Authorities in Virginia claim that Sarah Wilson shot herself in the face on July 25, 2018, when she was being detained as part of a traffic stop in Chesapeake, Virginia.
After police started an investigation, the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found that Wilson’s death was a suicide on Friday.
Wilson reportedly took a revolver out of her boyfriend’s car, “contoured” her body, and shot herself while police tried to restrain Holden Medlin, 27, who was fighting arrest.
Was Sarah Wilson killed by a police shooting?
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The victim, a 19-year-old woman who was handcuffed, perished from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the face, according to Virginia officials.
When Sarah Wilson was being arrested during a traffic stop in Chesapeake, Virginia, on July 25, 2018, Leo Kosinski, a spokesperson for the Chesapeake Police Department, told WAVY in August 2018 that Sarah Wilson took a revolver out of her boyfriend’s car, “contoured” her body, and shot herself.
Wilson committed suicide and died from an “intra-oral gunshot wound,” the Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed to WAVY on Friday, following an official investigation into the event.
When Wilson was killed, a body camera, according to Kosinski, was being used by one of the police conducting the traffic stop, but it had been turned off.
A patrol officer and a vice narcotics officer with the Chesapeake Police had been keeping an eye on Wilson and her boyfriend, 27-year-old Holden Medlin, before the traffic stop.
Officers pulled them over, and as Medlin tried to escape, they tried to tase him. Wilson was left restrained by the side of her boyfriend’s vehicle in the interim.
Wilson reportedly shot herself at that point using a revolver she stole from her boyfriend’s car, according to the authorities.
Was Sarah Wilson’s shooting by police a case of homicide or suicide?
At the time, ABC 13 reported that the officer who was wearing a body camera stated that the device broke down “during the battle” with Medlin.
Medlin was arrested in connection with the stop after ingesting a golf ball-sized bag containing an unknown substance, according to the police.
Police found oxycodone, a syringe, drug paraphernalia, a gun, and ammunition in Medlin’s vehicle.
He was charged with fleeing a police officer, having a gun while a felon, and having oxycodone, suboxone, paraphernalia, a gun, and a Schedule I or II drug in his possession.
The Chesapeake Police Department stopped Holden Medlin, 28, and Sarah Wilson on July 25, 2018, as they were approaching the junction of Wilson Road and Berkley Avenue Extension.
Sarah Wilson was killed at the site of the traffic stop. The medical examiner observed that Sarah Wilson shot herself in the mouth with a Taurus Judge pistol while she was in custody in her postmortem report.
While 10 On Your Side has been investigating Sarah Wilson’s death for months, the Chesapeake Police have only provided little information.
The Chesapeake Police gave a brief account of the events that took place during the traffic encounter. However, they continued to defy requests to make the body camera recordings from that day and the results of their internal investigation public.
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