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[Editor’s note: This version updates the original to include previously reported details about the pursuit and crash.]

COURTLAND

Keshon Darius Reynolds of Roanoke, the suspect identified from the pursuit in Drewryville on Tuesday, was pronounced dead at MCV in Richmond that afternoon. This is according to information received from Maj. Camden Cobb, a spokesman for the Southampton County Sheriff’s Office. He added that the Richmond Office of the Chief Medical Examiner would perform an autopsy today, April 22.

Around 8:30 a.m., a Southampton County Deputy had stopped Reynold’s vehicle for a traffic violation on Route 58 near Barham’s Hill Road in Drewryville. The driver and only occupant of the car was identified, and the deputy was informed that he was wanted out of Roanoke for shooting into an occupied dwelling and was considered armed and dangerous. When deputies approached the vehicle to have the man step out, he put the car in drive and left. The automobile travelled approximately one mile down the road while deputies were catching up before the vehicle drove through the median, crossed over both eastbound lanes of travel and went into the woods.

After a short pursuit, deputies arrived at the scene of the crash and saw that Reynolds, 20, had obvious and significant head trauma and was unresponsive. Deputies believed the trauma was consistent with being a gunshot wound and was not related to the crash. An official determination of the cause and manner of death cannot be made until the medical examiner’s office has completed an autopsy.

A search of the vehicle revealed a Taurus 9mm semi-automatic pistol with an extended magazine and a 9mm shell casing that matched the ammunition in the pistol.

All available facts and information have been provided to the Richmond OCME staff. The sheriff’s office will provide an update to this incident once the OCME has provided their findings.

A preliminary administrative review of this incident indicates that the deputies involved acted appropriately and followed Sheriff’s Office protocol in reference to the stop, the information that Reynolds was wanted, the pursuit and the crash.

The sheriff’s office did get an inquiry about this incident being an officer-involved shooting.

“We want to make sure that accurate information is available to the community and we want to address any rumors that may be going around,” stated Cobb. “No deputies discharged any firearms during yesterday’s incident. All of the deputies involved are safe and were not injured and no member of the public was involved.”