay concious with the chemicals they used.
There seems to be an all out war on killing people of color. Did this girl really have a gun? We will never know. What I do know is that no matter if this is a cover up or not, this young lady lost her life. No matter what happens now, nothing is going to bring her back. We may not get justice from the law, but there is justice in God. The person that pulled the trigger that killed her has to pay for his/her deeds. People that are trained to uphold the law sometimes break these laws, and get away with it because no matter what the situation, it's deemed justifiable homicide. If you have children be careful how you call the police to handle the situation, you may regret it later.