As questions revolved Saturday about the police shooting of a 25-year-old black man during several chaotic shootings in Virginia Beach, the city’s police chief Paul Neudigate admitted to reporters Saturday afternoon that there is no no image of the body camera of the confrontation and the police have no idea if the man was armed.
“I don’t have many answers,” Neudigate said of Donovan Lynch’s death, who said “it was still under investigation.”
Lynch was killed at the hands of police while officers responded to a shooting that they said exploded while they were dealing with another shot nearby. Police said they faced “three different shooting events” along the city’s boardwalk on Friday night. Three men have been arrested in connection with the first shooting of the night, which left eight people injured and occurred just minutes before the second shooting.
But the circumstances of the second shooting, during which Lynch was killed, are still unclear. Neudigate said only that the incident started as a physical altercation until several people pulled out guns. Another victim died in the shooting, 29-year-old Desheyla Harris, whom Neudigate described as “an innocent victim run over by stray shots.”
Before police identified Lynch as the victim of a shooting involving an officer, an initial press release described the dead man as an “armed citizen.” But Neudigate openly admitted Saturday afternoon that authorities do not know if Lynch was armed.
Instead, Neudigate could only say that “there was a recovered firearm in the vicinity of where this incident occurred.”
Asked by a reporter if police had evidence that the weapon belonged to Lynch or that Lynch was armed at the time he was shot, Neudigate replied bluntly, “No. Right now, no.”
Neudigate also couldn’t say how many times Lynch was shot. And if anyone was hoping the body camera footage could clear things up, the police chief said the camera was not on at the time of the fatal shooting.
“There are no bodycam images. The officer was wearing a body cam, but it was not activated, “he said, adding that the reason the body camera was turned off would be” part of our investigation. ”
“We do not know what were the circumstances that preceded the shooting. There is an expectation [officers] activate body camera “.
Investigators had not yet interviewed the officer who shot Lynch, he said.
“I don’t have the answers the community is looking for,” the police chief admitted. “I’m not able to stand up to my community and answer the tough questions.”
Police have arrested three men in connection with the shooting: Ahmon Adams, 22, Nyquez Baker, 18, and Devon Dorsey Jr., 20.
The press conference ended with a protester singing “No justice, no peace!” The person could be heard calling Lynch’s death a “murder.”