Cop Receives 'Silver Valor Award' For Shooting Man With Cell Phone He Mistook For Gun

Henrico County police officer Brian K. Anderson remembers how slowly the glass seemed to shatter as he fired his gun through his car window at a man he believed was pointing a gun at him.

“He had a blank look,” Anderson recalled after he accepted the highest award to be given today at the 24th Annual Valor Awards and Ceremony. “He was very disheveled. His hair was just in every direction.”

The man apparently was pointing a cellphone at Anderson, but in that split second, Anderson said he had to think about his own safety and the safety of those around him on the morning of Sept. 9, 2012, at Three Chopt Road and Patterson Avenue.

“I believed it was a gun 100 percent,” Anderson said. The man had led Anderson on a pursuit before their encounter, and Anderson said he had been told the man likely was armed with a handgun. After the incident, a gun was found in the man’s vehicle.

The man was shot in the arm and survived.

Anderson received the Silver Valor Award at today’s ceremony at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.