DATE: Friday, April 11, 1997                TAG: 9704110589

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CINDY CLAYTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 101 lines

BEACH OFFICERS CLEARED IN SHOOTING

Several Virginia Beach police officers who fired more than 60 shots after a low-speed chase March 25, killing a 28-year-old man, were cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the commonwealth's attorney Thursday.

The four to eight officers involved in the shooting have not been named by the police department.

Commonwealth's Attorney Robert J. Humphreys said the investigation, conducted independently by his office, showed three things:

Virginia Beach police officers had reason to believe that a police officer at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base was either dead or seriously injured after base police called for assistance from the Beach police.

Based on a review of 911 tapes, police had reason to believe that the driver, Bruce Quagliato, was armed after an officer spotted him holding an object to his head during the chase.

Quagliato was acting in a manner consistent with trying to retrieve a weapon as he reached to the floor board of the passenger's side of his yellow Camaro, just before he was shot. Police had ordered Quagliato to keep his hands where they could be seen, but he refused to comply, Humphreys said.

The investigation, conducted by staff investigator R.D. Whitt, found no evidence that Quagliato was armed.

``He acted like he had (a weapon),'' Humphreys said. ``His conduct was certainly suggestive that he was armed. ``The legal standard is, first of all, what did the officers know? And would a reasonable person have been entitled to use deadly force?'' Humphreys said.

Humphreys said he and Whitt talked to Quagliato's friends and coworkers and reviewed evidence that included the 911 tapes, shell casings, forensics reports and all the cars involved in the chase.

Quagliato may have been depressed after being evicted from his Oceanfront home and nearly being fired from his job at an Oceanfront hotel, Humphreys said.

``He clearly was despondent,'' Humphreys said. ``He hand-wrote out a will. car.''

Based on the investigation, Humphreys said it is still unclear why Quagliato was on Little Creek property. He was a civilian, not a Navy employee.

The chase began about 9:30 p.m. near the base exchange, just inside Gate 5 at Independence Boulevard and Shore Drive. Base police tried to stop Quagliato for speeding, but he refused to pull over, Humphreys said.

At one point, it appeared that Quagliato was ready to stop, then he shifted his car into reverse and rammed the officers' patrol car. Quagliato then sped off the base and down Independence Boulevard. Base police radioed Virginia Beach police and gave up pursuit.

The call to Beach police used police terminology that suggested that Quagliato was extremely dangerous, Humphreys said.

``The base police . . . used the phrase `officer down,' '' Humphreys said. ``That basically implies that another officer has been killed or seriously injured by a suspect.''

As Beach police pursued Quagliato down Independence, he rammed at least two of their cruisers. Humphreys said the chase continued to the Pembroke Mall area, where officers tried to deploy spikes to deflate Quagliato's tires. The officers had to dive out of the way keep from being hit by the Camaro, Humphreys said.

As the chase continued down Independence, police used a rolling road block by surrounding his car with their cruisers to try to get him to stop. Again, Quagliato rammed two cruisers, then hit a utility pole near the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway overpass, beyond the former Best store. The chase never exceeded 45 mph.

Police officers then tried to box in Quagliato's car with their own. As the officers jumped out of their cars and surrounded the Camaro, Humphreys said, Quagliato continued trying to move his car.

``We don't know what his intent was, but you can certainly draw a reasonable inference that he was trying to get away,'' Humphreys said.

Officers ordered Quagliato out of the car and to keep his hands where they could be seen, but he refused to comply. Instead, Quagliato reached over to the floor board, as though going for a weapon, Humphreys said.

As Quagliato began to lift himself back up, one officer feared that Quagliato was armed. That officer fired, Humphreys reported in a letter to the city manager. Those shots prompted the other officers to fire, too, unsure of where the first shots were coming from, Humphreys reported.

Quagliato was struck between eight and 14 times.

The officers who fired, including a probationary police officer who graduated from the police academy two months earlier, were placed on administrative duties. That is standard when officers are involved in shootings.

All the officers were returned to regular duty this week, said police spokesman Lou Thurston.

Two other investigations are being conducted by the department's homicide squad and its professional standards office.

Humphreys said he had not talked to any of Quagliato's relatives, who live in Massachusetts. He said he heard that the family has hired an attorney.

Humphreys said that if Quagliato had complied with officers at any point in the chase, he would still be alive. ``All he had to do was stop when he was asked to do that. At some point, I guess this was the inevitable result,'' Humphreys said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by L. TODD SPENCER/File photo

Virginia Beach police cover the body of Bruce Quagliato after a

low-speed chase ended in his fatal shooting on Independence

Boulevard last month. KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT POLICE CHASE

SHOOTING FATALITY

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