VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A man recently convicted of trying to kill a Virginia Beach Police detective in 2023 was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in prison.

A jury in December found 20-year-old Thomas Davenport Jr. guilty of attempted second-degree murder and three felony gun charges after shooting at a detective’s vehicle on Aug. 2, 2023.

According to officials, Davenport was with three juveniles in the Level Green area of Virginia Beach. In the early morning hours of Aug. 2, officers were searching the area after reports of car break-ins. During the search, a police detective located Davenport, 18 at the time, who had been recently suspected of stealing a rifle from a vehicle, along with three juveniles.

The detective began to return fire after a man shot towards the detective’s vehicle, police said. The group then began firing towards the detective. Around 25 bullets were shot, but the detective was not struck. One bullet lodged in the van’s steering column while he was behind the wheel.

“I felt the bullets hitting the vehicle,” the detective testified at Davenport’s sentencing. “I thought I would die. They were trying to kill me.”

The shooting happened in a residential townhome neighborhood in the Level Green section. One stray bullet was embedded in the headboard of a neighbor while they were asleep.

Davenport’s grandmother Tammy Harris testified that he was a sharp student until about age 16, when his mother, Harris’s eldest daughter, got involved heavily with drugs. Harris said Davenport attended Tallwood High School and worked briefly as a welder at Colonna’s Shipyard.

Tamara Bowser is Davenport’s aunt but they are close in age.

“I was disappointed because he’s a good kid, and not a violent person,” Bowser testified.

Defense attorney Kristin Paulding disagreed with the prosecution’s description of Davenport’s role in the shooting. Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney David Talmadge told the court that 15 shell casings came from Davenport’s gun. Paulding said Davenport shot only four or five times.

“[The Commonwealth’s version was] not the way that the evidence came out at trial,” Paulding said. “There was a fourth boy that was never arrested that I believe is responsible for those 15 shots.”

Davenport apologized to the detective just before sentencing.

“He’s always been apologetic,” Paulding said. “Obviously, he had no idea that there was a police officer in that van or that it was going to come to that. And I think that his allocution was very heartfelt.”

Judge Kevin Duffan said Davenport did not need to choose the path that he took and sentenced him to an active total of 10 years in prison, suspending 29 additional years.

“I’m sentencing you for what you did, and not who you are,” Duffan said to Davenport. “You’ve made some very, very bad choices.”

“I felt Judge Duffan’s sentence was fair,” Paulding said. “Thomas and I both discussed the range of punishment and the severity of the offense. We were both prepared for that.”

Earlier Monday, Davenport’s co-defendant, Christian Hinton, was in the same courtroom and pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder and three gun-related felonies. Hinton did not have a plea agreement, and he faces a maximum of 27 years in prison. He will be sentenced in June. He was 17 at the time but prosecuted as an adult.

Another co-defendant is currently in the juvenile system and was just 14 at the time of the incident.

The fourth person in Davenport’s group that night — a boy — was never arrested.