HAMPTON, Va. — Update: A city official confirmed on Friday afternoon that Deputy Scott Chambers was no longer considered to be in critical condition.
He is now awake and talking, according to the official.
A homicide suspect was killed, and a local task force officer was critically injured during an exchange of gunfire in the Northampton section of Hampton Wednesday morning.
In a 1 p.m. press conference, Hampton Police Chief Mark Talbot said the U.S. Marshal Task Force was working with local law enforcement around 11 a.m. to serve a warrant to a suspect wanted for a Hampton homicide case.
Task force officers had been following the suspect's vehicle when it stopped at the intersection of Todds Lane and Big Bethel Road around 11:20 a.m. Talbot said the suspect "almost immediately" stepped out of his vehicle and started firing a gun at task force officers, who returned fire.
The suspect and a task force officer, identified as Chesapeake Sheriff's Deputy Scott Chambers, were both shot multiple times.
The suspect was pronounced dead at a local hospital, Talbot said. He was later identified as Lamont Lee Lewis, 46, the husband of a woman found dead on Christmas day.
He had faced charges of second-degree murder, one count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, and one count of discharging a firearm in a dwelling.
Chambers is in critical condition for two gunshot wounds in his upper and lower body, according to Chesapeake Sheriff Jim O'Sullivan. He underwent initial surgery.
"He's an amazing individual and I ask for the public to keep him in your prayers and thoughts," O'Sullivan said of Chambers at the press conference.
Chambers has been with the Chesapeake Sheriff's Office for four years and was assigned to the task force about a year ago, O'Sullivan said.
"We have a difficult job that we perform every day, and this task force is essential to the Hampton Roads area, putting the worst people in jail, and I'm proud of my deputy," he said.
Jaclyn Watts was sitting in her office at American Classic Storage when her maintenance man came inside to tell her something big happened down the street.
"He said that he heard some gunshots, so he had come in to tell me and at that point, we went outside just to look and there was already a bunch of cop cars down there," she said.
Sue Ellis was inside Warwick Assembly of God, a nearby church, when she said she heard a noise outside and then two rounds of gunfire.
Her immediate reaction was to protect the children that were inside.
"At that point, I went running down the hall to tell everyone that was in the building to get down and get away from the windows because there was some type of shooting taking place," she said.
Ellis said she counted 23 police cars in the intersection.
"I knew that it had to be something pretty big for that many police cars to show up on the scene," she said.
Talbot said there was another person inside the suspect's vehicle at the time of the shooting. He said the witness was not hurt and was talking to Hampton Police Division detectives, who are handling the investigation.
The U.S. Marshals Task Force that had been looking into the suspect for several days leading up to Wednesday's shootout included officers from the Newport News Police Department, Norfolk Police Department, Chesapeake Sheriff's Office, Virginia State Police and the U.S. Marshals Service.
The Hampton Commonwealth's Attorney will decide if the shooting death was justified.
If you have any information that could help the police in this investigation, call the Hampton Police Division at 757-727-6111 or the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP. You can also submit an anonymous online tip by clicking here.
