Published: September 14, 2009 11:45 am      

Charleston police officer killed by "friendly fire"

CHARLESTON -- The Charleston patrolman who was shot in the line of duty was killed by a bullet from a fellow officer's gun, city officials said.

Police Chief Brent Webster said an initial review by his department indicates Officer Jerry Alan Jones, 27, was shot by "friendly fire" as police tried to stop a suspect who was using a two-and-a-half-ton Chevrolet pickup truck as a deadly weapon.

Webster and Mayor Danny Jones, who is not related to the officer, called a press conference Sunday evening to discuss the overnight shooting.

"We have every reason to believe now. . .the bullet that killed Officer Jones probably came from one of our police officers," Webster said Sunday night.

Jones was shot after a police chase ended on Quick Road about 1 a.m. Sunday.

The suspect's encounter with police began much earlier in the evening, officials said.

About 9 p.m. Saturday, the suspect rammed his Chevrolet pickup truck into an unidentified woman's car on the West Side, Webster said.

The woman, who apparently knew the suspect, called police.

Sometime later Saturday night Patrolman Jones spotted the suspect's truck and gave chase, following the man into the Pinch/Quick area.

About 1 a.m., the suspect, who had a female passenger in the truck, pulled off Quick Road onto a patch of gravel. By that time, three more police cars were involved in the chase, and officers attempted to use their vehicles to block the suspect, Webster said.

The suspect slammed his truck into police cars, trying to get back on the road. Webster said when that didn't work, the man backed up the truck, apparently to try again.

That was when officers opened fire. Both Jones and the suspect were shot.

Jones was taken to Charleston Area Medical Center's General Hospital, where he later died. The suspect, whose name has not been released, also died.

Webster said the suspect didn't have a gun, but officers still considered him armed.

"He was armed with a two-and-a-half-ton pickup truck," Webster said.

The police chief would not release the suspect's name or the name of the woman riding in his truck, citing a Kanawha County Sheriff's Department investigation that is still under way.

Webster did say the female passenger was "more shaken than anything."

Webster said he's upset by the loss of an officer but said he doesn't believe the other officers at the scene could have acted any differently.

He said a video of the incident that won't be released to the public shows how dangerous the situation was.

"He put the officers in a very bad situation," Webster said of the suspect. "We didn't have any factors we could control."

At a press conference earlier in the day Sunday, Webster called Patrolman Jones one of his department's "most treasured" officers.

Mayor Jones said it was important to release details of the officer's death as quickly as possible because "bad news doesn't get any better with time."

He said it also was important to release the information to keep the public from suspecting a coverup.

"If we don't get this out, people out there are going to get cynical," the mayor said.

The mayor said he was awakened early Sunday morning with news of the shooting.

"When I receive a call at 3 o'clock in the morning, it's never good news," Jones said. "Some of the worst possible news I could get is that one of our police officers has been involved in a chase and he's dead."

Webster says five officers - the three present at the time of the shooting and two who responded later to the scene, have been placed on paid administrative leave.

Police have not determined which gun fired the bullet that killed Jones, Webster said.

"Obviously, you go through an event like that, you're going to need some time," the chief said of the officers who were on the scene.

The mayor said no events have been planned yet to honor the fallen officer, but that will happen "in the next day or two."

Jones is the first Charleston officer to be shot and killed in the line of duty in almost 30 years. In June 1981, Patrolman Eddie Duncan and Lt. Delbert Roush were killed when Antoine Hickman shot the officers at a traffic stop on the West Side. Hickman was convicted of their murders and is now serving a life sentence at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex.

A police memorial now sits on Pennsylvania Avenue, where those shootings took place.

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