Police called to 3 deaths in one day

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) - Within 12 hours on Tuesday, Portsmouth police were called to three death investigations, resulting in the use of an extreme amount of manpower.

Around 5:30 a.m., officers responded to a vehicle fire off Florida Avenue , but when they arrived they found a man dead inside.  Ten hours later, police were back in the same area of Port Norfolk. A woman's friends called 911 after they found her in a home off Broad Street not breathing. Police soon deemed the case a homicide.

Detective Jan Westerbeck said the day was a busy one for police, but added, "We do whatever we can to make the public feel safe and we pull in resources from other areas within the department. For instance, we have Property Crimes detectives or Special Victims Unit detectives assisting the Homicide detectives."

While the two earlier death investigations were going on, police were called to a possible barricade situation on River Cove.  A sheriff's deputy serving civil papers at that address heard a gunshot, retreated and called in additional officers.  The SWAT team responded and later found a man inside dead inside the home from a gunshot wound. 

Westerbeck said, "We had to go a step further and get our tactical officers involved, K-9 involved. We had sheriff's deputies assisting us. A tremendous amount of manpower." 

Right now, detectives have no suspects in wither homicide. The Medical Examiner is performing autopsies on the victims. Police are also still investigating the situation on River Cove.