UPDATE: (2/10/12, 1:33 p.m.) Police: Officer who shot woman was being dragged

BY DONNIE JOHNSTON

A Culpeper town police officer shot and killed a woman following an altercation in a Catholic school parking lot on North East Street on Thursday.

An employee of Epiphany Catholic School, operated by Precious Blood Catholic Church, called police about 10 a.m. to report suspicious activity by someone in a Jeep Wrangler outside the building.

When the officer arrived, an altercation occurred. Kris Buchele, a carpenter working in an upstairs room of the apartment house next door, said he heard a loud argument and went to the window to see what was happening.

“The cop had one hand on the door handle like he was trying to open it,” he said. “The driver started to pull away and the officer said, ‘Stop or I’ll shoot!’

“Just as the woman got the window rolled up, the cop shot point-blank. I saw the glass bust out. As the Jeep pulled away, [the officer] ran into the street and there were five or six more gunshots,” Buchele said.

Buchele said the Wrangler headed south on East Street, climbed onto the right sidewalk, rolled slowly into a utility pole and stopped. Buchele added that several vehicles were approaching from the south, the direction the Wrangler was heading and the officer was shooting.

A church spokeswoman said that there were a number of students in the Catholic preschool at the time and that the building was immediately locked down. It was later evacuated. No one was injured.

Buchele said that after the incident he saw the officer “holding his left arm.” A police news release said the officer suffered minor injuries.

The release said the officer was placed on administrative leave. It identified him only as a five-year veteran of the town force.

State Police identified the woman as Patricia A. Cook, 54, of Culpeper. Her body remained in the vehicle until late afternoon while the Virginia State Police, which is investigating, processed the scene. The body was then taken to the state medical examiner’s office in Manassas.

Onlookers gawked at the vehicle, which had its driver-side window, windshield and license plates covered with white sheets and cardboard most of the afternoon.

Police did not say what “suspicious activity” prompted the call or whether the woman had a weapon of some kind. County Treasurer David DeJarnette said he heard the shots—in rapid succession—at his office two blocks way.