Affidavit: Man killed by Hopewell police shouted he had killed his wife, wanted to kill himself

Hopewell officers opened fire on the man, later identified as Gary E. Lee, 54, after he pointed the gun-like object in their direction and made “threatening gestures toward the officers,” according to police and an affidavit used to obtain a warrant to search the man’s SUV.

Hours after the shooting, Virginia State Police agents who had been called to assist in the investigation discovered the bloodied body of Lee’s wife, Carol E. Lee, in Room 131 at the Value Place Inn at 255 Jennick Drive in Colonial Heights, according to an affidavit used to obtain a warrant to search the motel room.

A knife with a fixed blade and a boxed knife set were recovered from Lee’s 2007 Mazda SUV, according to the search warrant inventory.

No firearm was listed among the items seized from the vehicle or the couple’s motel room, and police have declined to say whether they recovered a gun similar to the one that Hopewell officers believed Lee had pointed at them. A cane was among the items recovered from Lee’s vehicle.

Police have not disclosed how they believe Carol Lee died, although a police investigator wrote in one of two affidavits that she was murdered. A spokesman for the state medical examiner’s office did not return messages seeking the cause and manner of the woman’s death.

The affidavits say that Hopewell police officers responded at 10:13 a.m. Monday for a report of an accident in the 4700 block of Western Street, across from the Hopewell Moose Lodge. When they arrived, they found the Mazda SUV on the side of railroad tracks that run parallel to Western Street with a man sitting in the driver’s seat.

“The driver was described to have a black long gun and was shouting that he wanted to kill himself and that he had killed his wife in Colonial Heights,” Virginia State Police Agent J.M. Gunderson wrote in the affidavit.

Hopewell officers negotiated with the man for more than an hour and contacted state police at 11:04 a.m. for assistance and to send additional negotiators, the affidavit says.

But before state police arrived, Hopewell officers “began to approach the subject to offer assistance” and the driver “pointed what was believed to be a black long gun in their direction,” Gunderson wrote. The three Hopewell officers then shot and killed the man.

During the initial stages of the investigation police learned that Gary Lee was wanted for a probation violation related to prescription drug fraud in Richmond.

Investigators seized a cellphone and Kindle tablet from his vehicle to determine whether those items were used “to leave a suicide letter and or correspondence to validate his mental state” during his encounter with the Hopewell officers, the affidavit says.

Police learned where Lee and his wife were staying by running a check of his vehicle, which produced a Richmond apartment address and addresses of extended stay hotels in Alexandria and Chesterfield County. The Richmond apartment was vacant, so agents went to local extended-stay hotels in the Colonial Heights area and found that the couple had been staying at the Value Place Inn, the affidavit says.

From the Lees’ motel room, police recovered bedding, medication, a document and “electronics.”

“The items within the residence may have a direct relationship to the shooting that took place this morning (in Hopewell) and the murder that took place within the hotel room,” Gunderson wrote.

State police will turn over the results of their investigation, once completed, to Hopewell Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Newman for review and final disposition.