Beloved officers known as ‘dynamic duo’ shot and killed at Virginia college, cops say
Two beloved officers killed at a Virginia college were close friends called the “dynamic duo,” officials said.
Bridgewater College is now mourning the deaths of John E. Painter, 55, and Vashon A. “JJ” Jefferson, 48. The two were on duty Feb. 1 when police said they interacted with a suspicious man on campus and were shot to death.
The losses were an emotional blow to an institution that describes itself as ”a family.”
“It’s an academic community, but we care about each other,” David Bushman, president of Bridgewater, said in video of a news conference. ”They were well known to students. They were always seen together.”
Their friendship was so tight that one of the officers was reportedly there when the other got married.
“These officers were close friends, known to many of us as the ‘dynamic duo,’” Bushman wrote in a statement posted to the college’s Facebook page. “John was J.J.’s best man in his wedding this year. They were beloved by students, faculty and staff.”
Officials said Painter was a campus police officer who had been on the job since 2019. Before that, he retired as police chief in Grottoes, a town near the college and roughly 110 miles northwest of Richmond.
Jefferson was a campus safety officer who joined the Bridgewater force in 2018, according to Milton Franklin, chief of police for the college, who wrote in a Facebook post.
Bridgewater is a private liberal arts school with about 1,500 students, according to its website. Corinne Geller, spokesperson for the Virginia State Police, said the two officers were called to investigate a report of a “suspicious” person on the campus at about 1:20 p.m.
“After a brief interaction with the man, the subject opened fire and shot both officers,” Geller said, according to video of a news conference. “The man then fled on foot.”
Alex Hulleman, a student, said he was on the campus when gunshots rang out, the Daily News-Record reported.
“We looked out the window, and we saw that two officers were down,” he told the news outlet. “It all happened kind of fast”
College officials asked everyone to shelter in place as several agencies searched for the man, who reportedly was tracked to an off-campus location. The man — identified as 27-year-old Alexander Wyatt Campbell — had a gunshot wound that wasn’t life threatening, though state police as of Feb. 1 said how he was shot was still under investigation, WHSV reported.
News outlets didn’t list an attorney for Campbell, who was charged with capital murder, first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He was taken to the Rockingham County jail, officials said.
After the shooting, police said the investigation was ongoing, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered flags to fly at half-staff as a tribute to the fallen officers. The college president expressed condolences to the officers’ families and said he plans to share information about how to access grief counseling.
“This is a sad and dark day for Bridgewater College,” Bushman said in his statement. “I know we all have so many questions and not many answers. One thing I do know, though, is that we will rally around one another and support each other as we move forward from this day.”
This story was originally published February 2, 2022 at 6:20 AM with the headline "Beloved officers known as ‘dynamic duo’ shot and killed at Virginia college, cops say."
