Culpeper Cop’s Murder Trial Begins

January 22, 2013 7:19 AM

<> on February 2, 2009 in Miami, Florida.

File photo of a courtroom. (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

CULPEPER, Va. (CBSDC/AP) — The case of a former Culpeper police officer charged with murder is heading to trial.

Daniel Harmon-Wright’s trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday morning in Culpeper County Circuit Court.

Harmon-Wright is accused of fatally shooting 54-year-old Patricia Ann Cook on Feb. 9, 2012. Police have said Harmon-Wright was responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle in a church parking lot when he shot Cook, who was unarmed.

He was fired from his job in June 2012 following his indictment by a grand jury.

Harmon-Wright is charged with murder, malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle, malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle resulting in a death, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Cook’s husband died of natural causes last September.