Officer indicted in woman's death

A Virginia police officer who fatally shot an Alton native several times in her head and upper body as she sat in her Jeep and drove away from him is facing four special grand jury indictments.

Officer Daniel W. Harmon-Wright, also known as Daniel W. Sullivan, of the Culpeper (Va.) Police Department, was indicted on one count of murder; malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle; malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle resulting in a death; and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the Feb. 9 shooting of Patricia Ann (Barger) Cook, 54.

"I'm ecstatic something has happened," said Cook's cousin, Carol Hailer of Alton. "There is more to the story than we know, and we are going to find out what it is."

Cook's widower, Gary Cook, declined to comment Monday on the advice of his attorneys, who filed a $5.35 million wrongful death lawsuit in his behalf against the officer last month.

From information garnered through its investigation, the same grand jury also indicted the officer's mother, Bethany Sullivan, 55, with three felony counts of forging a public record and three counts of uttering a forged public record in 2008 and 2010 - attempting to use the altered documents as though they were true.

The documents were her son's police entrance exam and performance evaluation. Sullivan worked as an administrative assistant to the Culpeper police chief from September 2002 until resigning in July 2010. She was released on $30,000 bond.

Her son, 32 and from Gainesville, Va., was hired at the police department Aug. 30, 2006. He is suspended without pay, and the department is conducting an internal investigation to determine whether there will be any disciplinary actions.

In the nearly four months since Cook died, family members have expressed frustration about not knowing what happened or why, with concerns that the incident could be covered up. It was nearly two months after the shooting, on April 2, when a court-appointed special prosecutor filed paperwork seeking impaneling of a special investigative grand jury.

Throughout May, the jury heard from more than 45 witnesses and received more than 100 exhibits, among "reams" of other information, the special prosecutor said. The Virginia State Police conducted its own investigation.

Hailer said the indictments give the family hope. "I feel like at least we will know what happened and they can't sweep everything away," she said. "We were afraid it would all be sealed and we would not know anything. He (Harmon-Wright) needs his day in court, as we do."

After the special grand jury issued the indictments, Harmon-Wright turned himself into authorities. He is being held without bond until a hearing scheduled for Friday, for both himself and his mother. Harmon-Wright spent five years in the U.S. Marines infantry, including during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

When the indictments came down last week, Harmon-Wright's attorney claimed his client shot Cook in self-defense, as he feared for his life. Shortly after the shooting, he claimed his arm had been caught in the driver's-side window of Cook's Jeep Wrangler, dragging him as she drove away in a parochial school parking lot.

However, his attorney told the Culpeper Star Exponent last week that he would not have characterized what happened as a dragging. Instead, the officer's hand was "pinned" in the manually operated window and he was "carried along by the suspect's vehicle" as he rode 50 yards on the running board.

The morning of Feb. 9, someone at the parochial school had called police about a suspicious person on the lot, reportedly peering into the school annex windows. Harmon-Wright responded to the call, and an argument ensued with Cook.

Defense lawyer Daniel L. Hawes described the resulting situation as an "alternating brake and accelerate cycle designed to cause him (Harmon-Wright) harm" while yelling at Cook to stop. Hawes said his client had put his hand on the door handle, but the door was locked, then he removed it to pull out his gun and shoot at the driver's-side window. Cook was shot five or six times.

Cook's Jeep traveled out of the parking lot and crashed into a utility pole nearly two blocks away. She was dead at the scene.

What also is unclear is why Cook, a 1976 graduate of Alton High School and a retired cosmetologist, was at the parking lot of a parochial school with which she had no known connection. A homemaker, she was an active volunteer at Culpeper United Methodist Church, in its children's ministry, office and cooking dinners in its kitchen. She also was a talented seamstress, a member of the church's quilters' group and was good at crafts and crocheting, Hailer said.

Mourners remembered Cook for her "wit, creativity and kindness" at a service.

Relatives also say it was unlike Cook to drive off from a police officer unless she feared for her safety, and she never was in trouble with the law. They also do not know of any previous connection between Cook and Harmon-Wright.

Original report here




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