September 19, 2009
Woman speaks out
Truck passener tells her version of chase that ended in deaths
Page 2 of 2
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"I had his blood all over me. It leaked through my sweatshirt," she said. "I was in total shock."

After police got her out of the car, Light remembers a Kanawha County sheriff's deputy being nice to her.

"He was very concerned about me," she said. "Then a Charleston Police cop started running his mouth to me."

The Charleston officer turned her around and handcuffed her, Light said. As he put her in the back of a cruiser, she said, he bounced her head off the car. She said she needed four stitches.

"They lost an officer," Light said, "and he took it out on me."

Light was taken to Charleston Area Medical Center, where she said she wasn't allowed to call her family during the night, until the nurses changed shifts. Then a nurse called her mother for her.

"[The police] wouldn't let me call anybody," she said.

On the night of the shootings, a Charleston police officer issued her a citation, but prosecutors have dismissed that charge, said Kanawha County Prosecutor Mark Plants. He believed the citation was for battery on a police officer.

"Once we got involved, which was that morning, we wanted the sheriff's department to handle the entire investigation, and any and all charges," Plants said. "That citation was dismissed, pending the sheriff's deputies' investigation of the entire matter."

Plants said it was too early to determine whether Light would face any criminal charges stemming from the night of the shooting.

"Once [they] get the full investigation done, we'll look at all the evidence and see what, if any, charges need to be filed [against her]," he said. "That's the same as any case."

Light has had her own previous run-in with the law. In May, police arrested her and charged her with violating a domestic-violence protective order, fleeing on foot and three counts of battery on a police officer after she allegedly kicked two Charleston police officers. The officers were trying to serve a domestic-battery warrant when she allegedly became violent.

Light said she feels bad about what happened last weekend - what happened to Good and also what happened to Jones.

"He was just trying to do his job," she said.

Good's funeral

Brian Good's funeral was held Friday. There were no state or city officials, no police officers - just grieving family and friends.

Good's mother, Patricia Harrison, encouraged journalists to photograph the funeral.

"Brian had a lot of loved ones," Harrison said. "He didn't deserve to be killed in cold blood."

Outside the funeral home, friends and family smoked cigarettes and talked about Good and what happened to him.

"He was a loving person," said a woman who gave her name as Shana and described herself as a friend of the family. "He stayed with me up in Rand. He would bring me Pampers for my baby. He didn't deserve this."

"When you have spike strips and Tasers, why do you have to blow somebody's head off?" asked one relative, tears in her eyes. "I mean, he's only five-four. Come on."

Photos of Good were tacked to a display inside the funeral home. One showed him with his children, another on a fishing trip.

"He loved to fish," Harrison said.

Good's oldest daughter, Savannah Jo Chandler, 14, weaved through the crowd of relatives, talking to everyone.

"I remember: Brian was a little boy. He was about 6 years old, I believe," said Rev. Gene Pauley. "This little boy grew up into a man. God's and his family's love for him never changed."

As the funeral ended, Good's family surrounded the open casket, their arms around one another.

Chris Dorst | Saturday Gazette-Mail photos

Natasha Light is comforted by her husband, Jeremy, as she relates what happened early Sunday when she was in the truck with Brian Good when Good and Charleston police Officer Jerry Jones were shot and killed.

Friends and family members comfort each other after Brian Good's funeral Friday in South Charleston.

Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.

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