A Virginia Beach police officer won’t face criminal charges in the fatal shooting of a Black man, whose March killing during a night of chaotic violence stirred protests and generated national attention.
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A special grand jury declined to issue any indictments in the killing of 25-year-old Donovon Lynch, Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney Colin Stolle announced at a Tuesday news conference. Lynch was the cousin of pop superstar Pharrell Williams, who grew up in Virginia Beach.
Officer Solomon D. Simmons said in an interview with investigators that was played at the news conference that he had just responded to a barrage of more than 50 gunshots in a parking lot on the city’s oceanfront when he encountered Lynch on March 26. Lynch was not part of the shooting but was making his way to his own vehicle after a night out on the strip of bars and restaurants.
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Simmons, who is also Black, said he was exiting the parking lot when he noticed someone who seemed “out of place.”
Simmons said he thought he heard a gun being racked and glanced over and saw a man crouched behind some bushes surrounding the parking lot where the shooting had just occurred. Simmons said the man started to rise with his weapon. The officer said he thought the man might start to open fire on officers and other people milling about in the parking lot.
Simmons said he shouted something he could not remember to Lynch.
“He turned around toward me,” Simmons said. “I remember firing three rounds, three gunshots at him.”
Lynch fell to the ground and later died.
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Lynch’s family members did not immediately comment Tuesday, but in a lawsuit filed against police they contend he was fired upon without warning and posed no threat at the time of the shooting. Lynch’s family said he sometimes worked in security and had a gun that he was legally carrying that night.
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Prosecutors said Lynch never pointed his gun directly at Solomon, but a round was discovered in the chamber of the weapon.
Stolle said the special grand jury, which spent months investigating the shooting, found Simmons acted in self-defense and in defense of others.
“There were numerous people in that parking lot when Officer Simmons saw Mr. Lynch starting to come up with the firearm,” Stolle said. “It is not only just whether the weapon was pointed at Mr. Simmons, but also, are the people in the parking lot at risk.”
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Simmons’s account was corroborated by a second officer at the scene, according to a video of that officer’s interview with investigators played at the news conference.
The scenario described by the officers is starkly different from an account provided by a friend of Lynch’s who was with him that night.
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Darrion Marsh told The Washington Post and other media outlets that he was trailing behind Lynch when the shooting occurred. Marsh said he did not see Lynch pull out a firearm and that Simmons fired without warning. Marsh said he thought his friend’s hands were in his pockets at the time the gunfire began.
Eyewitness contradicts police account of fatal shooting
Virginia Beach prosecutors cast doubt on Marsh’s account, saying the facts they had collected did not square with it.
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Stolle said he called a special grand jury to investigate the shooting because Marsh and two other witnesses declined to give interviews to detectives. Special grand juries have the ability to subpoena witnesses to testify.
Stolle said a range of claims by Jeffrey Reichert, an attorney for the Lynch family, were untrue. Among other claims, Reichert alleged police purposely moved Lynch’s body to cover up the shooting and that a second person was shot during the incident in which Lynch was shot.
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The special grand jury recommended investigating Reichert for perjury, but did not elaborate why in a report it issued. Reichert declined to comment.
The circumstances of the shooting remained extremely murky for months because Simmons did not activate his body camera and no cellphone or surveillance video of the shooting emerged publicly. Prosecutors said Tuesday that Simmons had activated his body camera earlier on the night of March 26 but forgot to turn it on when responding to the incident that led to Lynch’s shooting.
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Prosecutors did not present direct video of the shooting at the news conference, but other officers’ body cameras captured the sound of three shots and the aftermath of the slaying.
Lynch’s shooting was one of three that occurred that night on the oceanfront. Two people died, and eight people were injured. Investigations into some of the shootings are ongoing.
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Lynch’s family has filed a $50 million federal lawsuit against Simmons and the city of Virginia Beach over the shooting. Alex Spiro, another attorney for the Lynch family, did not respond to a request for comment.
Lawsuit contends Black man fatally shot by police posed no threat
Virginia State Police investigated the killing of Lynch, after the Virginia Beach police asked them to take over the probe amid a public outcry over whether the agency could fairly investigate the shooting.