By Duane Bourne
The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH — A man who was shot and killed by a Beach police officer Tuesday night after allegedly pulling a gun is suspected of having robbed a pizza store moments earlier.
Police identified the man as Johnathan Garrett of the 1100 block of Sparrow Road in Chesapeake.
The 4th Precinct officer, who was not identified, was placed on paid administrative duty pending criminal and internal investigations.
Authorities said the officer was not responding to the robbery call when he approached the man behind a convenience store about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday. The officer, who was on routine patrol, reportedly noticed a suspicious man standing in the alley behind a 7-Eleven store in the 6600 block of Indian River Road.
Authorities said the officer approached the man and asked him for identification. The man could not provide it, authorities said, and during the encounter with the officer, he pulled a handgun.
Adam Bernstein, a police spokesman, said that the officer was forced to fire a weapon and hit the man at least once.
The wounded man ran across MacDonald Road and into the shopping center parking lot in the city of Chesapeake, where he stumbled to the ground.
The officer tried to save the man while calling for backup units. Emergency personnel continued resuscitative efforts, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Bernstein said he could not provide further details into the officer-involved shooting, but stated that investigators were looking into the possibility that the man was involved in a pizzeria robbery moments before he was spotted behind the convenience store.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Bryant, whose office is investigating whether the officer was justified in using deadly force, confirmed that the man who was killed is believed to have robbed a Chanello’s Pizza.
He said police recovered a gun and evidence of the robbery at the scene.
A manager at Chanello’s Pizza, just down the block from where the man was shot, said the pizza store was robbed about 11 p.m.
Garrett’s grandmother, Deborah Williams, questioned why the officer had to kill her grandson, less than a half-mile from where he lived.
Williams said she had driven by the police lights on her way to work Tuesday night but did not know Garrett was involved until three officers knocked on her door.
“If they had to shoot him, why did they have to kill him?” Williams said outside her Sparrow Road home, where Garrett was staying. “Johnathan had not done all of that. I could see if he was a gangbanger.”
Williams said her grandson had only gotten in trouble for trespassing and described him as a “mess” who was trying to straighten out his life. She said he was going to start a new job on Wednesday.
The shooting was the second time that an officer, faced with the decision to use deadly force, killed an allegedly armed suspect in the city in four months.
In November, police tried to pull over Robert Hudson near Newtown and Baker roads for a traffic violation. Hudson reportedly refused to stop and later ran through a condominium complex, where he pulled out a gun. He was shot when officers struggled to disarm him. Hudson died at the hospital.
The investigation into whether Tuesday’s shooting was warranted could take months, Bryant said.
Copyright 2008 The Virginian-Pilot