A Culpeper police officer is on administrative leave following the fatal shooting of a suspect.

Continue reading

Town of Culpeper spokesman Wally Bunker says an officer responded to a suspicious person in a jeep in a parking lot on North East Street at 9:53 a.m. When an officer arrived, he became engaged in a physical altercation with Cook.

Witnesses say when cook tried to drive away, the officer fired shots into her jeep wrangler. She died on the scene.

Overwhelmed with emotion and holding back tears, Gary Cook describes his wife Patricia, who was shot and killed by the Culpeper police officer.

"I still have a lot of questions, that I'd like to find out what’s going on,” Cook said.

A witness, Kris Buchele, tells the Star Exponent that the officer was talking to someone in the vehicle when it began to pull away. She says the officer ordered the driver to stop and warned that he would shoot, and then fired several shots.

“She was unarmed, she was basically… about the biggest thing she may have had on her would be a purse,” Cook said of his wife.

Cook was active in her community, a retired cosmetologist she spent time making crafts and attending church.