NORFOLK, Va. — It has been nearly a month since officers with the Norfolk Police Department shot and killed 45-year-old Santonio P. Lee during an exchange of gunfire on Terminal Boulevard.
Lee’s family told me the lack of information they have received from police about what happened to their loved one has left them without closure.
“We just want answers,” said Marcus Jones, Lee’s nephew. “We just want to know what happened and why.”
According to police, officers were attempting to serve Lee with a warrant for a March 8 shooting in Norfolk when he led them on a chase down Terminal Boulevard. The car Lee was driving crashed into a ditch. Police said Lee opened fire on officers, and they returned fire—fatally striking Lee.
“I won’t believe he shot first until I see it,” said Lee’s 16-year-old daughter, Paris Lee, who spoke with me with her mother's permission. “I don’t believe it. That’s not [like] him.”
Lee, a father of three, reunited with Paris and his other children in January after serving 14 years in prison on an involuntary manslaughter charge. Paris told me her father was kind and devoted.
“He was a good dad,” said Paris, who told me she last talked to her father not long before the shooting.
“He came to my school,” she explained. “[He] just told me to stay out of trouble, and he loved me. He gave me a hug and he left.”
"Do you think he was trying to make up for lost time because he was away [for so long]?” I asked.
“Yes," she said. "He was trying his best, and I know he was trying his best.”
By that afternoon, Lee was fighting for his life in a hospital from gunshot wounds from police officers. His family said he died at the hospital.
Norfolk
Wanted man dies after being shot by police following Terminal Blvd car chase: PD
"What happened when you found out [your father died]?” I asked.
“I just kept saying why?" Paris said. "What was the reason?”
Lee’s girlfriend said he was driving her car the day of the shooting. When she surveyed the car later, she found bullet holes in the trunk, the headrest and the back windshield. She also said officers never came to the home, she and Lee shared, to serve a warrant prior to the police chase.
Norfolk police told me there is body-worn camera video of the incident, but that has been turned over to Virginia State Police to conduct an independent investigation—and that could take several weeks to complete before it is turned over to Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi.
Fatehi will determine if the officers’ actions were justified or if they will face criminal charges.
“Once I receive a final report from the [Virginia] State Police and have been able to review the report in full, I contact the family members of the person who died, inform them of my findings, and offer them the opportunity to sit down and go through the evidence with me,” said Fatehi in response to our questions about the family’s concerns over communication from investigators. “If I have concluded that there are no criminal charges to file, I then make a public presentation of my findings.”
Watch previous coverage: Wanted man dies after being shot by police following car chase on Terminal Blvd in Norfolk: Police
“These are serious incidents," Fatehi continued. "I go to [the scenes] personally so that I can make charging decisions not just from a report but from what I saw myself. This process and the waiting it entails is emotionally difficult for family members who want answers, and I feel for them, but it is vital that any answers I provide are as complete and accurate as possible.”
Norfolk police, who shared their Use of Force policy, told me the officers involved in the shooting are on administrative duty. Police also said the department is “unable to respond to questions regarding this incident as that may impact their investigation.”
