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Norfolk officer set to defend himself in $2.5M lawsuit over fatal shooting of mentally ill man

Virginian-Pilot - 3/21/2017

March 20--NORFOLK -- A Norfolk police officer stands trial Tuesday because he shot and killed a 72-year-old mentally ill man armed with a knife three years ago, and the man's family wants $2.5 million.

Officer Carl Leo Seger will walk into a Norfolk courtroom to defend himself against accusations that he was reckless when he shot Lawrence Faine on June 4, 2014, inside his apartment in the Calvary Towers complex of East Virginia Beach Boulevard near Tidewater Drive.

In September 2014, Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Underwood decided not to prosecute Seger, a 32-year veteran, determining that he had to shoot Faine to protect himself and others.

But according to Faine's family, Seger could have avoided the situation that forced him to shoot.

Seger knew he was about to confront a man suffering from severe mental illness, the lawsuit says. But "he forced his way into the apartment of a mentally ill man relying on only one tool to solve a problem: his gun," attorney Bob Haddad wrote.

Seger said he didn't know about the severity of Faine's mental illness, according to court documents. But he knew a magistrate had ordered him to arrest Faine and take him to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where he could get help.

Seger said he tried to talk with Faine, but the man pulled a knife and threatened him with it, forcing the officer to fire.

"I acted in self-defense," Seger said in his response to the lawsuit.

Apartment manager Sparkle Harris was right behind him. During her January deposition, Harris said she tried to go to Faine so she could calm him down when Seger said Faine had a knife. But, she added, the officer blocked her to keep her safe.

"When he said it the first time, it was, like, everybody went silent. I stopped speaking. Mr. Faine, who was ... muttering things at the same time, stopped speaking as well, and the room went quiet for a second."

Seger ordered Faine to drop the knife as he pulled his gun, Harris said. Then he repeated the order.

"By the time he finished the second sentence, I saw a flash," Harris said, adding that she then looked at Faine. "I remember seeing blood on his chest and -- or just seeing blood and seeing his face before I ran.

"This was the most traumatic experience of my life."

One of the main areas Haddad explores in questioning Seger, Harris and Seger's partner, Officer Ann Wright, under oath was the fact that no one crafted a plan in case Faine attacked or wouldn't come willingly.

The two officers should have, especially Seger, the one who actually went to detain Faine, Haddad said.

Faine's family isn't satisfied with going after Seger in civil court. On Sept. 2, Haddad wrote to Mayor Kenny Alexander and the other City Council members, pushing them to launch a new investigation into the shooting with help from the state police.

Haddad said a video from the hallway outside Faine's apartment, which he provided to The Virginian-Pilot, is inconsistent with what Wright told homicide detectives hours after the shooting. The video reveals "serious discrepancies" between what happened and the "facts" Norfolk's top prosecutor relied on to determine the shooting was justified, he said.

Faine was coming at Seger with a knife, and the officer had to protect himself and the two people behind him, the apartment complex manager and his partner, Underwood wrote in his announcement that he wasn't prosecuting.

But Seger said he never knew his partner was behind him, according to a transcript of his deposition in August. Contrary to Underwood's report, the video shows that when he entered Faine's apartment, Wright was 50 feet down the hall talking with workers from Adult Protective Services and the Community Services Board near some elevators.

Wright told detectives she saw Harris waving for her to come quickly, so she ran down the hall and into the room. But the manager never waves for help in the video, and Harris said she never called for or tried to hail Wright in her Jan. 5 deposition.

As Seger goes in, Wright starts walking, not running, to Faine's doorway and gets there about 10 seconds later, roughly a second before shots are fired. Moreover, Wright never enters Faine's apartment, getting only as far as the threshold before she retreats.

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Faine apartment

* Courtesy Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk's Office.

Norfolk Police Department photograph of Lawrence Faine's apartment after Officer Carl Seger shot Faine dead on June 4, 2014 in the Calvary Towers apartment building.

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Faine knife

* Courtesy Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk

Norfolk Police Department photograph of the knife Lawrence Faine had when he was shot by Officer Carl Seger on June 4. 2014 in his apartment at Calvary Towers.

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addasset json ec666c93-689c-5429-916d-3c54e0ae8058 editorial true images Save

Police photos from inside the apartment

Faine apartment

* Courtesy Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk's Office.

Norfolk Police Department photograph of Lawrence Faine's apartment after Officer Carl Seger shot Faine dead on June 4, 2014 in the Calvary Towers apartment building.

Faine knife

* Courtesy Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk

Norfolk Police Department photograph of the knife Lawrence Faine had when he was shot by Officer Carl Seger on June 4. 2014 in his apartment at Calvary Towers.

"This is very troubling for the family, and it is very upsetting to them to read about the steps the City has taken for future police shootings when they know of all the inconsistencies in the investigation," Haddad says in the letter to Norfolk leaders. After taking office in the summer, Alexander pledged that all future police shootings would be turned over to the state police for investigation.

"Why can't we have the state police look at this again?" Haddad asked in a November phone interview.

Because, Deputy City Attorney Mike Beverly said in response, none of the issues Haddad raises warrants reopening the investigation. Officials knew about all of them two years ago. They had access to the video when they investigated and reviewed what happened.

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