Fairfax County Police Watch: A Stafford woman wanted for allegedly writing bad checks was shot yesterday by a Fairfax County officer

The Washington Post

July 07, 1998, Tuesday, Final Edition

Police Shoot Woman After Two-County Chase

BYLINE: Wendy Melillo, Washington Post Staff Writer

SECTION: METRO; Pg. D05

LENGTH: 522 words

A Stafford woman wanted for allegedly writing bad checks was shot yesterday by a Fairfax County officer after she led police on a high-speed chase that ended in the parking lot of a Woodlawn area shopping center.

Diana Elizabeth Tyler, 38, was flown to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where she was treated for a neck wound and released. She was being held without bond at the Fairfax jail.

Police said Tyler, who was not carrying a weapon, was shot about 12:30 a.m. as officers struggled to remove her from her 1995 Oldsmobile Achieva in the 8600 block of Richmond Highway. Authorities would not release the name of the officer who shot Tyler or elaborate on the circumstances of the shooting. The officer was placed on administrative leave with pay.

Tyler was charged in Fairfax and Prince William counties with driving on a suspended driver's license and attempting to elude police. Tyler was already wanted in Fairfax County for failing to appear in court after being charged with writing a bad check. She also faces bad check and larceny charges in Stafford and Fredericksburg.

Warren R. Carmichael, a Fairfax police spokesman, said the investigation of the shooting could take several weeks to complete. He said the results will be forwarded to the commonwealth's attorney's office for review.

"Given the circumstances of the chase, the fact that weapons may have been drawn is appropriate," Carmichael said.

The chase began in Prince William County, where authorities said Tyler was spotted driving 25 mph in a 45-mph zone and crossed a double-yellow line three times as she headed north on Jefferson Davis Highway. "Our officers thought she was drunk," said Sgt. Kim Chinn, a Prince William County police spokeswoman.

Chinn said an officer signaled Tyler to pull over, and she appeared to stop by entering the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. But Tyler then allegedly drove around the officer's cruiser and headed south on Jefferson Davis Highway. Two more police cruisers entered the chase and followed Tyler into a used-car lot where she turned around again and headed north, police said.

The officers chased Tyler at speeds up to 75 mph for 27 miles before she entered Fairfax County, police said. At the border, about four Fairfax cruisers joined the chase and followed Tyler for 10 miles before she turned into the the Engleside Plaza parking lot at Richmond Highway and Lukens Lane, police said. As she tried to leave the parking lot, the officers blocked her path with their cruisers and ordered her to get out of her car, police said.

Fairfax County police said Tyler refused to leave her vehicle, and one of their officers shot her as they tried to remove her from the car.

Suzanne V. Suher, Tyler's attorney, declined to comment on the shooting.

Tyler, who was born in Madrid, Spain, has been unemployed for the last year, and she separated from her husband two months ago, according to court records. She was charged in Fairfax County with writing a bad check for $ 261.25 to a Lorton antiques store last Nov. 17. The check was returned because the bank account had been closed.

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.