After ramming several police cars and surviving the first volley of gunshots, Brian Good tried one last time to push between the cruisers blocking his escape, according to the woman who was in the truck with him.
"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.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- After ramming several police cars and surviving the first volley of gunshots, Brian Good tried one last time to push between the cruisers blocking his escape, according to the woman who was in the truck with him.
"He said, 'F-- yeah! We're getting out of here now,'" said Natasha Nicole Light.
But she said when Good started ramming the cruisers again, police officers shot him in the head and chest. Good died at the scene on Quick Road, as did Charleston Patrolman Jerry Jones, who was shot by his fellow officers.
Police say Good, 31, of Milliken, led them on a chase at about 9 p.m. Saturday, then was spotted again after midnight. After a second chase, with Natasha Light, 24, in the passenger seat of his pickup, Good drove his truck to the gravel lot where he was killed.
Natasha Light, her husband Jeremy, and Good were four-wheeling in Good's truck in the woods Saturday evening. Her husband and Good were longtime friends, but she said she'd just met him a couple of weeks prior to that night.
They met up around 6 p.m., she said. "We don't know what he was doing before six," her husband said.
As darkness set, Good and the Lights were still riding around, drinking beer and four-wheeling near Campbells Creek. When Jeremy Light got out of the truck to relieve himself in the woods, Good shut the door and took off for Charleston, Natasha Light said.
"I figured they were going to the store to get more beer," Jeremy Light said. He went back to Good's mobile home, which was nearby, Natasha Light said.
She said Good took her into Charleston.
She said she doesn't remember what they did in town, because of shock.
"I just remember driving back from Charleston and looking back and seeing a police car," she said.
She said she noticed the first police cruiser near Capital High School. When she looked back again, there were more police cars, and flashing lights.
"I can't remember everything that happened at that point," she said. "I panicked. I didn't know where we were going or what we were doing."
Light said she called her husband during the chase.
"I was screaming at [Good] to stop, stop," she said.
Light said she and her husband were not on drugs, but had drunk a couple of beers.
"[Good] usually doesn't do drugs," she said, "but I don't know what he was doing that night. ... He wasn't a bad person. He just wasn't himself that night."
She said Good told her to throw a jar of liquid out of the truck, which she did out of fear. She said he kept handing her flasks to throw out the window, which she said she did because he was screaming at her.
"What was I thinking when I threw that out? I was worried it was going to hit the police. He was my friend, but at that point, I was scared of him," she said. "The officer that got shot first, he was the first one chasing us. ... Brian was screaming all this crap at me."
The gravel lot
Near the intersection of Quick Road and Pinch Road, Light said, Good pushed her down to the floor of the truck.
"He did it to protect me," she said. "Then, he knew it was about to get serious.
"He said, 'Light is going to kill me.' He was talking about my husband. He was using it as a figure of speech," she said. "He was freaking out."
Natasha Light said that, from then on, Good held her on the floor of the truck. She could tell that they'd slowed and pulled off into the gravel lot.
Then, Good started ramming police cars.
"They started shooting when he hit the cars," she said. "He hit [the cruisers] three, four times. I mean, I'm feeling it. I'm still sore from where I got banged around."
Light said Good continued ramming the cruisers after the shooting started, ducking down in the seat and bobbing and weaving his head.
"A bunch of shots were fired," she said.
Then the shots stopped. Light believes that, at that point, the police realized they had shot their own officer.
That's when Good decided to try one last time to ram and push the cruisers out of the way, she said, and the police started shooting again.
When the bullets struck Good, his head went back, then his body slumped toward her, Light said.
"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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