Detective shoots man in Pacific East Mall parking lot

A Richmond homicide detective shot a person in the parking lot of the Pacific East Mall in southeast Richmond Thursday afternoon, a police spokesman said.

The person, a 19-year-old white male, was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, but his condition has been upgraded to serious and he is expected to live, Richmond Police Department Captain Mark Gagan said.

About ten minutes after noon the detective, walking toward the mall with another detective, saw a man break the window of a car in the mall parking lot in an apparent burglary and intervened, Gagan said.

The man ran two parking aisles over and got into his own car. The detectives pursued, one standing in front of the car while the other opened the driver’s side door and tried to pull the man out, Gagan said.

The man then put the car in drive. It hit the officer in front, who moved to the side, and briefly carried the officer holding onto the driver’s side door, Gagan said. One detective fired at the man and struck him twice “in the lower extremities,” Gagan said. The man was still able to exit the parking lot “at a high rate of speed,” with the driver’s-side door hanging open.

The man drove onto Pierce Street, hit two parked pickup trucks, and drove one more block before crashing into a fire hydrant.

The entire altercation in the mall parking lot was recorded on security cameras, Gagan said. The two officers have been placed on paid administrative leave, according to policy following an officer-involved shooting, Gagan said.

Gagan said the police “have had a real serious problem with burglaries [from cars] in that parking lot,” with about a dozen or so incidents in the “last few months.” Three burglaries were reported at the parking lot on Monday alone.

The shooting is the second officer-involved shooting in Richmond in two months. On Sept. 16, Richmond police officer Wallace Jensen shot and killed 24-year-old Richard “Pedie” Perez III after an early-morning scuffle at Uncle Sam’s Liquor Store on Cutting Blvd. Perez was intoxicated and unarmed.