Officer Down: Detective Jarrod Shivers
By John Hopkins
The Virginian Pilot
CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A 28-year-old Portlock man has been charged in the fatal shooting of Chesapeake Narcotics Det. Jarrod Shivers, an eight-year veteran on the police department and father of three.
Ryan David Frederick of the 900 block of Redstart Ave., is being held in the Chesapeake City Jail for the shooting, which occurred around 8:30 p.m. Thursday. Frederick faces charges of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Shivers, a 34-year-old Greenbrier resident, was shot while executing a narcotics search warrant at Frederick’s home. When Shivers attempted to make entry, shots were fired from inside the residence, strking the detective, police said. He was transported to Norfolk Sentara Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Shivers had been working in the Special Investigation Section for more than two years months. He is survived by his wife and three children.
After the shooting, detectives on the scene retreated for their safety. Scores of officers and heavily armed SWAT team members descended on the scene.
Officers went door to door Thursday night, evacuating the residents of several nearby houses and telling other neighborhood residents to stay indoors.
Several blocks around the shooting scene in each direction were closed off with yellow police tape.
Police would not say if they knew whether anybody was still in the house where the warrant was being served or, if so, how many people were there.
Just before 10:30 p.m., police began calling for the surrender of anyone inside the house. An officer on a loudspeaker called out the house number, saying “You need to put your hands up and come out. You need to do it now.”
After 11 p.m., police escorted some residents back to their homes but a wide area continued to be closed to the public.
Residents of the Avalon neighborhood were stunned by the violence.
“This is generally a very quiet place,” said Zach Blankenship, 25, a yacht carpenter. He said he was in his house a block from the shooting scene and watching a movie when he heard a gunshot.
“It was definitely a gunshot, no doubt about it,” Blankenship said. “I really didn’t want to believe it.”
Even then, Blankenship said, he didn’t think anything bad had happened. Only minutes later when he thought there was lightning outside did he look out his window.
“That’s when I saw there were plenty of police,” he said.
Blankenship said he looked down the street a short time later and saw medical personnel working on someone on the ground.
“They were doing chest compressions,” he said. After several minutes he said the victim was placed in an ambulance.
Another resident, Catrina Mitchum, 23, said she also heard what sounded like a single gunshot. It surprised her, she said, because the neighborhood is “always quiet.”
Mitchum, a graduate student at Old Dominion University, said she has lived there about nine months, but spoke with a longtime resident.
“They said this is the first time anything like this has happened around here,” she said.
Copyright 2008 The Viginian Pilot