Fairfax County Police Watch: Family dog killing;the national sport of America's cops

Chandler Police officers shoot dog; family says it wasn't necessary

By Nicole Garcia, FOX 10 News

CHANDLER, Ariz. - A Chandler family is demanding answers from Chandler Police after officers opened fired on their dog killing it, even though it was in their own yard.

Caution: the video attached to this story is graphic and may not be suitable for all audiences.

That family is very emotional, and an internal investigation is launched after the officer killed the dog when it was fighting with another dog inside its fenced enclosure.

"I don't see again, his need to walk 12 feet from the sidewalk to an enclosure and shoot my dog," said Javier Robles.

Robles is 3-year-old Simone's owner, Simone is one of the familys pit bulls. She was inside the enclosure when the officer shot him. He said his 3-year-old daughter saw the shooting from inside the home, and now she is traumatized.

"She says that her doggie blew up, that she hates cop; she woke up having a nightmare last night saying that her doggie blew up, she's been crying all day," he said.

Chandler Police said they got two 911 calls about two dogs fighting. When they arrived they found one dog had the other dogs face in his mouth. The dogs were separated by the fence and when one officer could not separate the dogs using a baton the other officer shot Simone.

But Robles doubts the officers account of what happened. "It's physically impossible for a pit bull to fit its mouth threw that small opening, the blood, you see there and on the floor, is from the officer, you can even see brain fragments because the officer blew my dogs brains out. Right here, point blank," said Robles.

He recorded a confrontation with officers who refused to tell him why they shot his dog.

Robles says he has surveillance video of the shooting. Police could not say whether the dogs threatened the officers, neither officer was injured.

An investigation into the shooting is underway as is an internal investigation into the use of force by officers. The officer who opened fire, remains on duty during both investigations.

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.