Crime and Public Safety
UPDATE: Roanoke Police have arrested Malcolm L. Harrison, 32 of Roanoke, on several charges related to this shooting offense.
MGN
On January 10, at 8:13 p.m., Roanoke Fire-EMS was dispatched to the 1600 block of Rorer Ave SW for reports of a structure fire with possible entrapment. First arriving units found fire showing from windows on the first floor of a two-story, four-unit apartment building. Shortly after Fire-EMS personnel arrived on the scene, the occupant who was reported as entrapped self-evacuated from their apartment. Crews located and extinguished a fire on the second floor of the building. One person was transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. No injuries to Fire-EMS personnel were reported. Two building residents have been displaced and are receiving assistance from the American Red Cross. The fire was determined to be accidental. Damages to the building and its contents are estimated to be $95,000.
A state grant recently awarded to the City of Roanoke will be used to help craft a plan that may provide “action items,” to help prevent future flooding after heavy rains. More from WFIR’s Gene Marrano:
Update 1/17: UPDATE: Roanoke Police have arrested Charlotte R. Saunders, 48 of Roanoke, and charged her with Second Degree Murder regarding this homicide.
(Previously) On January 8, 2023 at approximately 9:40 p.m., Roanoke Police were notified by the City of Roanoke E-911 Center of a report of a possible homicide in the 800 block of 30th Street NW. Responding officers located an unresponsive adult male inside a residence with a gunshot wound. Roanoke Fire-EMS personnel pronounced the man deceased. His 
identity will be shared when next-of-kin is properly notified.
No suspects were located on scene and no arrests have been made at this time. This remains an ongoing homicide investigation. Details about what led to this shooting are limited
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A U.S. Army lieutenant who was pepper sprayed, struck and handcuffed by police in rural Virginia, but never arrested, will argue to a jury that he was assaulted and falsely imprisoned and that his vehicle was illegally searched.
Video of the 2020 traffic stop got millions of views the next year after Caron Nazario filed the federal lawsuit that is now being heard, highlighting fears of mistreatment among Black drivers and intensifying the scrutiny of the boundaries of reasonable, and legal, police conduct.
The episode also served as a grim signal to many Black Americans that military uniforms don’t necessarily protect against abuse of authority by law enforcement.
The trial is scheduled to begin Monday in federal court in Richmond.
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- Caron Nazario traffic stop
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- Caron Nazario traffic stop
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- Caron Nazario traffic stop
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- Caron Nazario traffic stop 4
Video shows Windsor police officers Daniel Crocker and Joe Gutierrez pointing handguns at a uniformed Nazario behind the wheel of his Chevy Tahoe at a gas station. The officers repeatedly commanded Nazario to exit his SUV, with Gutierrez warning at one point that Nazario was “fixing to ride the lightning” when he didn’t get out.
Nazario held his hands in the air outside the driver’s side window and continually asked why he was being stopped.
Nazario also said: “I’m honestly afraid to get out.”
“You should be,” Gutierrez responded.
Nazario stayed in the vehicle. Gutierrez went on to pepper spray him through the open window. Once Nazario exited the SUV, the officers commanded him to get on the ground, with Gutierrez using his knees to strike Nazario’s legs, the lawsuit states.
Since the traffic stop, Nazario has developed anxiety, depression and PTSD, according to his lawsuit. He has been unable to leave home at times due to “hypervigilance regarding the potential for harassment by law enforcement,” court filings state.
A psychologist found that Nazario, who is Black and Latino, suffers from race-based trauma associated with violent police encounters, which can exacerbate injuries “in ways that do not commonly affect the white populations.”
“The officers involved not only assaulted Mr. Nazario, but pointed their weapons directly at him and, at some point during the encounter, threatened to kill him,” the suit alleges. “Mr. Nazario recalls that he thought he was going to die that evening.”
Nazario is suing Crocker and Gutierrez. Crocker is still on the force, but Gutierrez was fired in April 2021, the same month Nazario filed his lawsuit.
The men deny ever threatening to kill Nazario. They contend that Nazario misconstrued Gutierrez’s statement that Nazario was “fixing to ride the lightning.” Gutierrez spoke those words while holstering his gun and drawing his Taser and was referencing his stun gun, not an execution, according to court filings.
Crocker and Gutierrez argue that they performed their duties within the law after Nazario failed to immediately pull over and refused to exit his vehicle. Plus, a federal judge already found they had probable cause to stop Nazario for an improperly displayed license plate, and to charge him with eluding police, as well as obstruction of justice and failure to obey.
“To the extent Mr. Nazario claims mental anguish or other psychological injuries, Mr. Nazario is still in the Virginia National Guard — there is no evidence he has been medically retired or otherwise discharged in connection with this incident,” according to a trial brief filed by Gutierrez in late November. “In fact, shortly after the traffic stop, Mr. Nazario deployed to Washington, D.C. in support of the January 6, 2021 disturbance.”
Nazario, a medical officer, said he arrived after the insurrection occurred, according to a deposition.
Besides Nazario’s lawsuit, fallout from the traffic stop includes a lawsuit brought by the state attorney general that alleges Windsor discriminated against Black Americans. The small town is about 70 miles (110 kilometers) southeast of Richmond.
In August, a special prosecutor determined that Gutierrez should not be criminally charged but should be investigated for potential civil rights violations.
“Although I find the video very disturbing and frankly unsettling, Gutierrez’s use of force to remove Nazario did not violate state law as he had given multiple commands for Nazario to exit the vehicle,” special prosecutor Anton Bell said in his report.
U.S. District Judge Roderick C. Young also narrowed the scope of Nazario’s lawsuit. In August, Young ruled that federal immunity laws shield Crocker and Gutierrez from Nazario’s claims that they violated his constitutional protections against excessive force and unreasonable seizure, as well as Nazario’s right to free speech by threatening him with arrest if he complained about their behavior.
Nazario can present claims under state law of false imprisonment and assault and battery to a jury, the judge ruled. The judge also found Crocker liable for illegally searching for a gun in Nazario’s SUV, leaving the question of damages on that point to a jury. Nazario had a concealed-carry permit for the weapon.
The jury will also consider whether Gutierrez is liable for the illegal search. The former officer denies he knew Crocker was conducting the search.
Nazario’s attorneys are expected to present evidence regarding Gutierrez’s professional history, including an unrelated suspension without pay for excessive force.
That episode happened during a 2019 traffic stop while Gutierrez served as a sheriff’s deputy in Isle of Wight County. Gutierrez drew his weapon on the driver during the two times the man exited his vehicle and held him at gunpoint for nearly four minutes until another officer arrived, according to court filings.
While trying to handcuff the man, Gutierrez grabbed him by his neck and “forced his face into the pavement while attempting to place him on his stomach,” the findings stated. The man suffered a facial injury that required medical attention.
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A school shooting that Virginia police said was committed by a 6-year-old student represents an extremely rare occurrence of a young child bringing a gun into school and wounding a teacher, according to experts who study gun violence.
The boy shot and wounded the teacher in a first-grade classroom on Friday at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, according to authorities. The police chief said the shooting was not accidental and was part of an altercation but didn’t elaborate further. No students were injured.
A school shooting involving a 6-year-old is extremely rare, although not unheard of, with at least one other high-profile example of a 6-year-old in Michigan shooting a fellow student in 2000, experts said. Meanwhile, Virginia law limits the ways in which a child that age can be punished for such a crime.
“There are students who killed teachers, more typically high school students,” said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Boston’s Northeastern University. “I don’t know of other cases where a 6-year-old shot a teacher.”
Fox said he was aware of only one other school shooting involving a student that age. In 2000, a 6-year-old boy fired a bullet from a .32-caliber gun inside Buell Elementary near Flint, Michigan, 60 miles (96 kilometers) from Detroit, striking a 6-year-old girl who later died from her wound.
Fox analyzed school shooting data going back to 1970 from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security, which is located at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He said the data listed school shootings involving children ages 7, 8, 9 and older, but not 6-year-olds.
From 2010 through 2021, there were more than 800 school-related shootings in K-12 schools that involved 1,149 victims. Thirty percent of those occurred in the school building, Fox said.
Daniel W. Webster, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies gun violence, agreed that a 6-year-old shooting a teacher in a school is extremely unusual. But he said his research shows that instances of young children accessing loaded guns and shooting themselves or others unintentionally in homes or other settings are rising.
“A 6 year old gaining access to a loaded gun and shooting him/herself or someone else, sadly, is not so rare,” he said in an email.
In the Newport News case, Police Chief Steve Drew said Friday that the teacher suffered life-threatening injuries but that her condition had improved somewhat by late Friday afternoon. He said the shooting didn’t appear to be an accident and that it was isolated to the single victim. He said the student and teacher had known each other in a classroom setting.
“We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting,” Drew told reporters.
He said the boy had a handgun in the classroom, and investigators were trying to figure out where he obtained it.
Parents and students were reunited at a gymnasium door, Newport News Public Schools said via Facebook.
The police chief did not specifically address questions about whether authorities were in touch with the boy’s parents, but said members of the police department were handling that investigation.
“We have been in contact with our commonwealth’s attorney (local prosecutor) and some other entities to help us best get services to this young man,” Drew said.
Newport News is a city of about 185,000 people in southeastern Virginia known for its shipyard, which builds the nation’s aircraft carriers and other U.S. Navy vessels.
Richneck has about 550 students who are in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to the Virginia Department of Education’s website. School officials have already said that there will be no classes at the school on Monday.
“Today our students got a lesson in gun violence,” said George Parker III, Newport News schools superintendent, “and what guns can do to disrupt, not only an educational environment, but also a family, a community.”
Virginia law does not allow 6-year-olds to be tried as adults.
In addition, a 6-year-old is too young to be committed to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice if found guilty.
A juvenile judge would have authority, though, to revoke a parent’s custody and place a child under the purview of the Department of Social Services.
___ Associated Press Writer Matthew Barakat in Falls Church contributed to this report.
UPDATE – Roanoke Police have determined that there is no evidence to support the initial claims of a shooting or shots fired regarding this offense.
Further investigation into this incident revealed that no evidence of a shooting was located at the scene. After a thorough medical examination, it was discovered that there was also a lack of physical evidence to support the claims of a gunshot wound. Additionally, the victim’s statements to Detectives and Officers revealed a lack of any evidence that the injury he sustained was the result of a gunshot or any type of assault.
As previously stated, the man was extremely uncooperative and initially refused to provide any identifying information to first responders. Detectives were eventually able to accurately identify the man and found that he was wanted on felony charges from Virginia Beach, VA. Upon release from the hospital, the man was arrested and he was taken to jail.
This incident is no longer active and has been closed.
Robert Daniel Quarles, 57, of Vinton, VA (Bedford County), was arrested on January 4, 2023, after an investigation by Bedford County Sheriff’s Office Investigators assigned to the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Other participating Task Force agencies involved in the investigation included the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Homeland Security. Quarles is currently being held without bond on the following charges:
(22) counts of 18.2-374.1.1 – Possession, reproduction, distribution, solicitation, and facilitation of child pornography.
On December 31, 2022 at approximately 11:10 p.m., Roanoke Police were notified by the City of Roanoke E-911 Center of 2 people with gunshot wounds in the 2800 block of Melrose Ave NW. Responding Officers located 2 juvenile victims outside and inside of a business in the area. The injuries are serious but do not appear to be life-threatening. Roanoke Fire-EMS transported the juveniles for treatment at a local hospital.
Further details about what led to the shooting are limited. No suspects were located on scene and no arrests have been made at this time. This is an ongoing investigation. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call(540)344-8500 and share what you know. You can also text us at 274637; please begin the text with “RoanokePD” to ensure it’s properly sent. Both calls and texts can remain anonymous.