The tears never stop, seven years later –May 2014 shooting death of Purcellville teen a raw memory
By Andrea Gaines
The pain of losing her young son is clearly still raw for this mother, Sandra Sierra, even seven years later.
Sierra’s 17-year-old son, Christian Sierra, was shot dead by Purcellville Police Officer Timothy Hood in May 2014.
We reconnected with Sandra Sierra a few weeks ago. We wanted to know how she and her family were doing. The tears never stop, even seven years later. What to say? We don’t know.
Sierra’s son’s death started so innocuously. Can I use that term?
He was with friends, but talking about harming himself. He was troubled. His friends wanted to protect him. He had a small knife, and his friends called police for help.
When police got there, there were conflicting reports. He was outside, and at least one friend was trying to get the small knife away from him. But a policeman’s firearm was now in the mix, too. And, within seconds, Sierra was dead on the ground, with four bullets in him, three to the chest and one in to the shoulder.
The first moment of reckoning came on that day – May 24, of 2014, as Police Officer Timothy Hood drove up on the reportedly suicidal Sierra and determined he posed a threat.
The second moment of reckoning came when the officer’s fatal shooting of Sierra was ruled “justifiable.” Within a few months of the shooting, then-Loudoun County Commonwealth
Attorney James E. Plowman had decided that the shooting was indeed, “justifiable.”
The third moment of reckoning came after a dramatic and emotional six-day, civil trial where the jury concluded that the officer had acted improperly, and, might also have altered the scene to make it look more dangerous than it was. “It was a good shoot,” the officer had told his Sergeant at the time. A civil jury found otherwise; and found Timothy Hood guilty of battery.
It’s been a hard and painful road for the Sierra family.
The family’s heartbreak continues.
Now, according to Sierra’s mom, the family is trying to move on. She is focused on getting her daughter into college, where she will earn a degree in engineering. Sandra hoped Christian might have done something like that, too.
From her voice as we spoke to her, we understood, there is, frankly, no way to move on from this, without caring part of her son with her – every day. Christian would be in his early 20s now.
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I can’t imagine Mrs. Sierra’s pain and that of her family. However, Officer Hood is an honorable officer as well. Most people are not aware that less evidence is required in civil suits versus criminal suits. Therefore, just because a jury or judge found in favor of the Sierra’s does not mean that what happened was criminal. I did like reading the update on the family, but how about an update on both sides? It’s one sided journalism that plays a role in the political divide our country is in now. How about writing an article in conjunction with this one on how the shooting has affected Officer Hood?
Before I’m called a “Trump-lover” let me say that I am a very liberal Democrat and I’m educated enough to, usually, see both sides. Everyone lately seems to want to make police out to be the bad guys and the reality is that most are good, honest people who truly want to help others in their communities. There are “bad apples” in every profession from teachers to mental health providers to doctors and to police. The problem is that the media typically doesn’t report on the bad apples in other professions and this creates a distrust with members of the community and the police who are trying to protect those members of the community. Who do people call when their car is broken into? Who do they call when there house is robbed? They call the police. So, what if instead of “defunding” police, we increase their budget so that more officers can get training on dealing with mentally ill community members? Or even training on working with people that have disabilities, both visible and invisible?
We are too quick to judge others in positions that we either can’t do, or choose not to participate in. Perhaps if we all showed more empathy and less judgement towards one another, we would be a happier community.