The man accused of dragging a rookie Newport News, VA, police officer to her death last month says he’s “deeply regretful" for what happened that night.
Vernon E. Green II, 38, of Newport News — charged with felony murder in the Jan. 23 killing of 24-year-old Officer Katherine “Katie” Thyne — said his heart goes out to her family.
“I am deeply regretful, sympathetic and remorseful for my involvement resulting in such a horrible situation,” Green wrote in the statement. “So many lives have been changed because of this, and the hurt is at a magnitude that I couldn’t fathom it happened.”
Now being held at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail, Green has declined to speak to a reporter, either in person or on the phone. But he provided a one-page, single-space statement to the Daily Press through his wife, Angela Harper Green, 51, of Newport News.
“I would like to first send my condolences out to the family, friends and loved ones of the fallen officer,” he began the statement. “My heart goes out to each and every one of them. I can only pray that the joy and loving memories comfort their hearts in their time of need."
He also asked Thyne’s family to forgive him, even as he didn’t directly admit guilt.
It was just after 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 23 that Thyne and another police officer were questioning Green on suspicion that he and a woman were smoking marijuana while sitting in a parked car.
The woman complied with commands to get out of the car, police said, but Green refused to do the same. Instead, police said, he started up his car and drove off.
Thyne — standing near the open driver’s side door — became “trapped between the driver’s door and frame of the vehicle” as it fled, police said.
The car jumped a curb near a tree about a block away, crashing into a small brick wall in front of a home. At one point, Thyne was “pinned” between the car and tree, police have said.
Thyne —mother of a two-year-old girl— died of “multiple blunt trauma,” a state autopsy said.
At the time of the officer’s Jan. 23 death, Green was out on bond from an armed bank robbery case in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
