Fairfax County Police Watch: Again we need national IQ standards for cops

CA: Officer accidentally shot man, will not be charged

By Catherine Rogers

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — A Chesapeake officer who shot an unarmed man in Portsmouth will not be charged by prosecutors, who say it was all just an accident.

Bill Prince, a spokesman for the Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney, said a Portsmouth police investigation determined the shooting of 27-year-old Michael L. Smith was unintentional. He said there was no evidence that Chesapeake Officer Elliot Boyd, Jr. had any criminal intent.

Boyd’s police vehicle with a bullet hole through the windshield, at the June 12, 2014 scene (WAVY).

Smith was walking near the intersection of South Street and Cumberland Avenue around 2:20 p.m., June 12 when he was approached by Boyd in an unmarked patrol car. The officer was trying to serve Smith outstanding warrants from Maryland for first degree burglary, fourth degree burglary, malicious destruction of property, stolen firearm, third degree burglary and theft $1,000 to $10,000, according to Lt. Joe Zurolo with the Elkton Police Department.

“As the officers’ vehicle approached Smith in an attempt to apprehend him, a firearm was discharged from inside the unmarked police vehicle,” Portsmouth Detective Misty Holley said.

Boyd shot his firearm through the windshield of his vehicle; the bullet grazed Smith’s arm and entered his chest.

“Yes, [the bullet] went through the windshield … it struck me … and the bullet is still in me … I did not have a gun … I did have a pocket knife,” Smith told WAVY.com from Portsmouth City Jail several days after the incident.

Smith said Boyd’s partner immediately questioned the officer’s actions: “The partner said, ‘why did you fire?’ The officer who shot me then went back and sat in the car.”

Smith was carrying a plastic bag at the time he was shot on June 12, 2014 (WAVY).

Smith was transported to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, treated, and several days later taken to Portsmouth City Jail.

The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office said Smith did not give Boyd any reason to shoot him.

Chesapeake Police Chief Kelvin Wright released a statement this week, saying Officer Boyd — a 25-year police veteran — remains on administrative duty while the department complete’s an internal investigation of the incident.

“The purpose of this investigation is to review and determine if the department’s policies and procedures were correctly followed,” Wright said. “The conduct of the officer as it relates to the performance of their duties will be evaluated and if appropriate corrective action will take place.”

The results of the internal investigation will not be released to the public, he said

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.