Lawsuit filed by estate of man killed in drug bust last year

By Janie Bryant
The Virginian-Pilot

May 20, 2010

HAMPTON — The estate of a man shot by police during an April 2009 drug bust has filed a $36 million lawsuit against the city and four police officers.

Demetris Edens, 28, of Chesapeake, and Darren Wilson, 25, of Virginia Beach, were killed as police attempted to make an arrest during a drug investigation that ended in Holly Cove, a Chesapeake neighborhood near the Portsmouth line.

The lawsuit states that Edens and Wilson were sitting in a parked vehicle when four police vehicles blocked the car and two officers got out with guns drawn.

The complaint states that the men were unarmed and did nothing to indicate they would resist arrest.

It claims that officers started firing through the front window after a police vehicle rammed the back of Edens' car, moving it forward.

Chesapeake Commonwealth's Attorney Nancy Parr concluded in an investigation that the officers reasonably feared for their lives when they shot into the car.
According to Parr, officers had surrounded the men's car on three sides with emergency lights flashing when Edens drove backward, hitting a Subur- ban. Officers fired when Edens drove toward two of them, pinning one of them between cars, Parr wrote in her account.

The lawsuit names the city and two officers, Todd Thurby and Richard Springer, and also includes two unidentified officers. The complaint was filed by Dannie Edens, as administrator of Edens' estate.

Jan Westerbeck, a spokeswoman for the Portsmouth Police Department, said she could not comment on a pending civil lawsuit. City Attorney Tim Qksman also declined to comment, saying he had not seen the lawsuit.

Janie Bryant, (757) 446-2453, janie.bryant@pilotonline.com