By Kery Dougherty
Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK, Va. — He thinks it’s the end of his day.
A police rookie gets off work, hops into his aging Jeep Wrangler and heads for home. Along the way he hears that shots have been fired nearby in a police pursuit.
Instinctively, he speeds toward the action.
Hey, he’s a cop. Aiding fellow officers is in his DNA.
If you were around Hampton Roads on June 1, you heard the story.
This was more than just a police chase. Police say it was an armed abduction that began in Norfolk and ended in Chesapeake. The crime was committed, they say, by three suspects, including one particularly loathsome creature already facing charges of robbery, conspiracy, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a felon.
The late Christopher White, a one-man crime spree, was on the loose that day thanks to a clerical error in a Norfolk court.
When the van he was in crashed, White jumped out holding an AK-47.
He spied Sean Fleming, the young uniformed cop in the Jeep, and started shooting.
Hey, White was a criminal. Complete disregard for life was in his DNA.
White fired multiple rounds, hitting the off-duty officer four times and turning his green Jeep into Swiss cheese.
Fleming fired back, and when the shooting stopped, White was dead.
The 26-year-old officer was released from the hospital last week and is recuperating at home. The two surviving suspects have been charged with attempted capital murder and first-degree murder.
Let’s talk about Fleming’s Jeep.
Who pays when a cop’s personal car is destroyed by gunfire? Do private insurance companies run for cover, leaving off-duty officers uninsured?
That’s the buzz on the Internet.
One police forum has posted an account of the Fleming situation this way: “Officer Hosed Over By His Insurance Company.”
And a flier publicizing a Deep Creek Ruritan benefit barbecue for Fleming on June 28 claims there’s an insurance problem.
“The vehicle was his personal vehicle and it was destroyed by gunfire. He is in need of a new vehicle because this is not covered as a job-related incident,” it reads.
Chesapeake Police Chief Kelvin Wright told me Monday that Fleming’s bullet-riddled Jeep is evidence in the case. It’s been impounded by the city, and Fleming will be compensated for it.
Seems the city’s risk management team is still determining the value of the 14-year-old SUV with 170,000 miles on the odometer.
Uh-oh. The blue book value of that car could be as low as 3,000 bucks.
The Ruritans shouldn’t cancel that barbecue. Nor should the Chesapeake Coalition of Police change its plans to hold a weeklong charity event for Fleming at A.J. Gator’s in July.
Anyone who’s totaled a reliable old jalopy knows the indignity of getting an insurance check too small to buy a replacement. Chesapeake’s risk management folks should err on the high side in Fleming’s case.
Even if the city is generous, Fleming loses money every day he’s off the job, says Jack Crimmins, president of the Chesapeake Coalition of Police.
He pointed out that injured cops collect workers’ compensation and supplement it with sick leave.
But Fleming is a first-year officer. His accrued leave is anemic.
“All of this is because of his heroic actions,” sighed Crimmins, who hopes his organization raises enough money in July to buy Fleming his dream car: a used BMW.
Seems to me any time a police officer is injured in the line of duty, the public has a duty.
Let the check writing begin.
Copyright 2009 Virginian-Pilot