Culpeper Police Officer Indicted in Fatal Shooting

A Culpeper police officer has been indicted in a fatal February shooting. A special investigative grand jury indicted Daniel Harmon-Wright, 32, of Gainesville, charging him with one count of murder, malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle, malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle resulting in a death, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Harmon-Wright turned himself in to State Police without incident late Tuesday evening. He is being held at the Fauquier County Adult Detention Center without bond pending a June 8 hearing in Culpeper County Circuit Court.
The special investigative grand jury was convened at the request of the special prosecutor appointed to the case, Fauquier County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Fisher.
“Without commenting on the particulars of the investigation, over the course of the month of May, this special investigative grand jury heard from more than 45 witnesses, received more than 100 separate exhibits and was presented with reams of documentary evidence,” said Fisher.
In addition, the special investigative grand jury also handed up three counts of uttering and three counts of forgery of public documents against Harmon-Wright’s mother, Bethany P. Sullivan, 55, of Orange, Va. Through the course of the special grand jury’s investigation into the shooting incident, evidence came to light concerning Ms. Sullivan’s role in forging public records in an attempt to purge Harmon-Wright’s personnel file of negative information.
Ms. Sullivan was employed as an administrative secretary to the chief of police at the time of Harmon-Wright’s hiring as a police officer. Ms. Sullivan left the police department in 2010.
Ms. Sullivan was taken into custody without incident late Tuesday night and was released on an unsecured bond of $5,000 per count.
The shooting incident occurred at about 10 a.m. Feb. 9, when the officer shot Patricia A. Cook, 54, of Culpeper. The shooting occurred during an apparent traffic stop in the 300 block of North East Street in Culpeper.
The Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Culpeper Field Office’s Police Shooting Investigation Team conducted the investigation at the request of the Town of Culpeper Police chief