Fairfax County Police Watch: The Maryland chief medical examiner's office still has not issued a ruling on the cause and manner of the death of an Alexandria man killed in a police chase (By Fairfax County Police)

The Washington Post

August 6, 1999, Friday, Final Edition

Cause of Death Still Uncertain in Beltway Chase; Autopsy Results Awaited to Determine Among Suicide, Crash or Police Shooting

BYLINE: Craig Whitlock, Washington Post Staff Writer

SECTION: METRO; Pg. B02

LENGTH: 705 words

The Maryland chief medical examiner's office still has not issued a ruling on the cause and manner of the death of an Alexandria man killed in a police chase and shootout on the Capital Beltway last week, leaving open the question of whether the man killed himself, died of injuries sustained in a fiery car crash or was fatally shot by a police officer.

Prince George's County police, who are investigating the death of Merachew Lucas Fitigu, 24, said yesterday that they believe he may have committed suicide by shooting himself in the head after leading Fairfax police on a 10-mile chase on the Beltway on July 27. But they cautioned that they have not ruled out other explanations for his death.

"Preliminarily, we are looking into the possibility that the suspect committed suicide," said Prince George's police spokesman Royce D. Holloway. He said police expect to complete the investigation soon after they receive a final autopsy report from the state medical examiner's office in Baltimore, perhaps within a week.

But authorities have not released any specific information about the final minutes of Fitigu's life, such as whether they believe he shot himself before or after the crash, or what prompted a Fairfax County police officer to shoot at Fitigu as he sat in his burning car.

Prince George's police are investigating the case because Fitigu died in the county after leading Fairfax police on a chase from Virginia across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Police said they found a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, 1.75 pounds of marijuana and $ 1,000 cash in Fitigu's black Pontiac Trans Am after he crashed into a guardrail just north of the Temple Hill Road overpass.

Authorities have refused to say whether the gun found in the car had been fired or whether any shell casings were recovered from the scene of the crash. Police have said they found shell casings on the Virginia side of the Wilson Bridge.

Relatives of Fitigu, the son of an Ethiopian diplomat, said they are upset at the lack of clear answers. "We stand around, but we have no idea what to say or what to think," Fitigu's sister, Yodit Fitigu, 27, said in an interview.

Dressed in traditional black Ethiopian mourning clothes outside her mother's apartment in Fairfax, Yodit Fitigu said the family has not heard from Prince George's investigators since last week, when police indicated that they believed Fitigu had committed suicide.

Fairfax police officials have said their pursuit of Fitigu began when he passed through a radar monitor in the Kingstowne area of the county. He eluded police there, but the pursuit picked up again on the Beltway after officers said they saw Fitigu driving erratically. As Fitigu and three patrol cars following him approached the Wilson Bridge, Fitigu fired shots at the police, piercing the fiberglass shell above the grill of a patrol car driven by Fairfax patrol officer Jeffrey K. Rockenbaugh, police said.

Fairfax police said they did not return fire but continued to chase Fitigu into Maryland, where he apparently lost control and struck a guardrail. Rockenbaugh and two other officers quickly arrived on the crash scene and approached Fitigu's car, which was in flames.

What happened next is still unclear. Police sources said investigators believe Fitigu shot himself once in the head as the officers got close to his car. But they believe Rockenbaugh thought that Fitigu was aiming at his pursuers, prompting the officer to fire once at Fitigu, striking him in the right shoulder.

Sources said this scenario is supported by the account of a witness--a Prince George's Fire Department battalion chief who came upon Fitigu's burning car while on the way to another incident--who reported hearing two shots.

Fitigu was pronounced dead at the scene. Yodit Fitigu said that she can't accept the idea that her brother may have killed himself.

"Suicide? No. I really bet my life that he wouldn't do that," she said. "It just doesn't fit him. He's so shy, he's so timid that he blushes when people ask him a question."Yodit Fitigu said her brother had been taking computer programming classes and was working at a convenience store and a computer retail shop in Northern Virginia.

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.