Fairfax County Police Watch: St. Pete Police Officer Fired, Two More Suspended

A St. Petersburg Police Officer has been fired and two more suspended following a shooting during the investigation of an occupied stolen car on April 15.

Officers Disciplined:

• Officer George Graves, 30, was fired. He had been with the department since November 2008.

• Officer Brandon Bill, 32, received an 80-hour unpaid suspension. He has been with the department since November 2008.

• Officer Richard Bishop, 31, also received an 80-hour unpaid suspension. He has been a police officer since May 2011.

An internal investigation found Bill and Bishop were at fault for walking in front of the vehicle while leaving a position of safety and shooting at the moving vehicle.

Graves had several violations, including "serious neglect, incompetence, or inefficiency in the performance of assigned duties."

How It Happened?

According to police, Bill and Bishop approached the stolen vehicle unaware it was occupied. Once they realized it was, they drew their firearms and shouted commands at the occupants.

Police said the driver of the stolen car opened the door but then began to drive away. Bishop then walked in front of the moving vehicle and fired his gun at the driver while he was stumbling backward.

The vehicle then tried to turn north in the alley, located between 26th Street South and Auburn Street, but struck a tree. Bill moved toward the vehicle but as he approached, the vehicle backed up and hit Bill on the holster of his right hip.

After being hit, Bill was now stuck between the fence and the car. Bill said fearing he would be crushed, he began shooting at the driver's side of the car. Thinking Bill was in danger, officials said Bishop fired his gun a second time.

The vehicle continued to back out and left the alley.

Graves, who police said has taken a perimeter in the alley, heard multiple gunshots and left his vehicle. He saw the car leaving the scene and he fired his gun twice, police said.

According to police, the car stopped in another alley and the female passenger of the car was taken into custody and treated for a non-life threatening gunshot wound. The driver fled but was later captured.

Graves was cited for carrying two firearms, telling an inconsistent story to the department and carelessly shooting at a moving vehicle.

According to the police shooting review board, Graves "heard the initial rounds being discharged in the alley, but had no information of what had actually occurred. He was aware they were working a stolen vehicle as he had helped with the surveillance.

"His testimony was very inconsistent with the evidence of the case," the police report continued. "He fired two rounds at the vehicle, which was over 90 ft. away when he discharged his firearm, and the vehicle was traveling away from him in a 90-degree direction. No one was being threatened with death or great bodily harm at the time he discharged his weapon

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.