TheAgitator.com
Correction to My Coverage of the Chesapeake Drug Raid
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008This morning, I drove down to Chesapeake to do some reporting on the drug raid in which Det. Jarrod Shivers was shot and killed while serving a drug warrant on Ryan Frederick.
I spoke with friends, co-workers, and neighbors of Frederick, as well as some people around Chesapeake. Lots of interesting stuff came out. I’ll have more on my trip in a bit, but first I need to make a correction.
In this post, I wrote that the police at one point said Det. Jarrod Shivers was crawling through Ryan Frederick’s lower door panel when he was shot. In this one, I referred to that same scenario as if it were undisputed. Actually, exactly where Shivers was when he was shot is a major point of contention right now. Reader Loren Collins emailed me on Friday to say he couldn’t find in any coverage of the raid where the police, city, or prosecutor say Shivers was coming through the panel when he was shot. Looking back, I can’t either. It’s mentioned several times in comments threads, both at Hit & Run and at the Virginian-Pilot. But it hasn’t been reported by any local media.
The unlikely "crawling through the door" scenario seems to be a twisted version of events culled from Ryan Frederick’s jailhouse interview, in which he said someone was pushing through one of the lower door panels when he fired his gun. That seems to be consistent with the fact that police left a battering ram at the scene. I also spoke with a neighbor of Frederick’s today who told me the lower panels to Frederick’s door were indeed broken in (the police confiscated the door shortly after the raid).
But it was incorrect for me to attribute that account of events to the police or city officials. Moreover, even Frederick’s account of events didn’t identify the officer coming through the panel as Shivers, nor did he describe that officer as "crawling"—he said they were "pushing through" the panels.
I don’t think this really effects the debate over Frederick’s justification in shooting Shivers one way or the other. But I would like to correct my error.
So my apologies. I should have been more vigilant about double-checking an assumption that somehow crept into my understanding of the case before I reported it. In addition to this post, I’ll add an addendum to both prior posts.
[...] Shivers was shot as “he was crawling through a door panel” is incorrect. Explanation here. Digg it | reddit | del.icio.us | [...]
I was wondering about that after the prosecutor said shivers was standing “basically” in the yard. If this poor kid shot through the door as they were busting it in, then it was one hell of an unlucky shot (on both parties) that managed to go through the door and hit the only spot on the officers torso where it could have killed him. Especially considering how small a caliber of the weapon used.
I’ve still got my fingers crossed for this kid. Keep up the good reporting Balko.
Has any formal source identified the caliber of bullet removed from Shivers?
That’s why I respect you as a journalist and a blogger. Thanks for the update and the clarification.
—
I’m visiting my brother and his family in Norfolk this weekend, and they had not heard anything alternative that would make Fredericks appear justified. Maybe they’ll reconsider other options. Keep up the good work.
“(the police confiscated the door shortly after the raid).”
Thank God BATF or FBI isn’t involved. The door might not “disappear” as the door did in Waco. I suspect the door is going to be a major piece of evidence.
I know I have said this before but here it goes again. Thank you Mr. Balko for having the decency to not only review your own work but to make corrections to it, and noting them, when necessary. Keep up the good work.
A poster to one of the stories on the Virginian Pilot said the bullet killing Shivers was .38 caliber. I have not seen this information anywhere else and it’s not been publicly released in the area. The person posting the information did not offer any citation/source.
i grew up in the tidewater area out of all the cities cheaspeak is the worst their cops have no respect for people at all its why i refuse to live in Va now ive never been in jail but i have had cheaspeak cops pull me over for saying my lisence plate was dirty jerk me out of a car take my Dl toss it into a ditch
ive seen them raid cars and remove every thing in them and scatter them all over parking lots
and we dont even want to go into how bad they will lie in court they will make up a story just to have a 17 year old busted for traffic so im sure they will hang this kid out to dry i would never ever trust a cop in cheaspeak Va and im in my 50 now these things i remember from being a kid in the 70 in western branch
It was a .32 cal.