Henrico Police chief clarifies comments about weekend incident

Henrico Police Chief Eric English clarified to the Citizen Friday comments that he made during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting about an incident last weekend during which officers entered the wrong home.

Police attempting to respond to a GPS-based medical alert call on the night of Nov. 27 inadvertently entered the home of another person, Michael Bass, who claimed in a series of Tweets that night that he had been awakened by officers in his bedroom.

Speaking about the incident to members of the board Tuesday, English said that the department was investigating why the alert system sent officers to the wrong home. He said he understood Bass’s frustration but said that his review of body camera video didn’t place any officers in the bedroom.

“From what I saw, I never even saw officers enter the bedroom,” English said Tuesday, responding to a question from Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson. “[Bass] actually came out and we were still kind of in hallway of the stairwell.”

Thursday night, Bass contacted the Citizen to dispute that claim, saying that he was asleep when police arrived and they woke him up when they entered the bedroom.

Separately Friday, English contacted the Citizen to say that since Tuesday, he had viewed additional body cam video that did indicate at least one officer came from the bedroom and that he didn’t want to misrepresent the division’s response.

“[S]o there was entry into the bedroom,” English wrote. “We are still conducting the investigation.”