[Posted Dec. 7, 2007]

Commonwealth Attorney
Speaks With Family Of
Man Slain By Police

Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal & Guide
  
       It will be at least a month before the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office will determine  if it will file criminal charges or clear the Norfolk police officers who were  involved in the shooting death of 21-year-old  James Dennis  on October 31.
       That is what the family  of the  dead man was told by the Norfolk Commonwealth Attorney Jack Doyle during a  private meeting with  Dennis’ family in Doyle’s office mid-afternoon Monday, December 3.
       The family has questioned the police account that Dennis provoked the shooting which took place in the Stony Point Section of Norfolk
       According to the NPD, Dennis pointed a gun at them, causing their reaction. But James Gorham, Dennis’ father, in a statement to the press on Monday, said, “I will never believe my son pointed a gun at police.” He further states that his “son’s firearm was legal and registered.”
       Gorham has told the local media that he has made contact with “several credible witnesses” who say they saw his son in “the surrendering position with his back to the police” and not confronting the officers.
       “The last time I checked it was not a crime for a Black man to carry a legally registered firearm,” Mr. Gorham said in the statement released on his family’s behalf by the  Newtown Cultural Life Center. The center, which is near the site of the shooting, is run by Pastor Joe Flores.

      Flores  told the New Journal and Guide that his church has sought to support  Dennis’ family “during this very trying time.”
       Flores said that shortly after Dennis’ shooting, his church sponsored a community forum attended by over 100 concerned citizens  to discuss the issues of crime, violence and police relations in the Black community, especially around the Lake Edwards and  Stony Point communities which are among the heaviest concentrations of Blacks on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk border.
       Flores, who has been struggling to keep  the Newtown Cultural Life Center open in recent years, says that he has talked with officials from both cities about investing funding in both communities to deter youth violence.
       Amanda  Howie, a spokesperson for the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office,  said the “preliminary” meeting on Monday was a courtesy intended to  “talk to them (the immediate family)  about the process, our role in the  investigation and to put to arrest any rumors and confusion” which may have arisen as the family awaits the outcome of the investigation.
       Howie said that the Commonwealth’s Attorney is awaiting ballistics information related to the fatal  shooting
         In the Norfolk Police Department’s account of the incident,  two uniformed officers who were investigating an unrelated complaint at Smitty’s Mobile Home Park in the 660 block of Virginia Beach Blvd.,  said they heard gunshots coming from a section of a nearby neighborhood and headed to the scene on foot.
        The officer said  that Dennis, known by family and friends as “Gucci” was standing in the 700 block of Stanwix Square actively firing a weapon at an unknown target.
      The report said the officers then verbally challenged Dennis to put down his weapon, at which time, he turned and pointed the weapon at the officers, and that’s when  they fired, killing Dennis at the scene.
       “We have tried to talk to the city of Norfolk about this incident, and we still believe there are some very critical questions which have not been answered by the city officials,” said Rev. Flores. 
“Why was the young man’s life taken. If he was surrendering to the police why was he shot to death. What was he shooting at? And finally why are Norfolk and other police so quick to use deadly force against African American men?”

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