Fairfax County Police Watch: The epidemic of drunk and drugged up cops in America

Fairfax County cops execute another unarmed man

The Fairfax County Police shot an killed an unarmed man who was alone in his home. The police caused the situation, they escalated the situation and they handled it poorly and are expected to take several weeks to develop their justification story.

Police said they were responding….in force with a tank, a helecopter, a SWAT team, K-p units, and no less than 23 cops to a “Domestic dispute” but Geer was alone in the house. The victim of this police shooting this time was John Geer, age 46, a kitchen installer with no history of violence had to end in death. He left behind two teenage daughters.

According to Geer’s father, Geer had been throwing his estranged wife’s belongings, she is 24 years old, into the front yard because she was leaving him, so she called the cops who marked the call as a domestic dispute. She was asked if there were guns in the house and she said there was. The weapons were under lock and key

There's a Maura Harrington listed at the same address where the killing took place.

Neighbors recalled him as even-keeled, outgoing and helpful. A search of police records in Fairfax County showed that Geer was found guilty of drunken driving in 2010 but no convictions for violent crimes or more serious offenses. A neighbor said he talked to Geer in the minutes before the police encounter. He said that Geer didn’t say anything suicidal but he was deeply shaken about the impending breakup.

For forty minutes the cops demanded that Geer, who stood at his front door, for forty minutes "They just continued to tell him: come out, come out, come out," said one witness.

Geer had not showed the cops any sort of weapon nor had he advanced toward them. He made no mention of harming himself or others. Geer’s hands were up in the air, seconds before he was gunned down because they were on top of the storm door. He as shot in the chest while slowly lowering his hands. He had no weapon in his possession and there was no weapon within his reach.

Shot in the chest, Greer pushed his way back into the house and bled to death. The heros from the SWAT team entered the house by way of tank one hour later and found Geer dead.

NOPD: officer suspended without pay after being booked with DWI in off-duty car wreck on I-10

NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans police officer has been suspended without pay after being booked with drunk driving while off duty, the department said Sunday.

Officer Jayson Germann of the Gang Intelligence Unit was driving his take-home car when an accident occurred shortly after 2:30 a.m. Sunday, New Orleans Police Department spokeswoman Remi (REM-ee) Braden said.

Germann, 38, of Bush, apparently lost control of the unmarked 2002 Chevrolet Impala, hit a guardrail on the Interstate 10 twin span, swerved back and hit a 1999 Geo, State Trooper Nick Manale said in an email.

Fayetteville police officer charged with driving while impaired

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Authorities said a Fayetteville police officer was charged with driving while impaired after being arrested in Wilmington on Sunday. Fayetteville police said 32-year-old Kevin Smith was arrested around 1 a.m. while off-duty in a Toyota SUV.

Douglasville police officer charged with DUI after crash

DOUGLAS COUNTY, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -

Douglasville police officer was charged with DUI after he was injured in a car accident Thursday morning. Georgia State police report Officer Torre Langley overturned his personal vehicle after striking a culvert. The accident happened just after midnight near the intersection of Highway 5 and Sweetwater Road. Langley was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital and he is reportedly in the ICU. Georgia State police said a blood test was taken for alcohol impairment, and the results are pending. Langley was charged with DUI and failure to maintain lane.

Bethlehem police officer charged with DUI waives hearing

Bethlehem police officer Richard Hoffman is charged with drunken driving after an Aug. 8 crash, police officials said. (August 14, 2013)

Hoffman, 34, had a blood-alcohol content of 0.16 percent, twice the state's legal limit to drive, Aug. 8 when he plowed into cars at East Broad and High streets in the city, police said. He admitted he had been drinking, police said.

North Charleston, South Carolina: An off-duty police officer was charged with driving under the influence after an accident. ow.ly/oaPvq

Ottawa County, Michigan: A sheriff’s deputy has been suspended for 30 days for “inappropriate behavior.” He was placed on unpaid suspension after an internal investigation. ow.ly/oawOC

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.