An attorney for a Virginia-based security company said the shooting of a 60-year-old man last month was "justifiable" after a security officer felt his life was in danger when the man tried to run the officer down with his van.
Andrew Sacks, attorney for Citywide Protection Services, spoke to reporters Monday about the fatal shooting of Jiansheng Chen, who died after a Citywide officer discharged his firearm at Chen's van in the River Walk neighborhood of Chesapeake, Virginia.
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"Our focus is on what happened that night," Sacks told NBC News following the press conference, adding that Citywide Protection Services was cooperating fully with ongoing investigations into the Jan. 26 incident, but wanted to counter any information out there that sought to misrepresent the company's actions.
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According to a prepared statement read by Sacks, two individuals, either related to or close to Chen, were given notices they were barred from the area for a year by Citywide officers in 2015 for being in an area they were not permitted to be in after hours. On Jan. 16, 2017, two Citywide officers encountered Chen and one of the individuals previously barred, and determined they were "in violation of the community's rules by being where they were after hours." Both were given "bar notices" from the area for six months.
On Jan. 26, shortly before 11 p.m., Sacks said the individual who was with Chen on Jan. 16 returned to the area, and one of the Citywide officers (who was present for the Jan. 16 stop) escorted the individual back to their home and was told they were not allowed to trespass.
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A short time later, according to Sacks, the same officer observed a blue van in the neighborhood, and recognized the driver as Chen. When the officer attempted to approach the van and make an inquiry about why Chen was in the area, Sacks said Chen "backed up and started moving forward at which point the officer was in front of the van again commanding that it stop."
Sacks said the officer attempted to get out of the way, but "whatever evasive action the security guard tried to take, the van tracked and followed the officer ignoring commands to stop."
"Faced with an immediate threat to his life and safety, the officer brandished his weapon and again commanded the driver to stop but the driver did not," Sacks said. "Ultimately, faced with a situation in which he could not safely escape the oncoming van headed straight for him, the security guard, out of total necessity, and in reasonable fear for his life and safety, fired in an effort to stop and repel the threat to his life and safety."
