Culpeper officer charged in woman’s shooting

 CULPEPER, Va. (AP) —  A Culpeper police officer was indicted Tuesday in the fatal shooting of a woman.

Virginia State Police said Daniel Harmon-Wright, 32, of Gainesville, was charged with murder and other gun charges in the Feb. 9 shooting of 54-year-old Patricia Ann Cook.

A Jeep Wrangler on East Street in Culpeper is draped in sheets after the woman driving it was shot and killed by a town police officer in February. The Virginia State Police is investigating the shooting. DONNIE JOHNSTON/THE FREE LANCE-STAR

A prosecutor appointed to investigate the shooting asked the special investigative grand jury to look into the case. Police say the shooting occurred after the officer responded to a report of a suspicious woman in a vehicle in a church parking lot. Harmon-Wright was talking to Cook when she closed the driver’s side window suddenly while trying to get her identification.

State police said Cook drove off with the officer’s arm trapped in the window and refused his commands to stop. He then shot her and the vehicle crashed.

“Without commenting on the particulars of the investigation, over the course of the month of May, this special investigative grand jury heard from more than 45 witnesses, received more than 100 separate exhibits and were presented with reams of documentary evidence,” Fauquier County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Fisher said in a statement.

Virginia State Police investigated the shooting at the request of the Town of Culpeper police chief.

Fisher and a state police spokeswoman refused to comment further before an evening news conference.