VIRGINIA BEACH
Saturday wasn't the first time Daniel Guy Newcomb had been shot by police.
This time, he didn't survive.
The mid-afternoon shooting on North Witchduck Road followed a reported robbery and police chase. Officer Grazia Moyers, a Virginia Beach police spokeswoman, said the 33-year-old man crashed his car and came out with a gun. Officers fired on him.
He was taken to a hospital but died Sunday. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the state medical examiner.
In September 2009, Newcomb was hit twice.
That time, it started with a call to the Norfolk Police Department. A man said he had shot and killed his girlfriend.
Two officers went to a residence in the 3700 block of Lenoir Circle in Norfolk, according to a report on the incident by Norfolk's commonwealth's attorney.
They arrived to find Newcomb standing outside, holding a gun. As the officers approached, he pointed it at them and said - in so many words - that he was going to kill them, according to the review. The officers fired.
The investigation showed Newcomb's gun was a starter pistol, and his girlfriend was never at the residence when he made the 911 call, according to the legal review.
Newcomb's father had died recently, he suffered from depression, and earlier in the day he had told his girlfriend he was on a suicide mission.
In the review, the commonwealth's attorney said the officers' use of force was "appropriate and justified under the circumstances."
Newcomb recovered from his two gunshot wounds and was never charged, in part because he suffered from mental problems, said Officer Chris Amos, a Norfolk police spokesman.
He said it does happen that people try to commit "suicide by cop."
"Folks who for whatever reason won't take their own life, will force the hand of a police officer," he said.
When reached by phone Monday, Newcomb's family members declined to comment.
According to online court records, Newcomb
i
* 2006 pleaded guilty in Norfolk to attempted illegal possession of drugs.
When he died, he was awaiting trial in Virginia Beach on felony charges of possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute it and illegal possession of other drugs. The trial was last postponed March 14 and reset for the end of April.
He was scheduled to plead guilty, said Macie Pridgen, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney's office.
Officer Jimmy Barnes, a spokesman for Virginia Beach police, said the department placed three officers on administrative leave after Saturday's shooting, standard procedure in such cases, pending an internal investigation.
For their own safety and the safety of people they protect, police are trained to shoot to kill, he said.
"We do (training) scenarios all the time," Barnes said. "You just hope it's never going to come. It's the last thing anyone wants to do, take another's life. Officers, especially."
Elisabeth Hulette, 757-222-5097,
Copyright 2012 Virginian-Pilot Companies LLCAll Rights Reserved
