CHESAPEAKE, Va. – A Chesapeake sheriff’s deputy is showing signs of improvement after he was critically wounded in a deadly shootout with a fugitive in Hampton Wednesday.
The Chesapeake Sheriff’s Office said Thursday that Deputy Scott Chambers, 55, is awake and talking.
Deputy Chambers is also an investigator with the U.S. Marshals Task Force. He’s been a part of the team for 18 months.
Chesapeake Sheriff Jim O’Sullivan said the line of work on the U.S. Marshals Task Force is extremely dangerous. The task force is made up of law enforcement agencies from across Hampton Roads who track down wanted suspects.
The agents are constantly on the hunt for the worst fugitives to get them off the street and behind bars, but situations can change in an instant.
“When you get a task force together, they share all the information, which makes it a lot easier to bounce from one jurisdiction to another,” O’Sullivan said. “That team is going after the most dangerous and difficult people in Hampton Roads.”
The U.S. Marshals Task Force team was following a dangerous fugitive’s car on Big Bethel Road in Hampton Wednesday. They pulled the car over to arrest Lamont Lewis, a homicide suspect accused of killing his wife Tivona Fogg on Christmas Day.
As agents were walking up to the car Lewis was a passenger in, police say Lewis suddenly began firing at them. Task force officers returned fire killing the suspect.
As the shootout unfolded in the middle of the intersection at Big Bethel Road and Todds Lane, Deputy Chambers was shot twice.
O’Sullivan said tracking the fugitive down in his car instead of at his home was a safer bet.
“You don't want any collateral damage,” he said. “It’s very difficult a lot of times serving warrants in people’s houses. They can be barricaded in there, have firearms in there, other individuals in there. Everything we do in serving warrants is dangerous.”
O’Sullivan would know just how dangerous the job is. He used to be a part of the U.S. Marshals Task Force.
He said whether agents are arresting dangerous suspects or even serving court papers, the situation can turn violent in a split second.
“When you’re going after an individual that murdered his wife on Christmas Day and he’s been on the run and evasive and you know he’s a danger to society, this is about as dangerous as it gets,” O’Sullivan said.
The sheriff said last year, the task force arrested 35 fugitives who were wanted for homicides.
