In law enforcement, the use of deadly force is an unfortunate necessity under life-threatening circumstances. Unfortunately, those circumstances are sometimes not all that cut and dry. On April 23, 2011, a Portsmouth, Virginia (VA) police officer shot and killed a 26 year old as he was trying to enter the apartment complex at which he was staying.
The victim, Kirill Denyakin, a native of Kazakstan, had been staying with a friend at his Olde Towne apartment on Green Street while he worked as a cook for the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel. Around 10:00 pm that Saturday night, Portsmouth Police responded to the apartment building for a report of burglary. There, Officer Stephen D. Rankin found Denyakin apparently banging on a door to the building.
Rankin reported that Denyakin did not respond to the officer’s commands, made “furtive movements” with his hands at his waistband, and lunged toward the officer. Officer Rankin responded by firing his gun, which hit Denyakin with 11 bullets. Denyakin was unarmed. An autopsy revealed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.28, well above the legal limit for intoxication.
The Virginia State Police are handling the investigation into the shooting to determine if it was justified. Meanwhile, Portsmouth Police are conducting an internal investigation into some of Officer Rankin’s Facebook postings previous to the incident. According to the Virginian-Pilot, one such posting was a photo of the officer’s handguns, along with captions including, “That’s rankins box of VENGEANCE!”
We trust our law enforcement officers with a great deal of responsibility- they have the power to kill when necessary. Nonetheless, there is a line between a justifiable shooting to protect the officer and/or the public from danger and a shooting that was premature or overzealous on the part of the officer. As a wrongful death personal injury lawyer, I must say that the circumstances here seem questionable. Granted, Denyakin may have been very intoxicated, but intoxication and odd behavior do not constitute grounds for the use of deadly force. As the investigation into the shooting continues, we are left asking ourselves what alternatives to firing a handgun might have been available to handle this tragic situation. Our thoughts go out to Kirill Denyakin’s family and friends.
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About the Editors: The Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm, which has offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as pro bono services.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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