Fairfax County Police Watch: Cop arrested after hitting, threatening pedestrian

A Philadelphia police officer has been arrested for an off-duty incident last fall in which he allegedly drove into a pedestrian - and then threatened to kill him, shouted racial slurs and flashed his gun.

Officer Edward Sawicki III, 33, turned himself in to police today to face charges of terroristic threats, simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime, harassment, and disorderly conduct. Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey suspended him for 30 days, with intent to dismiss.

The Oct. 20 incident occurred at 2:45 a.m. as a pedestrian was walking on Ninth Street near Wharton in South Philadelphia, according to the District Attorney's Office. Sawicki was backing up in his car when he hit the 37-year-old man in his knee. The victim pounded on the trunk of Sawicki’s car with his hand to alert Sawicki that he'd hit him.

Sawicki then leapt out of his car, pulled up his shirt to show his city-issued gun and rushed at the pedestrian, yelling: "N--, I’ll smoke you!” while keeping his hand on his holstered gun, according to the District Attorney's Office.

The victim called police. His gun was confiscated, and Internal Affairs officers investigated. Sawicki, a 9-year veteran, was last assigned to the 25th District in North Philadelphia.

It apparently wasn't the first driving mishap to land Sawicki in trouble. A West Philadelphia man sued Sawicki and another officer in January in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, claiming they beat him and ran him over with their police cruiser during a car stop two years ago.

In that complaint, John Lewis claims that Sawicki and Officer Kelly Robbins stopped a car in which he was a passenger on Jan. 31, 2012, in Fairhill. The officers ordered Lewis and the car's driver to get out and hand over their identification, according to the lawsuit. When Lewis reached for his identification, Sawicki yelled "he is reaching for something!" and began beating Lewis with his nightstick, the complaint charges. Robbins responded: "You hold him and I will give him the Taser," according to the lawsuit.

Lewis "became afraid for his life, having been assaulted and Tasered by police in the past, and managed to get free," the lawsuit stated. Lewis sprinted down the block - but the officers jumped back in their cruiser and ran him down, according to the lawsuit. Lewis suffered a fractured pelvis and elbow, lacerated liver and other injuries in the incident and is suing for medical expenses, emotional distress and punitive damages, according to the complaint.

John Geer

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.