Two Delaware, New Castle County officers are on administrative duty after a fatal shooting that left 32-year-old Erik Turnball dead.
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According to the Delaware Online, the shooting took place late Thursday afternoon at the Harbor Club apartment complex.
New Castle County police say they were conducting a drug investigation inside the complex and when they tried to pull over Erik, police say he rammed one unmarked cop car, and struck another car while trying to escape. The officers then opened fire on Erik, striking him in the chest and killing him instantly.
According to Cpl. John Weglarz Sr, “We’re at the very early stage of the investigation,” adding more information will be made public as the investigation progresses.
The incident occurred at about 4:20 p.m. as police tried to stop Erik along Cheswold Boulevard at the entrance to the Harbor Club Apartments off Ogletown-Stanton Road (Del. 4), Weglarz said.
According to Weglarz, as Erik drove off, his SUV hit a pickup truck and other vehicles near the apartments before driving onto Melodic Drive in Harmony Woods, a neighborhood of single-family homes across Del. 4 from the back of the Christiana Hospital complex.
There, the SUV veered off the roadway to its right. It plowed through one home’s chain-link backyard fence, then the stockade side fence of the next home and through a backyard shed, before it hit the fence at the far side of that yard and came to rest less than two feet from an occupied home at Melodic and Fantasia drives. The broken fence was in front of the SUV, and the shed’s roof was on top of the vehicle.
Erik was treated at the scene by paramedics and pronounced dead after being transported to Christiana Hospital, Weglarz said.
Yesterday, about 50 people gathered at New Castle County police headquarters in Minquadale to protest Erik’s death.
The group was led by the Rev. Derrick “Pastor D” Johnson of Wilmington, who along with Turnbull’s parents, met with members of the police department.
Johnson and Erik’s father made a statement calling for a nonviolent protest of the shooting.
They said the meeting with police was positive, but they will not rest until they know the whole truth of what happened.
Erik leaves behind three children ages 11, 2, and 1. Our thoughts are with the Turnbull family.
