CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — A couple was under investigation before two Chesapeake police officers pulled them over on July 25 in South Norfolk.
The officers – one assigned to uniform patrol and the other to vice narcotics – approached the stopped car where 27-year-old Holden Medlin sat in the driver’s seat next to his girlfriend and passenger, 19-year-old Sarah Wilson.
It’s unclear how much time passed between the 4:24 p.m. traffic stop, the struggle for arrest and the shot – but by the time the scene was cleared, Wilson had committed suicide and Medlin was arrested.
The traffic stop near the intersection of Berkley Avenue and Wilson Road was not routine, said police spokesman Leo Kosinski.
Although police won’t go into detail, Kosinski confirmed that the couple were known to police and that officers had been actively investigating them before they were stopped.
After the stop, police searched Medlin and the white 1996 Lexus he was driving at the time of the stop. Officers found 11 oxycodone, a syringe, drug paraphernalia, a rifle and several boxes of ammunition, according to court documents.
Those documents also state that Medlin, who resisted arrest and tried to flee the scene, swallowed a “golf ball size bag containing an unknown substance” during the traffic stop.
Kosinski said that Wilson was handcuffed with her arms behind her back when she got the gun out of the car, “contorted” her body and shot herself in the head.
Her suicide came as the two officers who were on the scene tried to restrain Medlin, who was combative. The struggle involved police using a Taser twice on Medlin to subdue him, Kosinksi added.
One police officer was wearing a body camera at the time of the stop. The officer activated the camera, but it was knocked off during the struggle with Medlin.
According to police, the camera hit the ground in a way that turned it “offline,” stopping it from recording.
Medlin was arrested and charged with possession of oxycodone, suboxone and paraphernalia, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm with schedule I or II drugs and fleeing from police.
After Medlin was detained, the officer reattached the body camera and turned it back on to record, police say.
Tia Gold, who’s known Medlin for 12 years, said that the car he was driving didn’t belong to him. Gold, Medlin and Wilson were homeless and living in the car, which was lent to them by a friend.
She has spoken to Medlin once since he’s been in the Chesapeake City Jail. Medlin said that he was on his way to a probation appointment when police pulled him over.
Medlin is a felon, who since 2007 has been convicted of crimes like robbery and statutory burglary in Virginia Beach. In December of 2017, Medlin was charged with two counts of possession of schedule I or II drugs. His case was put on a deferred disposition in Virginia Beach Circuit Court until March 27, 2019.
Medlin declined to interview with 10 On Your Side.