VIDEO: Virginia Officer, Suspect Wounded in Friday Night Gunfight
A veteran Richmond police officer was shot and wounded Friday after exchanging gunfire with an armed man who opened fire on the officer soon after he responded to a call of a man experiencing a mental health crisis in a Fulton Hill neighborhood, authorities said.
Master patrolman William “Bill” Turner, a 31-year department veteran, was shot multiple times by a man whom police described as the subject of the 2:30 p.m. mental health call in the 4400 block of Fulton Street. Although wounded, Turner was able to return fire, striking the gunman multiple times, police said.
Turner was shot in the stomach and suffered a grazing wound to his head, but his injuries were not life-threatening and he “will be fine,” said Tammy D. Hawley, press secretary for Mayor Dwight C. Jones, who went to VCU Medical Center to check on the officer and visit with his family.
“It’s not a life-threatening situation, gratefully,” Hawley told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The suspect, identified as an adult male, also was being treated at VCU Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, said police spokesman Gene Lepley.
