Teen dead in apparent suicide, deputies also fired shot

We're going to get back out to that breaking news out of Loudoun County, where the sheriff's office is providing an update on a deadly shooting involving a juvenile. Our Bob Barnard on the scene there asking the sheriff questions. Bob? Yeah, Marina, this is Sheriff Mike Chapman, just about to address reporters here about this unfortunate situation here this morning. Good afternoon. I'm Sheriff Mike Chapman. I'm here with Lieutenant Colonel Lee, Major Brian Wacker, and Lieutenant Colonel Bob Mosier. This was a tragic way to start the week for so many people involved here. At about, just after 7, Percival Police Department got a call for a missing person, a juvenile, that had left the house sometime during the night. And that was about 7.15. We got a call to come out and assist, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office to come out and assist the Percival Police Department with a search, you know, to involve our canines and other deputies. As we were doing that, the father of the juvenile in question here showed up at the house and reported that guns were missing from the house and that they were worried about their son. And so we were looking for this individual, and one of our deputies spotted him walking westbound here on this particular roadway here and stopped, got out of his car, went to approach him, And as he did, the individual in question displayed a gun, and from all indications, took his own life. Our deputy also fired a shot, but we don't believe that had anything to do with the cause of death in this. But the shot clearly, from what we've seen so far, the shot clearly was what was the cause of death, and it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Did the deputy's round hit the young man as well? We're still waiting to hear, waiting to see. We have the medical examiner. We'll show up shortly. We're still securing the scene and doing our investigation here. It's an active investigation, so we still have a lot to do. But it doesn't appear at this point that that round had anything to do with the cause of death. And your deputy would have pulled his weapon even if this young person shot and killed himself because a weapon was pulled? A weapon was pulled. That's correct. He was walking in front of him, saw the weapon, told him to drop the weapon. He didn't, and then took his own life, yes. We understand Loudoun Valley High School has put out a community message today. That's right. I mean, clearly it's unexpected, and we want to make sure that everybody is being counseled the way that is necessary in a case like this, and not just for the family and not just for the individual involved, but also for our deputies. This is a tragic thing for anybody to be involved in all the way around. Nobody wants to go to work, you know, and have to encounter a situation like this. So it's very difficult for everybody, for the family who just lost a loved one, for the students at the school, and certainly for our deputies as well. So we just ask everybody to be patient while we conduct an investigation, and we'll have more details in the future, but that's what we have so far. And, Mike, do you know if you guys or Purcellville Police were aware of this young person before today? We're familiar with them. We have, yeah, we have had some contact with them in the past, and I'll just leave it at that. Were the schools placed on lockdown during the search? I don't believe they were. I think it was just a notification that it was a tragic situation, and that's, you know, to seek counsel if they needed it. Obviously, you're not going to put out this young person's name. Do we have his age, though? Do we know how old he was? He's 15 years old. Yes. Very tragic. I mean, honestly, it's, I just feel, you know, for the shock the parents must be feeling right now for the, for what our deputy is going through on this and certainly for the students at the school. Anybody else have anything? Yeah, I may have missed it, but what county are we in? We're in Loudoun County. Okay. Yes. Okay. Okay. Mike, thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks for being out here. So there you have it, Marina, sadly we we thought it might have been this uh you know was it one of those suicide by cops so it does appear that the deputy did fire at least one round at this young person but they believe it the 15 year old boy a Loudoun Valley High School student who was reported to be a runaway by his family and had weapons from the house has apparently taken his life but i will tell you the police investigation here has forced the closure of this road this is uh west main street here just west of the town of Purcellville uh it's a it's route seven basically so what you're seeing you know the the road closure here uh has been a a factor for a lot of people and it will as school ends and the afternoon evening commute comes uh we were still waiting for the medical examiner to be uh called in and arrive here and do their work before they were going to be able to reopen the road it hasn't happened yet and here it is it's uh you know almost three o'clock so it has this situation has been inconvenient for some people who have been very impatient with having to pull u-turns and what have you and the closure of busy business route seven here in Loudoun County but the story itself is very sad 15 year old Loudoun Valley high school student taking his own life just uh steps away from his own high school there where Bob Barnard is and You see the road closed there by Loudoun County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff confirming he took his own life despite a deputy shooting at him. And that was after that 15-year-old's father had called police warning that guns were missing from the house. Our Bob Barnard will have much more coming up on all of this situation later on our shows right here on Fox 5. Stay with us. A quick break and we'll be right back.