HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- Attorney and State Senator Donald McEachin (D - Henrico) is representing a woman who plans to take legal action against the Henrico Police Department for their alleged reckless policing during an officer-involved shooting, according to sources. Kimberly McNeil was shot and injured by a Henrico Police Officer December 15 during an incident on Nine Mile Road.
McNeil, sources said, was a passenger in her boyfriend’s car. They were sitting in a gas station parking lot when the officer came up on the passenger side and asked them to roll down the window. The driver started to pull away from the officer, but McNeil asked him to stop. That is when the officer fired.
McNeil was shot multiple times in her neck and hands, sources said.
The officer was wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting, Henrico Police spokesman Lt. Chris Eley said. Sources indicated the camera was not active during the shooting. Eley, who said he could not comment due to the on-going investigation, said it was department policy that officers turn on their body camera when responding to all suspicious vehicle calls.
"[The officer] observed the vehicle parked on the lot and he approached the vehicle to determine what was going on at 10:30 at night," Henrico Police spokesman Lt. Chris Eley said the day after the shooting. "He was talking or interacting with driver and the driver put the vehicle into drive and struck the officer. At that point he [the officer] discharged his firearm."
As of Wednesday, the driver of the car has not yet been charged with a crime.
On Saturday, demonstrators gathered to demand justice for McNeil.
"We want to know his [the police officer's] name and we want to see him brought to justice," cousin John McNeil said. "I mean because if it was the other way around, we would be brought to justice."
McNeil's daughter, Octovia McNeil, said her mother received a subpoena to testify before the Multi-Jurisdictional Grand Jury and spoke to Henrico Police detectives Wednesday.
Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Taylor confirmed Kimberly McNeil received the subpoena and did speak to detectives as part of the ongoing criminal investigation, but a decision was made at that time not to send her to the grand jury to testify.
Taylor said the police department is conducting an internal affairs investigation and a criminal investigation related to the incident.
The family said McNeil now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and has been back and forth to the hospital since the incident.
