Fairfax County Police Watch: Police: Former officer, daughter dead in apparent murder-suicide

A 40-year-old man and his 13-year-old daughter were found dead in a black SUV early Tuesday morning in an Annadale driveway.

Jackson and his daughter, of the 5900 block of Summers Lane in Falls Church, are believed to have died between midnight and 1 a.m. Officers were called to the scene about 1:15 a.m., police said.

Fairfax County court records show that Jackson and his wife were going through a bitter divorce last summer but that they dropped the proceedings in January.

Detectives said the evidence points to John Jackson as the shooter, but they were waiting for the state medical examiner to rule on the cause and manner of the pair’s death.

Police declined to discuss a possible motive.

Jackson was a 16-year veteran of the county police force before he resigned in June 2010, said Officer Shelley Broderick, a police spokesman. Broderick said the department could not discuss Jackson’s performance or why he left the force because personnel records are confidential. But those who knew him said he had served with distinction.

Edward J. Nuttall, the former longtime attorney for the Fairfax police officers union, said the incident was “absolutely shocking. He was a hard-working officer, a good supervisor. This one’s hitting a lot of nerves.”

Nuttall said Jackson worked as an undercover narcotics detective early in his career and was promoted to sergeant in 2006. He was last stationed in Mount Vernon.

A 1997 Associated Press article said a county officer named John Jackson saved the life of a choking toddler by performing the Heimlich maneuver at a restaurant.

Police officials would not say whether it was the same John Jackson who died Monday, but they said there were no other officers on the force with that name. Jackson was presented with a Valor Award by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce for saving the child.

The plaudits were in stark contrast to the private life detailed in divorce proceedings. Jackson’s wife filed for divorce in July, alleging that he treated her in a “cruel and abusive manner.”

In an incident in January 2010, she alleged in court papers, her husband made her take off her clothes, drenched them in water and would not let her dress until the next morning. He also brandished a rifle in front of his wife and daughter, according to court papers.

Jackson filed a divorce complaint of his own, saying that his wife had had numerous affairs.

Alexis Jackson was a seventh-grader at Glasgow Middle School in Lincolnia. Grief counselors were at the school Tuesday and will be available for the rest of the week, according to county school officials.

“On behalf of Glasgow Middle School, I have extended our sincere condolences to the family,” Principal Deirdre M. Lavery said in a letter to parents. “A sudden loss like this can have an effect on students. For that reason, we hope that you will listen to your son or daughter as well as discuss with them their feelings and reactions to this tragedy.”

Staff writers Tom Jackman and Jimm Phillips and staff researcher Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.

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.