Culpeper silence: Citizens, top cop slam shooting inquest | The Hook - Charlottesville's weekly newspaper, news magazine

Culpeper silence: Citizens, top cop slam shooting inquest | The Hook - Charlottesville's weekly newspaper, news magazine:

'via Blog this'"They need to explain why this was justified," says Jennings. "We're not asking for anything unreasonable. We just want to make sure the system works.

"This secrecy does more to harm to police than help them," Jennings adds. "People are afraid to come to Culpeper."

Buchele indicates that the officer then unloaded five or six rounds into Cook's Jeep which eventually came to rest against a utility pole. Cook was pronounced dead at the scene, and WJLA cites another alleged witness, Greg Andrews, whose account "mirrors" that of Buchele.

A former Charlottesville police captain who gained a national reputation in DNA technology, Harding says that 80 percent of a police shooting investigation typically occurs in the first five or six hours. Here, the State Police, aside from issuing a pair of press releases essentially blaming the victim, have released little– even denying multiple requests for the name of the officer in question.

Harding says that normal procedure when an officer engages in deadly force is for the police administration to release his name. It's okay, says Harding, for a chief to support the officer who goes on administrative leave with pay while the matter is investigated.

While the town of Culpeper steadfastly refuses to identify the officer, other sources have filled that information void. The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg cites two unnamed officers confirming that the shooter's name is Daniel Harmon-Wright.

Moreover, the newspaper reports that the 33-year-old Harmon-Wright has previously used other names. On Facebook, he goes by "Dan Wayne," a graduate of James Madison High School in Vienna, the paper reports. More curiously, the five-year veteran of the Culpeper P.D., also a veteran of the U.S. Marines, previously lived in Fauquier where he was known as Daniel Sullivan.

Culpeper Police Chief Chris Jenkins did not return a phone call from the Hook seeking confirmation that Harmon-Wright is Sullivan and the shooter– and why the officer might tamper with his own surname.