CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — The man arrested in Portsmouth Thursday morning after a woman was shot and killed and two Chesapeake police officers were shot and injured late Wednesday night has died following a medical emergency, Chesapeake Police said.
Police responded to a domestic call at an apartment on Willow Bridge Court in Chesapeake when the two officers were shot, according to Chesapeake Police. Officers were later able to enter the apartment and found a woman suffering from injuries consistent with gunshot wounds, police said. She was taken to a local hospital, where she later died.
Wednesday night, officers stated they were seeking Shaun M. Boker, 39, for questioning in connection to the homicide, and considered him armed and dangerous, police said.
Early Thursday morning, Portsmouth Police issued a shelter in place between the 30 and 50 blocks of Cypress Road in connection with the shooting in Chesapeake.
Around 9 a.m., Chesapeake Police stated that Boker was taken into custody following a brief standoff in the 40 block of Cypress Road. Booker was charged with the following:
- First-degree murder
- Two counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer
- Two counts of aggravated malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer
- Three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony
- Discharge of a firearm within an occupied dwelling
After Boker’s arrest, he was found with superficial cuts on his arm during the standoff with officers and was taken by medics from the Portsmouth Fire Department to Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center for medical clearance before being taken to the Chesapeake City Jail, according to Chesapeake Police. While at the hospital, police said Boker experienced a medical emergency and later died.
The Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Chesapeake Field Office was notified and is now the lead agency investigating Boker’s death. A state police spokesperson said because there’s an open and active investigation, it cannot comment further.
The Washington Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had previously been called to assist the Chesapeake Police Department on the incident.
‘Worst-case scenario’
Master Police Officer Leo Kosinski said officers came into troubling circumstances when they got to the apartment.
Officers responded to the Willow Bridge Court apartment in the 500 block for a report of a domestic assault, and when they arrived, they heard a woman inside screaming for help. They tried to get into the apartment to help the woman, police aid, when a then-unknown suspect inside the apartment shot at them through the door.
“This is kinda the worst case scenario,” Kosinski said. “We arrived at a residence, we hear cries for help, trying to get inside to help, and you know, we were met with gunshots. You know, gunshots coming at you. This is kind of the worst case scenario that officers deal with.”
The two officers who were injured have what are believed to be non life-threatening injures, and they were taken to a local hospital, police said. Both officers have since been released from the hospital, according to Kosinski.
Residents in the immediate area received a shelter-in-place order from police Wednesday night as a result of the shooting.
(WAVY photos – Blake Smith)
‘She was just crying, begging for help’
Neighbors said Boker was not supposed to come to the apartment to see his ex-girlfriend, apparently at her request. That visit would lead to bloodshed, and death.
Boker wasn’t supposed to be coming around her, at Apt. 524, because they had a court hearing, as he was facing two assault and battery charges against a family member near the end of the month. Earlier this year, two protective orders had been filed against him.
In a April 1 criminal complaint, the woman said she had gotten into a verbal argument with an intoxicated Boker that turned physical after she refused a sex act while staying at a Chesapeake hotel. He left before police arrived. It stated the two had lived together from March 2024 until February 2025.
There was one previous call for service at the apartment, on May 23, for a domestic incident, according to Chesapeake Police. At that time, according to a criminal complaint, she had tried to get away from Boker when he put his hand over her mouth to keep her from yelling. She threatened to call police.
In both cases, police sought a domestic assault charge and a no-contact emergency protection order.
“She asked him not to come, and he ended up coming anyway,” said one of those neighbors, who asked not to be identified.
The neighbor, who was filming video, said around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, she heard a raging argument in Apt. 524 that got her to call 911.
“I called police and told them what was going on,” the neighbor said. “I told them, ‘Hurry up and get here, because he is killing her in there.”
How was she able to hear what she did?
“I was standing right there at the door,” the neighbor said.
The audio of it was so disturbing, 10 On Your Side is not airing it.
“She heard my voice, and she said, ‘Call police,’ and I knocked on the door, and I said, ‘Police are on the way,'” the neighbor said. “And he said, ‘Who is this? Who are you? And I just walked away.”
While police were on their way to the apartment, the neighbor said the woman called her mother.
“I could hear her on the phone saying, ‘Mom, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. And he was just pounding on her, and I could hear this because I was standing right there at their door. … She was just crying, begging for help. She begged for help the whole time, and she told her mother she was sorry.”
An officer arrives, the shooting begins
The resident captured one of the first officers to show up.
“They are downstairs, he’s beating her, real bad,” the officer said, according to the recording from the resident. “He’s not even supposed to be there.”
The resident’s Ring doorbell video also caught one of the first Chesapeake Police officers, ready to go.
“We are not going to be able to pop,” the officer said. “He just hit the door. Somebody hit the door, and you can hear people inside the apartment, screaming.”
Then, massive gunfire.
The gunfire startled the neighbor, and she dropped her phone.
“I hear the gunshots, I heard the gunshots when they knocked on the door, and then the other officer came, and I heard someone shout out, and then I felt something, like particles from the door getting hit with bullets,” the neighbor said. “When I heard the gunshots, what did I think? I didn’t think anything.
“I just ran in the house and I checked my body. I felt it hit me. I was checking to make sure I didn’t get hit by a bullet, and that’s what I started praying.”
Chesapeake Police claim Boker killed his ex-girlfriend and shot two police officers — who would be treated and released — before jumping out the back window, leaving behind blood and heading to Portsmouth with a noticeable limp.
The woman was taken to a local hospital, where she would later die.
Finding the suspect in Portsmouth
Boker made his way about 30 minutes from the scene of the shooting at the Willow Bridge Court apartment to a home on Cyprus Road in Portsmouth, on the other side of the Elizabeth River.
Neighbors said Boker lived in a detached home in the backyard of his parents’ place.
Decades ago, Boker grew up alongside Arlene Davies’ daughter.
Thursday morning, SWAT team officers sent flash bangs into his house.
“Very loud, shook the whole neighborhood,” Davies said. “That happened like, three or four times.”
Police spent about an hour talking with Boker over a loudspeaker.
“They did not hurt him,” Lisa Davies said. “They gave him, probably, 20 chances to come out.”
Said Davies: They indicated at one point that they knew he was injured, but to still raise his arms and come out.”
Eventually, he was convinced to come outside, and he was taken into custody around 8:24 a.m. Thursday.
Photos of his arrest show Boker, shirtless, in the front yard in cuffs, surrounded by officers.
“If what he’s charged with is true, it’s horrible,” Davies said. “It’s horrible. Apparently, a young woman is dead and two police officers have been shot, and there’s no excuse, but it’s still sad. It still makes me sad. It’s horrible.”
The aftermath
Neighbors of the woman who died said she was kind, and on occasion had cooked for others, with one great night, in particular, with neighbors sitting around eating great food and having great conversation.
Boker’s neighbors said he lived with a mental illness.
“It’s sad,” said Lisa Davies. “We have a really big problem, and I don’t know how people don’t know. Most of this drug addiction is that. We don’t have any help.”
Police said Boker suffered “superficial cuts to his arm” during Thursday morning’s standoff with Portsmouth Police in front of his parents’ home.
Portsmouth Fire Department medics took him to Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center to get medical clearance before Boker was to be taken to the Chesapeake City Jail. Officers from the Chesapeake Police Department went with the medics to the hospital. There, Boker had a unknown medical emergency, and later died.
News of his death emerged just after 3 p.m. Thursday.
In less than 18 hours, a woman was shot and killed, two Chesapeake officers were shot and injured, a man was arrested and charged, and then that same man died after what police said was a medical emergency.
What’s left for neighbors and the people who knew both the woman who died, and the suspect police say killed her and later died himself?
Few answers, many questions, and the echoes of a woman’s screams.
If you or you know someone who may be a victim of domestic violence or child abuse, click here for a list of local and national resources.
WAVY reporters Markeshia Jackson, Cheyenne Pagan, Andy Fox and Nick Broadway contributed to this story.
