VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney's office determined that the officers involved in a deadly police shooting earlier this year acted in the defense of themselves and other officers.
The office released a review and findings of its investigation into the shooting of Hans Alejandro Huitz.
U.S. Marshals discovered that Huitz was the prime suspect in a robbery and murder that took place in 1992 in Montgomery County, Maryland. He had moved to Virginia Beach in 2014 where he lived with his family.
Virginia Beach detectives served a search warrant on Feb. 11, 2020 to get DNA from Huitz. Detectives from Montgomery County took the sample and drove it to a forensic lab in Maryland. That same day, lab techs matched the sample with a profile taken from the 1992 crime scene. Authorities decided to arrest Huitz the next day.
On the morning of Feb. 12, officers from Montgomery County who were permitted to serve as Special Deputy U.S. Marshals carried out a fugitive task force operation in Virginia Beach aimed at taking Huitz into custody. Virginia Beach police officers were there as support for the operation.
According to the Commonwealth's Attorney's office review, authorities found Huitz driving away from his home that morning. Marshals followed his car and conducted a maneuver called a "vehicle block" that cornered his car from multiple sides.
Huitz, while still in the driver's seat, immediately raised a gun and placed it in his mouth when he saw the Marshals. In response, the Marshals got out of their cars and identified themselves as "police." They were also wearing police badges during the operation.
The situation then escalated to a standoff that lasted nearly 10 minutes, during which Huitz pulled out another gun. He switched between putting one gun to his head and another to his mouth. Police tried to negotiate with him, asking him to put the guns down.
Huitz confessed to the murder during the standoff and apparently stated, "I killed somebody and I'm going to do 30 years."
At some point, Huitz put down one of the guns and called someone. Authorities later learned that he called his wife.
In an interview that took place after the task force operation, his wife told police that Huitz told her on the phone that he killed a man while he was drunk and stated that he could not go to prison and there was only one way out. She also said she could hear someone in the background telling Huitz to put down the gun and heard Huitz respond saying he wasn't going to jail for 30 years.
The Marshals continued to try to negotiate Huitz's surrender, but as the standoff continued, Huitz's behavior started making the Marshals fear for their safety.
He would turn in his seat as if he were trying to see where every officer was located and even pulled out a flashlight. Then, Huitz ended up turning in his seat and lowered one of his guns towards the Marshals.
Fearing for their safety, three of the Marshals identified as Sergeant Brady Clouster, Detective Drew Abbamonte and Detective Dominic Dinisio each opened fire on Huitz one time. Huitz was struck by one of the rounds and died at the scene. The other two rounds hit Huitz's car but did not strike him.
Two handguns were recovered from Huitz's car. An autopsy shows that Huitz died from a rifle wound to the head with injury to the face and brain.
After reviewing the entire incident, the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office determined that the officers did not commit any criminal acts and were justified in their use of deadly force.