By Jane Harper
The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — When two Virginia Beach police officers attempted to stop a driver Friday night on South Rosemont Road, it was for having expired plates on his vehicle, according to police.
Investigators would later find out that the man driving the car was an armed convicted felon who’d spent several years in federal prison for his role in a drug ring that sold significant amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, according to online federal court records.
John Lee McCoy III, 42, also had been accused of shooting a man in the face and neck in retaliation for a theft McCoy believed the man committed, the federal records state.
About 11:30 p.m. Friday, Officers Christopher Reese and Cameron Girvin were working the midnight shift when they attempted to pull McCoy’s Hyundai Sonata over, according to police. When McCoy failed to pull over, the officers continued following him into a townhouse complex off Lynnhaven Parkway.
The officers approached the car when it stopped in a cul-de-sac and asked McCoy to get out. He initially refused, but then stepped out and got into a tussle with the officers before shooting both with a pistol he pulled from his pocket, police said. The incident was captured by the officers’ body-worn cameras, as well as a dashboard camera in their police vehicle, according to Police Chief Paul Neudigate.
Reese, 30, died at a hospital shortly afterwards. Girvin, 25, died a few hours later.
McCoy’s body was found within minutes in a shed near where the shooting occurred. Police said he appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
According to online federal court records, McCoy and several co-defendants were charged in a federal indictment in April 2009 with conspiring to distribute five or more kilos of cocaine, one or more kilos of heroin and more than 1,000 kilos of marijuana. They also were accused of using firearms to conduct their criminal enterprise.
McCoy pleaded guilty later that year and was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison, the records show. He was released in 2017, and served two years of supervised probation.
Had Reese and Girvin learned McCoy was a convicted felon when they stopped him — and that he had a gun — they would have been required to arrest and charge him with being a convicted felon with a firearm.
“He definitely would have been looking at a couple of years at least,” said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Bosse . If McCoy had drugs on him, or in his vehicle, that was more than just a personal amount, he likely would have faced a five-year mandatory minimum, Bosse said.
Virginia Beach police have not said whether any drugs were found on McCoy , or in his vehicle.
A sentencing position paper submitted in his federal court case said he was a married father of two at the time, with no prior felony convictions or incarcerations. An online search of state court records indicated he had no other convictions after his 2017 release from federal prison.
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Jane Harper , jane.harper@pilotonline.com
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