Officer is struck by car, police kill 2 men

Portsmouth police working on a drug case shot and killed two men Thursday night in Chesapeake after one of the men drove a car into an officer and two police cars, Chesapeake police said.

Demetrius D. Edens, 28, of Chesapeake, and Darren S. Wilson, 25, of Virginia Beach, were killed, and an officer was injured by the men's vehicle, police said.

The shooting was the third fatal shooting this year by Portsmouth police.

Chesapeake police released scant, and initially contradictory, details of what happened, and Portsmouth police referred questions to Chesapeake.

Chesapeake police said they were called at 11:24 p.m. Thursday to the 3800 block of Schooner Trail. There, Portsmouth police officers said they had tried to arrest two men in a car during a drug investigation. The driver of the vehicle struck the police cars and the officer, police said.

Police fired at the men, killing the driver, identified as Edens. The passenger, Wilson, was taken to Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth and died shortly after arrival, according to a news release.

The officer who was hit by the vehicle, a 2009 Chevrolet, was treated at a hospital and released.

Officers recovered 6 ounces of cocaine from the Chevy, Chesapeake police said. It was not clear how the investigation took the Portsmouth police into Chesapeake.

Chesapeake police initially said, at 12:50 a.m. Friday, that the Portsmouth officers were returning fire from the men.

"The preliminary investigation revealed that the suspects exited the vehicle and fired upon the Portsmouth Police officers. Portsmouth Police exchanged fire, killing one suspect," the statement said.

Chesapeake police issued a corrected statement about 6:18 a.m. Friday that did not say the men fired at officers.

Officer Dorienne Boykin, a spokeswoman for Chesapeake police, said police initially thought there was an exchange of gunfire. But further investigation showed there was no exchange.

Two Portsmouth officers involved in the incident have been placed on administrative assignment, Police Chief Edward G. Hargis said.

Portsmouth police will do an administrative investigation while Chesapeake police investigate the shooting, he said.

Hargis said he did not want to comment on the shooting while the case is being investigated by Chesapeake police.

Schooner Trail is in a subdivision of older townhouses called Holly Cove.

Darryl Dunmore, 23, lives in the neighborhood and said he was standing outside with others on Schooner Trail when the men were shot.

He said the men parked in a blue Chevy. Then unmarked police cars parked around them and boxed in the car.

Dunmore said he watched from the driver's side of the Chevy. A police Impala parked at an angle in front of the Chevy and two SUVs pulled up behind it, Dunmore said.

Police wearing plain clothes and vests got out and shouted commands to the men in the car, he said. The driver of the Chevy tried to drive the car but was blocked in and rammed the Impala, Dunmore said.

He said he then heard two bursts of rapid gunfire.

"(Police) were shooting into the car," he said.

He saw police pull both men from the car and handcuff them, he said.

The driver was on his back with blood coming from his mouth trying to talk, Dun-more said.

"There were plenty of people here that got a good look," he said.

The shooting was the third fatal one in 2009 involving Portsmouth officers.

On Feb. 26, Marshall Franklin Sr. was shot and killed after a five-hour standoff at his Churchland home, during which he shot and injured two police officers. The shooting came after a mental health worker and police escort went to Franklin's home; his family had requested a mental health evaluation.

Kenji Lee Danzy, 30, of Newport News was shot numerous times Jan. 9 after Portsmouth officers chased his car into Norfolk. In that case officers boxed in the suspect's vehicle and ordered him to stop.

But Danzy backed into an unmarked Portsmouth police car, climbing up onto its hood, and knocked down a uniformed officer before officers fired at him, according to findings of the Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney's Office.

In the Danzy shooting, the commonwealth's attorney determined that the use of deadly force was justified.

Portsmouth police wounded a man on Brighton Street in February after a slow-speed chase. Police said the man motioned "as if he had a weapon" and an officer shot him in the midsection.

Pilot writer Shawn Day contributed to this report.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 446-2957, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com