Fairfax County Police Watch: 07/03/14

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Video was recently released of a Lafayette police lieutenant who pushed over a man in a motorized wheelchair when he ran over his foot.

The release comes nine months to the day of the incident involving Tom Davidson on Oct. 1, 2013.

Video and audio from an LPD dash cam shows 25-year-old Nicholas Kincade saying, “Whoa, what the, the [expletive]?” as he is being pushed over.

Davidson replies, “You did not drive over me [expletive]. Now you’re going to jail. Now you’re going to jail.”

“I didn’t see you,” says Kincade.

It sounds like Davidson answers, “Oh my God, right.”

Finally Kincade responds, “Are you [expletive] kidding me?”

It’s a climax to a dash cam video that begins 12 minutes earlier, around 1 p.m.

Officer Aaron Lorton is among the police who have been called to the Excel Center after Kincade told school security he has a gun in his backpack. While that’s a lie, police do find a pocketknife, so they give him a trespass warning and ask him to leave.

As Kincade starts moving, that’s when Davidson is run over.

“It’s clear to us that the whole use of force in this case could have been avoided just by different positioning, by offset positioning, by moving out of the way, by not standing where he was standing,” said Police Chief Patrick Flannelly Tuesday.

There’s almost four seconds between the time Kincade’s wheelchair starts moving and when it runs over Davidson’s foot.

“Police officers cannot put themselves in a position where the subsequent need to use force is created. We can’t do that,” said Flannelly.

Lorton’s dash cam video continues. Kincade repeats that he didn’t see Davidson.

Almost four minutes later, after Kincade has been moved, Davidson goes back to talk to him.

“Nick, do you understand why I shoved you off me? Because you were driving up on my leg,” Davidson says.

Kincade responds with “I didn’t mean to.”

Flannelly said after an internal review of the incident, he and six other members of the command staff unanimously felt Davidson used both conduct unbecoming an officer and an excessive use of force and should be fired.

On appeal, the five civilians on the Civil Service Commission lessened the punishment, demoting him in rank to officer and giving him 30 days of suspension without pay.

Mayor Tony Roswarski said Tuesday while he respects their decision, he fully supports the LPD recommendation of termination.

Flannelly said an electronic malfunction delayed the review of the case by about three months, but did not affect the outcome.

Davidson is back to work after his suspension, assigned to the administrative services division.

Flannelly said he still has full confidence in Davidson’s abilities.

“He made his mistake. He’s received the punishment. We’ve spoken. The merit board has spoken. The process is done. At this point we move forward,” said Flannelly.

In part, the decision to move forward comes after the special prosecutor appointed to the case, Boone County Prosecutor Todd Meyer, decided not to file criminal charges Tuesday.

Davidson declined to make a comment Tuesday, instead directing calls to his attorney.

Nick Kincade said that seeing the video has made it an emotional day. He believes that Davidson should have been fired. He’s agreed to be interviewed Wednesday.

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.