The freedom of speech, assembly and all the other things that make America great, especially the right to bear arms in Ocean View! Come on down to the gun fight!!
NORFOLK — A police officer shot to death a man who was holding a woman hostage at knifepoint early Thursday morning in Ocean View, police said.
Police identified the dead man as Derrick D. Bryant, 33, of Ansell Avenue in Portsmouth.
Police said Bryant broke into an apartment in the 2100 block of Pretty Lake Ave. at about 2:45 a.m. and abducted a woman.
Soon after, officers found Bryant around the corner, on the lawn of a house in the 9600 block of 1 st Bay St.
When Bryant started to cut the woman’s throat, an officer shot him, according to police spokesman Chris Amos. Police were unable to revive Bryant, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The female hostage, whom police did not identify, suffered a minor cut to her neck and was treated at a local hospital. Bryant was the woman’s former boyfriend, police said.
Veronica Putt, who lives at the scene of the shooting, came home to find police on her lawn.
“I started freaking out,” she said. “I didn’t know what to say. I saw the blood.”
Putt said her neighbors tried to persuade Bryant to drop the knife and release the woman. Police would not confirm that.
On Thursday morning, black fingerprint powder covered the woman’s damaged apartment door. A woman inside – identified as the hostage’s mother – declined to speak with a reporter.
Neighbors Tara Delaney and Shawn Montello said Bryant had been hanging around the building earlier that night and was carrying a .45-caliber handgun. Police would not comment on whether they recovered a gun at the scene.
Portsmouth court records show Bryant was arrested in 1993 on charges of malicious wounding, using a firearm and shooting at an occupied vehicle. He was acquitted after a trial in 1994.
Although they share the same name, the man shot by police is not the Derrick Bryant who was co-captain of the Norfolk State University basketball team in the mid-1990s and played at Nansemond River High School. That Bryant is playing professionally in Argentina, his wife said.
The officer who shot Bryant was placed on administrative duty, which is standard department policy. Police did not identify him.
Homicide detectives are investigating and will send their findings to the commonwealth’s attorney for review. This, too, is standard procedure.
Talking .45 caliber handguns, I have another article look down the page a bit from the washington post that I think you gun afficinatos might like!
Nutz!!
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