Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 26, 1994 TAG: 9410260035
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Nine of the shots struck and killed Gary Wayne West, ending a tense, two-hour standoff on Williamson Road the morning of Sept. 18.
After reviewing a police investigation, Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said the five officers who shot at West "were under a reasonable apprehension" that he was about to shoot a police lieutenant when they opened fire.
"No criminal charges will be considered under the facts as they are known to me," Caldwell said Tuesday.
West, 35, of Floyd County, was reportedly upset over a failed relationship with his girlfriend when he armed himself with a 20-gauge shotgun. He first brandished the gun at his girlfriend, then turned it on police when they arrived in the parking lot of a Williamson Road restaurant where the two were sitting in a parked car.
Police said earlier that Lt. D.B. Clayton spent nearly two hours trying to talk West into surrendering his weapon peacefully, as officers stood by with their weapons drawn in case his efforts failed.
West was given "opportunity after opportunity" to give up, Caldwell said.
As a crowd of at least 100 people gawked, West got out of the car and walked to the middle of Williamson Road, still armed, before backing up to the concrete-block wall of a garage on the opposite side of the road from the restaurant.
Clayton, who was still maintaining a dialogue with West, then tried to subdue the man with pepper spray. At that point, West raised his shotgun toward Clayton, and at least five police officers opened fire.
An autopsy showed that West was shot nine times. An investigation found that 35 shots were fired. Given the number of police officers firing, Caldwell said, there would have been 64 total shots if all of them had emptied their weapons. West did not fire a shot.
Police say a shotgun fired by one officer did not hit West. Earlier, police identified four officers as having fired weapons from positions that could have struck West. Officers A.P. Forbes, J.L. Goad, C.C. Perkins and P.H. White were placed on administrative leave with pay for three days, then were returned to their regular assignments.
Because each officer made a split-second decision to fire the instant Clayton was threatened, Caldwell said, it was impossible to determine who shot first.
The prosecutor noted that "the parties are, of course, free to pursue any civil recourse they may have." But after talking to West's parents, Caldwell said, he is not aware of any potential lawsuits or complaints about how police acted.
Relatives have said that West had no prior record of violence and had fallen into trouble only recently, after he began to hang out with a new group of Roanoke friends that included his new girlfriend, a crack-smoking prostitute.
Lab tests showed that West had cocaine in his bloodstream at the time he was shot.
Caldwell agreed that the events of Sept. 18 "were out of character for Gary West," who "apparently had fallen in with the wrong crowd and suffered the consequences for it."
by CNB