Marital discord is a common problem in the police profession. It is not a private matter because it can lead to all kinds of problems, from an officer taking his/her anger and frustration out on citizens, to spousal battering and, as in this case, the cop murdering the spouse.
Rather than focusing on whether the Sheriff should have notified all area law enforcement agencies, it is more important to figure out a way for police agencies to detect marital problems and to intervene with special supervision of a troubled officer.
911 CALL WARNED OF VIRGINIA DEPUTY’S DEADLY PLAN
The greatest delay is not the police officer responding to the crime, it’s the report of the crime
By Mike Gangloff, Amanda Codispoti, and Janelle Rucker
The Roanoke Times
June 3, 2011
ROANOAKE, Va. — Almost a half-hour before Jennifer Carter Agee was shot to death on Memorial Day, the Franklin County Sheriff's Office was warned that her sheriff's deputy ex-husband had an assault rifle and was driving to Salem to kill her. But Sheriff Ewell Hunt told his dispatch center not to issue a "be on the lookout" alert to other law enforcement agencies, saying he would take care of the situation himself, according to a sheriff's office radio call log. Then the sheriff called the police department in Salem, where Jennifer Agee lived and where he apparently thought Deputy Jonathan Agee was headed.
"I thought I could get the fastest response by making personal contact," Hunt said Tuesday. Hunt failed to reach a Salem police supervisor.
He left a message with a dispatcher asking for a return call, Salem Police Chief Jeff Dudley said. Hunt's call was returned 13 minutes later, Salem city spokesman Mike Stevens said. That was at 11:31 a.m. By then, Jennifer Agee, 30, lay dying, shot with a rifle not in Salem but in Roanoke, in the parking lot of the Sheetz convenience store on Orange Avenue. Her former husband, Jonathan Agee, 32, then led police on a roundabout chase down U.S. 460 through Montgomery County, then back toward Roanoke on northbound Interstate 81.
About mile marker 125, Agee briefly stopped his Franklin County patrol car and shot and wounded a Virginia State Police sergeant, police said. At Exit 128, Agee stopped again on the Ironto off-ramp. He was shot by two pursuing state troopers, then airlifted to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where he remained Tuesday, facing a murder charge in the death of his ex-wife.
As more details of the Memorial Day shootings emerged, [waitress] Jennifer Agee's co-workers at Mac and Bob's restaurant in Salem grieved, and colleagues of wounded state police Sgt. Matthew Brannock expressed relief that he had not been more badly injured.
Brannock, whose 36th birthday was Monday, was shot in the upper leg. He was released from the hospital Tuesday, state police Sgt. Rob Carpentieri said. Carpentieri said Brannock is not ready to discuss the chase of Jonathan Agee publicly. Martinsville Sheriff Steve Draper drove Brannock's brother, Daniel Brannock, a corporal with his office, to the hospital Monday. Draper said Matthew Brannock seemed shaken, but in good spirits.
As many as 20 Roanoke County and Virginia State Police officers, including Col. Steven Flaherty, the state police superintendent, had rushed to the hospital to hear about Brannock's condition.
According to a Franklin County Sheriff's Office radio log, police learned of Monday's brewing trouble with an 11:07 a.m. call from Julia Angell, a Roanoke sheriff's deputy who married Jonathan Agee after his 2005 divorce from Jennifer Agee. Angell said that Agee had left their home in Boones Mill in his patrol car with an assault rifle, saying he was going to Salem to kill his ex-wife. The radio log said that while Angell was on the phone, Agee returned to the house.
"His voice was heard in the background, sounds like that he knows that she called 911," the log said. Agee left again, and dispatchers sent a text message to Hunt to tell him what was going on. At 11:15 a.m., a Franklin County officer suggested calling Roanoke County and Salem and issuing a "BOL," or "be on the lookout" alert. Hunt "advised not to call, that he will take care of it," the log said.
Other details from the radio log:
At 11:17 a.m., Hunt told dispatch to call Agee on the radio and tell him to call the sheriff. Agee would not answer.
At 11:20 a.m., the dispatcher asked a deputy to check on Angell at her home "in case he goes back to the address." "She sounds very scared," the log said.
At 12:03 p.m., about a half-hour after Jennifer Agee was killed, Agee called a Rocky Mount police officer who was a friend and said he would surrender to him -- but that the friend "would have to kill him."
At 12:11 p.m., with police chasing Agee in Montgomery County, Franklin County officers brought his parents, Angell and one of his daughters to the sheriff's office for protection. As Agee was pursued through Montgomery County, his patrol car was struck by a pursuing state police car driven by Sgt. Brannock near I-81's mile marker 125, according to Carpentieri.
The front of Brannock's car hit the passenger side of Agee's, Carpentieri said. Brannock got out of his car and Agee began firing at him, Carpentieri said. Another car that was not involved in the chase also was damaged, either by gunshots or crashing, Carpentieri said. The occupants were not hurt, he said. The shootings and chase created hours of miles-long traffic backup on northbound I-81 Monday.
Delays continued Tuesday as state police investigation teams temporarily closed lanes to re-create the movement of people and vehicles during Agee's flight. Hunt said Tuesday that he would limit his comments because of the ongoing state police investigation of Agee and the personnel issues surrounding his employment.
Agee was put on unpaid leave at the sheriff's office Monday.
Hunt disciplined Agee after the deputy began taking Hunt's daughter, then 17, on overnight drug stakeouts and patrols in 2005, according to a grand jury report that led to the sheriff's arrest on a misdemeanor record-keeping charge. Hunt was later cleared. Hunt explained his decision not to issue a wider alert Monday by saying that he thought Agee was heading to Salem, and that the quickest way to alert other agencies would be by calling himself.
Tod Burke, a Radford University professor of criminal justice and a former police officer, said that in situations such as Monday's, it's typical for police agencies to notify all surrounding jurisdictions. "The greatest delay is not the police officer responding to the crime, it's the report of the crime," Burke said.
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