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A man is dead and two Altavista police officers are on administrative leave following a shooting at an Altavista home Monday night.
The two officers fatally shot Michael Long, 57, of Hurt, after he pointed a gun at them, said Chief Thomas Neal in a news release.
The officers responded to 1524A Main St. for a report of shots fired around 8:39 p.m.
When they arrived, Long confronted them with a shotgun, the release said. The officers ordered him to drop the weapon several times. He turned and pointed the shotgun at them, and both officers fired.
Also injured was a 17-year-old woman. She was transported to Lynchburg General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The Virginia State Police have been called in to investigate the circumstances leading to the fatal shooting, said Sgt. David Cooper. Both officers have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
“This is domestic-related,” Cooper said. “The deceased was related to several occupants in the trailer.”
Cooper said the circumstances surrounding the teenager’s injuries are under investigation.
Altavista’s Police Chief Thomas Neal said he will not comment any further at this time.
Corey Kidd, 18, said he was in the home at the time of the shooting. He said his grandparents live there, and the 17-year-old injured Monday night is his girlfriend.
Kidd, who was interviewed by WSLS outside the house Tuesday morning, said he ran from the home and called 911 after Long showed up with what Kidd described as a 12-gauge shotgun. He said he knew Long, his girlfriend’s father, and said his behavior was completely out of character.
Kidd said that after the two officers arrived, they yelled for Long to drop the gun at least three times.
Neighbor Elizabeth Lee found three bullet holes along the hallway of her house, and one went all the way through and into her bedroom. She was in the living room when the shooting happened.
“I just heard what felt like an explosion in my trailer,” Lee said on Tuesday. “That’s what I heard. Then I heard screaming down there, call 911, and then someone just screaming, my daddy, my daddy. It scared me to death.”
Aimee Norton of WSLS Newschannel 10 contributed.
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Reader Reactions
Where in this story or in the news was it even said if the man that was shot was white or black or purple for that fact??? Race has nothing to do with this story, just some one trying to get something started race wise. I also don’t see how this was anyways related to the other people mentioned in these comments. If there is indeed someone monitoring the comments then they also need to wake up and get with the program . There is enough going on in the world no to get something started by wild comments on a sad story.
I don’t see why race is even brought into this. I don’t care if the man was white, black, or purple. You point a loaded gun at the police and you are going to be shot. Here’s hoping the Police Officer’s are reinstated quickly. After all, they were doing their job, which is not easy.
where’s the public outcry from the white community that a white person was gunned down by police? where’s hate mongerer Garnell Stamp, a leader in the spreading of ignorance, critizing the police and demanding jobs and planning marches, that’s right Stamp is only concerned about his own race and it’s only the police’s fault if they are black, and that’s with the media as well. Even though the situations are similar both Long and Beard were in the wrong when it came to their actions toward the police, but as I said earlier Stamp and his moronic followers only concern theirselves with their own. Along wit that this story will be dropped by the media within a week, because there is also reverse racism within the news media when it comes to police violence on whites as opposed to blacks, example where’s the follow up story to the game warden shooting and killing the young man who was white? however we were bombarded by stories from News Advance and WSET for MONTHS about a man named beard that decieded to fight the police, from a community of liars in the greenfield apartments, and wanna be leader Sharptons like Stamp.
I expect their to be a committee formed with tax payer money to address the current situation of white race relations with the police and how they can be improved, and have a race awarness day set up in the future so we can discuss this situation of a person pointing a gun at the police and how it was the police’s fault….somehow.
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