Norfolk officers who shot armed man on Granby Street will not face charges, prosecutors announce
Two Norfolk police officers who shot an intoxicated and armed man on Granby Street in February moments after the man fired his gun into two downtown apartments will not face any charges, the city’s chief prosecutor announced Tuesday.
Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi made the announcement during a news conference in which he showed body camera footage recorded by the officers during the Feb. 12 shooting near Grace O’Malley’s Irish Pub and Restaurant. Fatehi said his decision was based on evidence gathered during an investigation conducted by Virginia State Police.
The man who was struck, Barry D. Carrington Jr., was shot four times but survived, Fatehi said. He spent three days in the hospital before being transferred to the city jail.
The officers who fired their guns that night — Jacob Reeves and Gareth Coleman — were placed on administrative duty afterward. They will remain in that status until a departmental firearms review panel determines whether they acted in accordance with the department’s training and policies, a Norfolk police spokesman said.
“We owe Officer Reeves and Coleman our thanks for making a wrenching and split-second decision to use force in service to public safety,” Fatehi said. “We must remember that every time a police officer goes to work, the officer may have to make difficult, split-second, life-or-death decisions, often risking their own live to protect the lives of others.”
In August, Carrington pleaded guilty to shooting into an occupied building and was sentenced to six months in jail, online court records show. The case was handled by a special prosecutor from Newport News.
Fatehi’s office released a 10-minute video Tuesday that shows the shooting. It’s a compilation of police body camera footage, surveillance footage from inside Grace O’Malley’s, and cell phone video taken by a witness on the street.
On the night of the incident, Coleman was off duty and working security for The Main hotel when around 10:15 p.m. he heard a night manager say a man was possibly brandishing a gun outside the hotel’s lobby, according to Fatehi. Coleman was wearing a body camera, turned it on, and told Carrington not to come back into the hotel, where he had been drinking earlier.
Carrington walked away and headed to Randolph Street, where he fired his gun 13 times, Fatehi said. The bullets struck a living room window of one apartment in the Law Building and the bedroom window of another.
Reeves heard the shots, called for additional officers and ran up Granby and Plume streets, Fatehi said. Coleman and Officer Marko Padilla — who was on his fourth day as a police officer — joined Reeves in confronting Carrington near Grace O’Malley’s.
Carrington can be seen on the body camera video holding a gun. He turned his back to the officers and loaded a magazine into the gun, Fatehi said. Investigators would later learn the magazine was empty but the officers had no way of knowing that at the time, he said.
The officers can be heard on the footage repeatedly yelling for Carrington to drop the gun. At one point Carrington tells the officers to “shoot me,” Fatehi said.
The officers fired at him as he ran down Granby Street with the gun in his hand, Fatehi said. Carrington was struck in his left arm, shoulder and right leg and can be seen dropping his gun as he fell. Reeves fired eight times and Coleman twice. Padilla didn’t fire his gun.
Surveillance footage from inside Grace O’Malley’s that was played during Tuesday’s press conference shows staff moving patrons from the front of the restaurant to the back shortly before the officers fired their guns. A woman who was walking her dog nearby was injured in her foot, possibly by a bullet ricochet, Fatehi said. She was treated at the scene.
Blood taken from Carrington at the hospital showed that he had a .30 blood-alcohol level, which is nearly four times the legal limit for driving, Fatehi said.
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
