GAINESVILLE, Va. – A Virginia police detective and hockey coach killed himself after police tried to arrest him for soliciting a minor, Prince William County police said.
On Tuesday, detectives responded to 39-year-old David Edward Abbott Jr.’s home in the 13700 block of Senea Dr in Gainesville. Once at the home, detectives said he refused to surrender to police.
While police tried to talk with Abbott, they said he pulled out a gun and shot himself. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
On December 14, detectives began an investigation into Abbott who was accused of being in an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old boy.
According to police, Abbott met the teen through a Prince William County hockey league where he was a coach. Detectives said the inappropriate contact began in 2013 when the victim was 11-years-old.
Witness photos show officers swarming Abbott’s home.
“There were cops up and down the street from here and back. It was closed off and just a really big police presence,” Connor Donelan, a neighbor, said
Abbott’s relationship with the victim consisted of soliciting sexual acts via phone, text, social media and email, police said. The two also had face to face interactions, according to police.
Throughout their investigation, detectives learned that Abbott also had an inappropriate relationship with a second male victim affiliated with the hockey league. Communication with the second victim began in June of 2008 when he was 13-years-old.
Abbott was a Manassas City police detective who served on the Northern Virginia-Washington D.C. Internet Crimes against Children Task Force. He faced two counts of indecent liberties by a custodian and two counts of use of a communications device to solicit sexual offenses.
Abbott’s neighbors were shocked by what happened.
“It is kind of sickening to me really,” Donelan said.
