Fatal police shooting of Chesterfield lawyer ruled justified

“My finding was that it was a justifiable shooting and the police had reason to believe” the lawyer’s actions would have resulted in death or serious injury to the officers who responded, Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert said.

Richard C. Ferris II was fatally shot after he twice engaged SWAT team officers with two guns from the garage of his home in the 11200 block of Timber Point Drive, Ebert said. He died of two gunshot wounds to his chest, Ebert said.

His wife, four children and two children of family members had left the home uninjured earlier in the standoff.

Ferris was well-known in the Chestefield legal community and was representing law enforcement officers in an overtime dispute against the county, though that had no apparent connection to events the night of his death.

Ebert said Ferris’ wife reported that her husband appeared to be suicidal that evening and had taken an excessive amount of Alprazolam with at least six beers. A toxicology test revealed that Ferris had 0.36 milligrams of the drug in his system.

“According to the toxicologist, that’s three to four times the normal dosage which one might expect to find in a person who would be medicated professionally,” Ebert said.

In a text message to his wife that night, Ferris “claimed he had drank six beers in addition to taking 50 pills. She also saw two empty pill bottles on the floor in his office,” Ebert said.

Ferris told his wife that he was tired of living, Ebert said.

Ebert said Michelle Ferris initially called police just before midnight Jan. 27 to report her husband might be suicidal, Ebert said.

He had locked himself in an upstairs office, adjacent to a gun room where he kept dozens of weapons. Ferris was a collector and a federally licensed gun dealer.

Mrs. Ferris eventually gained access with a key.

“He became upset with the fact that she had called police,” Ebert said.

When officers arrived, they heard what sounded like gunfire, and investigators later determined that a shot had been fired in a hallway near the children’s room, Ebert said.

“It was kind of on an angle into the ceiling,” the prosecutor said.

At about 3 a.m., police negotiators were finally able to convince Mrs. Ferris to leave with her four children and two relative’s children. Negotiators then repeatedly tried making contact with Ferris throughout the night.

“They tried cell phone, they tried a bull horn... (but) they never got any dialogue established with him,” Ebert said.

Police then tried forcing him out by firing tear gas into each level of the three-story home.

At about 7:30 a.m., Ferris appeared at the doorway of his house leading to an attached garage, and fired “a number of shots” from a 9 mm pistol at three officers stationed just outside the garage, Ebert said. Police have said eight shots were fired.

“One of those officers had gotten behind a car that was apparently parked in the driveway, and a number of the shots hit that,” Ebert said. Officers returned fire, but apparently didn’t hit Ferris. He retreated but then returned 12 minutes later and brandished a different gun -– a .45 caliber pistol -- and was fatally shot by officers after he was told to drop the weapon.

"Apparently he emptied the first gun and went and got another," Ebert said, although there was no ammunition in the second gun.

Later, after police entered the home, they found “three automatic weapons in a position to be used” in Ferris' office, Ebert said.

At the time of his death, Ferris was preparing to file a lawsuit on behalf of 70 Chesterfield law enforcement officers -– mostly sheriff’s deputies -– in an action alleging the county has refused to properly compensate its deputies and officers for the overtime hours they work under a 2005 state law that sets the rate.

Ferris was to have filed the suit on the day he was killed, according to the lead plaintiff.

Since then, Ferris' wife, also an attorney, has taken up the case and filed the suit March 25.

The suit seeks an amount “potentially exceeding $5 million” -- or alternately, the total amount of unpaid overtime that eventually is determined, plus interest. The suit also seeks $350,000 in punitive damages for the county's alleged misconduct in ignoring state law.

Earlier this month, Ebert subpoenaed Ferris’s wife, his mother, sister and a family friend after Ebert said they refused to cooperate with his investigation on the advice of their counsel.

Lawyers Denis and Margaret Englisby, who are representing Michelle Ferris, instructed them not to talk unless the Englisbys could interview Chesterfield police about their actions during the standoff.

Englisby has said he wants to interview officers involved in the standoff to determine whether he has grounds to file a wrongful death suit against Chesterfield police on Mrs. Ferris’ behalf.

Ebert said the family members were compelled to testify before a multijurisdictional grand jury April 11.

(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available.)