A former Culpeper police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman has lost an appeal of his conviction.
Media reports say the Court of Appeals of Virginia denied Daniel Harmon-Wright's appeal on Thursday. He is serving a three-year sentence in the death of Patricia Ann Cook, 54, as she sat in her Jeep in a Catholic school parking lot in February 2012.
Harmon-Wright fired into Cook's vehicle seven times. He claimed she rolled up her car window on his arm and attempted to drive away.
However, an eyewitness said the officer had one hand on Cook's door handle and another on his gun, saying Cook posed no threat to the officer. "She had a manual, roll-up window -- the old crank kind," the witness said. "To catch one's arm in that, from a common sense standpoint, doesn't make sense to me."
Harmon-Wright was convicted in January of voluntary manslaughter, among other charges.
Cook's husband has filed a $5 million wrongful death suit in the fatal shooting.
