VA Beach Police Shooting Leads To Calls For Greater Transparency

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA — A Virginia Beach police officer did not have his bodycam activated when he shot and killed a city resident Friday night during a series of shootings in the city's oceanfront area, according to the Virginia Beach Police Department.

The police department is facing criticism for the lack of bodycam footage of the shooting, while some members of the Virginia Beach City Council have called for a special meeting and public briefing on the Friday night shootings that killed two people and injured eight other people.

Donovon W. Lynch, 25, of Virginia Beach, was shot and killed by the police officer in the 300 block of 20th Street near the Virginia Beach oceanfront. Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate said the officer did not activate his body camera.

Lynch graduated from the University of Virginia College at Wise with a degree in physical education. He is also listed as a former football player on the school’s athletic department website.

In a news conference Saturday night, a day after the shootings, Neudigate said the officer who shot and killed Lynch “was wearing a bodycam, but for unknown reasons at this point in time, it was not activated.”

Neudigate said a gun was found “in the vicinity of where this incident occurred” but that there is no evidence at this time that suggests it was Lynch’s gun.

The police chief also said investigators had not yet interviewed the officer who shot Lynch.

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“After watching the press conference by Chief Paul Neudigate, we are not surprised of the revelation that the body camera of the officer involved in the death of Mr. Lynch was not activated,” Dr. Karen Hills Pruden, president of the Virginia Beach NAACP, said Sunday in a statement.

The NAACP president also said “disciplinary actions against police officer misconduct should not be withheld from the public under the pretext, 'it’s a personnel issue.'"

“This has been the case in the past. Transparency of police disciplinary is required now,” Pruden said.

Del. Jay Jones, a Democrat who represents the 89th District in Norfolk, is calling for a full investigation into the fatal shooting of a Lynch.

“We need far better accountability and transparency, and the families of those killed by police, in Virginia Beach and across this country, deserve answers,” Jones, who is running for Virginia attorney general, wrote in a tweet Sunday night.

Sean Perryman, candidate for Virginia lieutenant governor and president emeritus of the Fairfax County Chapter of the NAACP, also called for an investigation into the shootings.

“The inability by this officer to use their body camera — which is department procedure — and the lack of answers from the Virginia Beach Police Department are why I’m joining calls for an investigation of this police shooting," Perryman said Monday in a statement. "Through a fair and transparent investigation we can either rule out wrongdoing, or pursue accountability if this killing is revealed to be unnecessary.”

The other victim who died in the shootings Friday night, 29-year-old Desheyla Harris, was described by Neudigate as “an innocent victim struck by stray gunfire.”

Harris is from Norfolk but lived in Virginia Beach. In 2017, she was a star of the seventeenth and final season of the Oxygen television show, Bad Girls Club, TMZ reported.

The police have not arrested anyone in connection with the shooting death of Harris.

City council members Louis Jones, Sabrina Wooten and Aaron Rouse are calling a public meeting on the shootings to take place Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.

Virginia Beach's Atlantic Avenue, the main strip along the oceanfront, was packed with local residents and tourists Friday night enjoying the warm weather. But then chaos broke out among the large crowd around 11:20 p.m.

Ahmon Jahree Adams, 22, of Chesapeake, Nyquez Tyyon Baker, 18, of Virginia Beach and Devon Maurice Dorsey Jr., 20, of Virginia Beach were arrested and charged with seven counts of felonious assault, use of a firearm in commission of a felony and reckless handling of a firearm. All three men, who were allegedly involved in the initial shooting on Atlantic Avenue, are being held at the Virginia Beach City Jail.

Several minutes later, Virginia Beach police officers heard additional gunshots in the 1900 block of Pacific Avenue, one block west of the Atlantic Avenue shootings. Harris, a bystander to the shooting, was found in the 300 block of 19th Street, near Pacific Avenue. She died from her injuries at the scene.

The police department said it is not believed the second shooting incident is related to the initial incident on Atlantic Avenue.

The police shooting of Lynch occurred near the scene of the second incident. Lynch died at the scene, located near 20th Street and Pacific Avenue.

Police said in a news release that the officer who shot Lynch is assigned to the Special Operations Division and has been with the Virginia Beach Police Department for five years.

"The City embarked on the Body-Worn Camera Project of 450 body worn cameras and 250 in-car dash cameras to be distributed to officers as a tool to gather evidence, provide information about police interactions, increase accountability, and strengthen the relationships with the community," Pruden, the city's NAACP president, said in the statement. "In this incident, the department has failed on all accounts. The $5.5M implementation investment on body-worn cameras is worthless when officers do not turn the camera on for recording."

Without the bodycam footage, the police officer involved "has no reason to be forthcoming about any facts that places him in an adverse light."