Hampton’s top prosecutor has ruled that a deadly police shooting in late 2017 was a justified use of force by the two officers who opened fire.
The officers — one from Williamsburg and another from Newport News — shot and killed 24-year-old DeAndre Bethea in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven in Hampton’s Wythe section on the night of Oct. 17, 2017.
Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell said in a report issued earlier this month that Bethea had a gun visible in his hand as he drove toward one of the officers in a stolen Ford Raptor pickup truck.
That led the police officers — Williamsburg Detective Maurice Craighill and Newport News Sgt. Charles Howser — to both fire at the truck, Bell wrote in the report.
A 17-year-old then tried to get out of the truck with a gun raised, Bell said, leading the officers to open fire again.
Bethea was struck five times, while two others — 20 and 17 years old at the time — also were shot but have since recovered.
“There was overwhelming evidence to show that Mr. Bethea was an immediate threat to both law enforcement and civilians present,” Bell wrote in a seven-page letter that he emailed to police chiefs in Hampton, Newport News and Williamsburg on May 3.
Bell said the officers’ fear of “death or serious bodily injury” was “reasonable.”
“Based on the totality of the circumstances, I find that the officers’ shooting was a justifiable use of deadly force based on the facts and circumstances set into play by DeAndre Bethea,” Bell wrote.
The prosecutor told the Daily Press he had actually ruled in early 2018 that the shooting was justified — providing verbal notifications to the chiefs at the time. But the written report took some time to complete, he said, in part because of the legal research involved.
Detectives with the Hampton Police Division — whose officers were not involved in the fatal shooting — conducted the investigation that was turned over to Bell.
According to Bell’s report, Howser and Craighill were originally in southeast Newport News that night on separate investigations.
Howser was looking into a recent uptick in car thefts and larcenies from vehicles in Newport News, Hampton, York County and Williamsburg. Because of an “escalating trend” of people using guns in such incidents, the sergeant was leading an effort to combat such crimes through the Newport News Violent Crimes Reductions Task Force.
On Oct. 17, Bell wrote, that task force was surveilling a different car — a stolen red Buick — that “was believed to be involved in a shooting earlier that day between two rival street gangs.”
Craighill, on the other hand, was “in the vicinity investigating larcenies” after getting information that a Williamsburg resident’s credit card had been used in the same area.
Craighill joined Howser in an unmarked Newport News police Jeep, Bell wrote. At about 11 p.m., the two officers stopped at a Newport News 7-Eleven to take a restroom break.
That’s where they came across a different vehicle — a black 2017 Ford Raptor pickup truck with Georgia plates — with three men and two juveniles inside.
The night before, a woman reported that the truck had been stolen out of Chesapeake. Bell wrote that the officers had received word that the Raptor “was involved in a robbery in Hampton and possibly a shooting.”
Howser and Craighill trailed the truck as it drove from 21st Street and Orcutt Avenue in Newport News over the city line into Hampton. They lost sight of it briefly, Bell said, but soon spotted it stopping off at a 7-Eleven at 715 Kecoughtan Road in Wythe.
Howser pulled the unmarked Jeep into the 7-Eleven, and the officers watched as the Raptor’s driver, Darone C. Owens, then 18, got out of the Raptor and walked into the store, with Bell saying he had a concealed handgun on him.
“Sgt. Howser thought this opportunity would be the safest time to apprehend the suspects due to no one being in the driver’s seat,” Bell wrote.
Howser “turned on his lights and sirens” and both officers got out of the Jeep to confront those in the Raptor, Bell’s report said. Hampton Police have said the officers were in plainclothes, but wearing ballistic vests with the word “POLICE” across the chest.
The front seat passenger, Jontazz Robinson, then 17, jumped out of the car — with Howser saying the teen was holding a gun. Bell wrote that Robinson ran around the back of the pickup and fled.
Howser then instructed the Raptor’s remaining occupants to “Let me see your hands,” Bell’s report said. Craighill — on the other side of the vehicle — also announced his presence with, “Police stop, police stop,” while also shining his flashlight into the truck, Bell wrote.
“Suddenly, DeAndre Bethea jumped from the back seat to the driver’s seat” — which was empty because Owens was inside the store.
“Bethea placed the truck in the drive gear and rammed the truck into the unmarked (police Jeep) that was blocking its path,” Bell wrote. “This path, unfortunately, was also shared by Craighill, who saw Bethea holding a firearm in his hand.”
Craighill then fired at Bethea, “causing the vehicle to crash into a gas pumps,” Bell wrote. “Simultaneously, Sgt. Howser fired from outside the passenger’s side into the back windshield of the truck prior to it crashing.”
The incident wasn’t over yet. There was “movement” in the vehicle, Bell said, and one of the backseat passengers — 17-year-old Nahhime Sawyer — opened the rear driver’s side door.
“As Sawyer was attempting to exit, Craighill observed him with a gun in his hand, raising it up,” Bell wrote. “As a result, Craighill fired more shots in that direction — some striking into the vehicle.”
Howser — on the other side of the Raptor — believed gunfire was being exchanged between Craighill and those in the truck, Bell wrote. Howser fired several rounds at the vehicle, too.
Craighill fired 12 shots during the incident, and Howser fired four times, Bell wrote.
No shots were fired at the police officers.
Bethea, 24, a 2012 Warwick High School graduate, “died as result of gunshot wounds to the chest, back, torso, shoulder, and arm.” Three bullets were recovered from his body, with two of them from Craighill’s gun and one from Howser’s.
A backseat passenger, Leroy Clyburn III, then 20, of Newport News, had wounds initially described as life-threatening, but he since has recovered. Sawyer also was wounded in the shooting.
Police recovered five guns from the incident.
One was found on the floorboard of the driver’s seat, “right by the body” of DeAndre Bethea, Bell wrote. The prosecutor said that supports Craighill’s assertion that Bethea was holding a gun in his hand when the officer shot at him.
Two other guns — both covered in Clyburn’s blood — were found in the Raptor’s back seat, the report said.
Another gun was recovered from under a store display in the 7-Eleven, ditched there by Owens. A fifth gun was found in a yard on Greenbriar Avenue, left there by Robinson, Bell said.
Bethea’s mother, Keyanna Bethea, 41, of Newport News, said she hadn’t previously been told that her son was holding a gun while at the wheel — and she doesn’t believe it.
“This is the first time I’m hearing this,” she told the Daily Press Tuesday. She said she’s been following the court cases involving others in the Raptor, and that was never mentioned.
“DeAndre’s fingerprints weren’t on any of the weapons,” she said. “I think the officers are lying. I think they are all working together, covering up for each other.”
Keyanna Bethea also said it’s clear from the 7-Eleven video surveillance footage that her son “didn’t try to run over anybody.”
“And what gets me is how many times they shot my son,” she said. “They kept on shooting.”
In his report, Bell said courts have ruled that a vehicle can be a deadly weapon “if used in a manner likely to produce great bodily injury or death” — such as by driving it toward another person.
The amount of force police officers can use must be “reasonable to the harm threatened,” Bell wrote. But there’s no requirement that officers “use a less lethal action to defend themselves when a threat from another is overt and their fear or apprehension of death or serious bodily injury is reasonable.”
At least two civilian witnesses, he said, back the officers’ statements that they called out commands before shooting. A 7-Eleven clerk said she heard someone yell, “Stop,” and a customer walking out of the store said he heard an officer say, “Let me see your hands.”
Both officers have been back to work. Newport News Police have said that Howser, a 14-year veteran, had two prior incidents in which he shot “vicious dogs.”
Newport News Police spokeswoman Kelly King said Howser was put back on duty two weeks after the shooting. She declined to reveal that duty or his current one, but said he’s not currently working in criminal investigations.
Craighill has been a Williamsburg officer for 18 years, and this was his first police shooting. He returned to full duty in April 2018 and works in investigations, spokesman Charlie Ericsson said.
“My thoughts and prayers go out to all who were impacted by this unfortunate incident,” Williamsburg Police Chief Sean Dunn said in a statement.
