Cop Shot To Death
Ken [NY)
Virginia Beach, VA - 6/24/2003
Virginian Pilot
By MATTHEW JONES AND KATE WILTROUT
A police officer was killed early Monday morning after a traffic stop
turned into a shootout on Dam Neck Road.
It was the department's first fatality in almost 12 years and the
first shooting death of a Virginia Beach police officer in almost 22
years.
The fallen officer, Rodney F. Pocceschi, 33, leaves behind his wife,
Maria, and their 9-month-old son, Carson.
``Today is an especially sad day for the city of Virginia Beach and
for the police department,'' said Police Chief A.M. ``Jake'' Jacocks
Jr. at a press conference Monday afternoon.
A suspect -- LeKeith Devon Speller, 21, of the 600 block of Governors
Way -- also was killed in the shootout.
The incident occurred at about 3:25 a.m., just west of Harpers Road,
when Pocceschi stopped a Ford Explorer traveling west on Dam Neck.
Police believe Speller was driving with passenger Shawn Anthony Zhe,
21, of the 900 block of Maximus Square. Police said the pair had
robbed an IHOP restaurant on General Booth Boulevard five minutes
earlier.
Investigators think a store employee, Christina Marie Tatem, 18, let
Speller into the restaurant through a back door. Speller, wearing a
mask, then held the manager and two other employees at gunpoint and
demanded money, said police spokesman Mike Carey.
Though the restaurant was open at the time, there were no customers
inside. No one was injured, and the two men drove away with Speller at
the wheel, police said.
Pocceschi most likely stopped the Explorer for a traffic violation,
such as speeding, Carey said. No one in the store saw the getaway
vehicle so police had no description to broadcast.
After Pocceschi stopped the Explorer and started to approach it,
Speller got out and showed a gun, Carey said. The two men exchanged
gunfire and both were wounded. Police did not say who fired first.
A 16-year-old boy on his way home from fishing was the first passer-by
after the shooting. He tried to help Pocceschi and flagged down a
passing K-9 officer who was on his way to the IHOP robbery scene.
The K-9 officer and another patrol officer, who arrived soon after,
continued trying to resuscitate their colleague.
Speller was pronounced dead at the scene. Pocceschi was taken to
Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead
at 4:05 a.m.
Zhe was still on the scene when the officers arrived. He and Tatem
were charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit a robbery and using a
firearm during a felony. They are both being held without bond in the
city jail.
Rodney Pocceschi, a Pennsylvania native, joined the Beach force in
August 1999, after serving with the Bloomsburg University police
department in Bloomsburg, Pa. He was assigned to the 4th Precinct in
Kempsville, where he spent about two years in the community policing
unit.
``It was, quite frankly, a position he excelled in,'' said Lt. Douglas
Backman, his former supervisor. ``He was a people person. He thrived
on interaction.''
Last year, Pocceschi was awarded the department's special commendation
award for his work in the Cedarwood section of Green Run, where he
helped a neighborhood project that focused on blighted housing.
``He was project-oriented and tenacious,'' said Backman. ``If there
was a problem, he'd hang with it until it was resolved.''
Pocceschi transferred to the department's special operations group
early this month. He was part of the selective enforcement unit, which
focuses on drunken drivers and speeders.
Months earlier, he had stepped down from community policing and
returned to patrol work to make it easier for his replacement, Backman
said. ``He was all for the team,'' he said.
Capt. Steven C. Smith, the 4th Precinct commander, agreed.
``Obviously, he died a hero,'' he said, ``but I would submit that he
lived as a hero as well.''
He is the first Beach police officer killed in the line of duty since
auxiliary officer George Starr in 1991. Starr was hit by a speeder
after stopping to help with a traffic incident on what is now
Interstate 264.
The region's most recent police death came in January, when Norfolk
police officer Sheila Herring was shot during a gunfight outside a
sports bar.
The last Virginia Beach officer to die from gunfire was Daniel T.
Maloney, shot by an escaped Maryland rapist in 1981.
Shawn Anthony Zhe said the robbery was Speller's idea.
In an interview at the city jail Monday evening, he claimed he first
learned about the plan as he and Speller drove to the IHOP that
morning. Zhe said he refused to take part and stayed in the Explorer.
``I told him I didn't want to waste my life,'' Zhe said.
After the robbery, Speller jumped into the truck, and they sped away.
Everything after that happened quickly, he said.
Zhe said he remembered his friend reaching into his pants legs and
pulling out a wad of money, which he held up to the truck's interior
light. ``Man, I'm rich!'' Zhe recalled him saying.
The next thing he knew, Zhe said, there were police lights behind
them, and Speller was talking about jumping out, screaming, ``I gotta
shoot! I gotta shoot!''
Zhe said he pleaded with his friend, telling him it wasn't worth it.
Next, Zhe said, he heard gunshots and then his friend shouting,
``Shawn, help me! Shawn, help me! Put me in the car! Let's go!''
Zhe said he replied, ``There's nothing I can do, man. There's nothing
I can do.''
At this point, Zhe said, both Speller and Pocceschi were lying in Dam
Neck Road, mortally wounded. Zhe said he saw no need to run from the
scene and claimed he helped flag down the passing officers.
Now, with his best friend gone, Zhe said he has had a chance to replay
the incident in his mind.
``I could see he didn't want to do it,'' he said of Speller. ``I could
see it in his heart, face, body he didn't want to do it, but he felt
he was trapped.
``I think he was just fed up. When people come to the end of their
rope, they'll do anything.''
Speller was facing felony charges for assault and battery of a police
officer stemming from an incident on Dec. 30, 2002, when he was cited
for driving without headlights, resisting arrest and disregarding a
traffic signal.
When Speller failed to appear in court May 5, a judge issued a warrant
for his arrest. He was also wanted for a probation violation.
Jacocks said Speller had six previous felony convictions. Court
records show he pleaded guilty in May 2000 to two counts of statutory
burglary, one count of attempted statutory burglary and one count of
attempted grand larceny.
Speller's aunt, Mary Kee, said Monday evening the family was still
waiting for details about the shootings.
Relatives said they don't know if Speller had been shot multiple
times, whether he spoke to Zhe after being shot, and if he was still
alive when others arrived at the scene.
``We have a lot of questions they haven't answered,'' Kee said.
``Keith was a person, too. He was a human. We want to know what
happened, and how.''
Standing outside her mother's house on Governors Way, as family and
friends poured into the townhouse and its back yard, Kee offered
condolences to Pocceschi's grieving family.
Kee said her mother -- Speller's grandmother -- raised LeKeith from
the time he was a baby. He was quiet and goodhearted, quick to say
``please'' and ``thank you,'' she said.
Kee said her mother wanted to see Speller's body but that police
refused Monday.
Police gave Speller's last known address as Governors Way, but Kee
said her nephew hadn't lived there lately. The family hadn't seen him
for a few months, she said, and didn't know where he'd been staying.
She described Speller as a music-lover with an artistic streak. She
said she didn't know anything about Zhe or Tatem.
But a couple down the street said they remembered Zhe lived on the
same street about five or six years ago. Leo and Theresa Haynes said
they were trying to get Zhe's mother involved in their church.
``We always remember Shawn to be a very angry young man,'' Leo Haynes
said.
The couple was surprised to learn that LeKeith had lived down the
street.
``Small world, I guess,'' said Theresa Haynes. ``It's so tragic that
so much badness continues.''
The neighborhood, across Holland Road from a Kmart Super Center, has
suffered its share of tragedies.
In 1997, Beach police shot and killed 19-year-old Bryan E. Dugan at
Governors Way and Counselor Lane. Police said Dugan lunged at them
with a knife after a brief pursuit. A marble bench inscribed with
Dugan's name sits beneath a tree within view of the Speller home.
In August, on the same street, a 12-year-old boy died after
accidentally being shot in the head by a 15-year-old boy in the
upstairs bedroom of a Governors Way townhouse.
On Monday, Kee could only concentrate on the latest tragedy.
``I do want to say that I am sorry the other officer was shot and
killed. I can't say I'm mad at him that he shot my nephew. Two lives
are gone, and you can't bring them back,'' she said. ``I pray for his
family, and I pray for mine.''
Ken (NY)
Chairman,
Department Of Redundancy Department
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