THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 30, 1994 TAG: 9407300242
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
A woman whose boyfriend was shot and killed by a police marksman after police said the man held a gun to her head contends she never was in danger and that police murdered her boyfriend.
``They didn't have to kill him,'' Laura Kirby said Thursday after the funeral of her boyfriend, Donald D. Vanfossen. ``They murdered him. He's had that gun since the day I met him. He never used it.''
Kirby, 25, said Vanfossen had taken cocaine about four hours before he was shot Monday at a motel where the couple was staying. She also said Vanfossen, 35, was paranoid and once called a minister because ``he thought he had seen demons coming out of my back.''
According to Kirby, she and Vanfossen registered at the motel last Saturday and went looking for a house to buy. They'd been living in Richmond for the past several years, and she said they planned to get married this week.
The couple got into an argument early Monday, and Kirby said she drove to Hopewell alone. She returned about 5 a.m.
Some time after she returned, she said Vanfossen got upset when some people walked in front of their motel room. He shot his .357-caliber handgun into the ceiling of the room at least four times.
Kirby said she tried to get the gun away because ``I was afraid he might hurt himself.'' But he wouldn't give it up.
Police were called to the scene by a motel worker about 8 a.m., and a 90-minute standoff ensued.
Kirby said she was standing with her back against Vanfossen's chest when the fatal shot was fired from a marksman's rifle on a second-story balcony across the parking lot. She said Vanfossen had the gun in his right hand and both arms were wrapped around her waist. She was not injured.
``All I could say was, `Oh my god, Donald,' '' she said. ``So I ran outside and I said, `You shot him. Call an ambulance.'''
Police spokesman Bill Roth said two internal investigations of the shooting are under way but that preliminary reports indicated officers were responding to calls that ``the hostage was being physically abused'' and reacted accordingly.
``Screams from the hostage and gunfire from the room where she was being held indicated she was in imminent danger,'' Roth said Thursday.
Kirby said she and Vanfossen argued a lot, but never fought physically. She also said police never tried to communicate with Vanfossen, either by voice or with a bullhorn.
Roth said such negotiations do not start until all members of the tactical squad are in place, and Monday's situation escalated so fast that the fatal shot was fired before that happened.
Roth also said the marksman fired only when Vanfossen forced Kirby to the floor near the front door and put a gun to her head.
Kirby said Vanfossen never pinned her to the floor and never pointed the gun at her head. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Laura Kirby claims police murdered her boyfriend, Donald D.
Vanfossen. Vanfossen was shot by a police marksman Monday inside
room 105 of the Capri Motel. Police say they saved Kirby's life when
a sharpshooter killed Vanfossen, who had her pinned down on the
motel room floor at gunpoint. Kirby says Vanfossen never pinned her
to the floor or pointed a gun at her. She and Vanfossen had
registered at the hotel last Saturday and were looking for a house
to buy, she said.
KEYWORDS: SHOOTING MURDER HOSTAGE by CNB