If you thought there was something fishy about police who were investigating a sexting case trying to obtain photos of a teen's erect penis, you may have been onto something. The lead investigator in that case, David Edward Abbott, killed himself Tuesday morning when officers showed up at his Virginia home to arrest him for child sex crimes, NBC Washington reports. In a statement, Prince William County Police said that when detectives tried to execute arrest warrants and a search warrant at the home Abbott shared with his mother, he refused to surrender. After an hourslong standoff, the 39-year-old officer shot himself while he was communicating with police. The charges against him included two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child, police said.
Abbott—who served on the Northern Virginia-Washington DC Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force—was accused of inappropriate contact with 13-year-old boys on the hockey team he coached in his spare time, the Washington Post reports. Investigators say one boy was 11 when Abbott started asking him for sex. Manassas City Police issued a statement saying that despite recent developments, they are grateful for his role in the "prosecution and conviction of hundreds of criminals." The Post notes that in the sexting case last year, in which the 17-year-old was accused of making child pornography of himself by sending explicit images to his girlfriend, authorities decided against taking photos of the boy's penis, but Abbott still sued a lawyer who called the plan "crazy." (More Virginia stories.)
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