Key Takeaways
- A man was shot and killed while attempting to break into a home on Shoreline Drive early Monday morning.
- Police found him with gunshot wounds and declared him dead at the scene; they are not searching for any suspects.
- Virginia law allows for deadly force if there’s fear of harm during a break-in, but circumstances will determine justification.
- Neighbors described the area as quiet and safe, with no prior incidents reported.
- The investigation is ongoing, and no charging decisions have been made as police look into the situation.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
PORTSMOUTH, VA — A man was shot and killed early Monday morning after he tried to break into a home on Shoreline Drive, according to the Portsmouth Police Department.
Officers arrived at the 3700 block of Shoreline Drive around 3:25 a.m. on a report of a shooting after a break-in, as reported by WTKR News 3. They found a man with gunshot wounds. He was declared dead at the scene.
A PPD spokesperson told the station the dead man was the one who tried to break into the home, and the department is not looking for a suspect. When a police department says that about a fatal shooting, it is telling you the person who fired is already accounted for. That is the frame for everything that follows.
Police have not released the dead man’s name, said who fired, or described what happened once he reached the house. The investigation remains ongoing, and no charging decision has been announced.
The station asked local attorney Eric Korslund for a general read on Virginia law. “You need to know a little more about the circumstances than just that,” Korslund said. “But if somebody does break into your home, I think it’s safe to say you have the right to use deadly force if you’re in any fear of harm or death.”
He is right that the circumstances matter, and we do not have them yet. Deadly force is justified against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm, not against a door or the things behind it. What a forced entry at 3:25 a.m. does is compress that question into seconds, in the dark, for a person who was almost certainly asleep a minute earlier. Whoever fired on Shoreline Drive had to answer it with no time and no information, and investigators will now take weeks to decide whether the answer holds up.
Neighbors told the station this is not that kind of street. One woman said she has lived there more than 30 years and nothing like this has ever happened. Another resident, Ryan Brinkley, said he walks the neighborhood at all hours and has never worried about it. “It’s very nice, very quiet,” he said.
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I believe them, and that is the point. The quiet street is where most people decide they can leave the gun in the safe and the plan in the back of their mind. The man at the door at 3:25 a.m. did not check the neighborhood’s reputation first. Mindset is the part you carry everywhere, including into a bedroom on a street where nothing ever happens, and it is the part that has to be ready before the banging starts.
A man tried to get into a house on Shoreline Drive before dawn Monday. He died there. Police say they are not looking for anyone else.
