Norfolk Econo Lodge shootout leaves 1 dead, 2 hurt

NORFOLK

At least one of three men who forced their way into a Military Highway motel room was armed.

So was one of the two men occupying the room.

A shootout that ensued early Thursday left one of the room-crashers dead at the scene and another barely clinging to life, police said. One of the room occupants also was wounded, but his condition was improving, said Master Police Officer Chris Amos, department spokesman.

The second occupant was unhurt, and police were still looking for the third attacker, who fled in a silver vehicle, Amos said.

The death was Norfolk's 26th homicide of the year, two of which were police shootings determined to be justified.

That compares with 29 homicides all of last year, of which one was a justified police shooting, and 50 in 2007, including three justified police shootings, according to police records.

Pronounced dead at Thursday's scene was Dante Cooley, 22, of Virginia Beach.

Police said that shortly before 2:15 a.m., he and two other men knocked on a room door at the Econo Lodge, 835 N. Military Hwy. When the door opened, the three forced their way in, and the gunfight broke out, police said.

The motel is just off Virginia Beach Boulevard, across the street from The Gallery at Military Circle mall. Police reported 89 calls for service there in the past year - one every four days on average - with about a third for disorderly people or other disturbances. Remaining calls included three regarding weapons, and others for assaults, robberies and thefts.

The shooting death at the motel was one of 20 in the city this year that involved guns, not counting the two police shootings, Amos said. Killers used handguns 15 times and a shotgun once. The gun hasn't been determined in four other cases.

Other than that, "there's no pattern" that police can use to develop prevention strategies, Amos said.

"Most are not random," he said. "But it runs the gamut, from the robbery, to the home invasion, to the domestic."

Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-3893, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com