Fairfax County Police Watch: Police Shoot Rock-Throwing Man, Could Lead to Largest Protest in Washington State Tri-City Area

Thirty seconds of the incident were caught on video, helping to spur protests expected to be some of the area's largest.

Ed Krayewski

Police in Pasco, Wash., shot and killed Antonio Zambrano-Montes, a 35-year-old orchard worker, after he allegedly threw rocks at police and then tried to run away. Hundreds of people are expected by organizers at a rally this weekend, some hoping it’ll be the largest rally in the tri-city area’s history, in part because thirty seconds of the incident, showing cops trying to use a stun gun and then shooting Zambrano, were caught on video:

A “special unit” of various local police are investigating the shooting, while Pasco police say cops fired because they felt threatened by Zambrano. The police chief, Bob Metzger, spoke with organizers at a local café, telling them police would give them anything they need. “At the end of the day, we want to be safe,” he told them. “We all want to make sure we got home safely to our families. That’s really what I am here to help you with.” Court records show Zambrano had been previously arrested for allegedly throwing objects at officers and allegedly trying to grab an officer’s gun, but wasn’t convicted, and police aren’t saying cops were aware of that.

The county coroner says he is considering whether to request an inquest into the homicide—he’s only done so twice in the last twenty years but says it’s an “open and transparent” process. He may wait until the police investigation is over.

One of the three cops involved in the shooting, Ryan Flannigan, was previously the target of a federal civil rights lawsuit over excessive use of force, where he was accused of brutalizing a 30-year-old mother on her way to pick up her children because she was a Hispanic woman like the teenager police say they were looking for. She says she suffered second degree burns from Flannigan and another cop pressing her face into the hood of their car after she asked for an interpreter. She was briefly charged with “hindering” the investigation but those charges were dismissed. The city settled for $100,000 and Flannigan kept his job.

Zambrano is the fourth man shot by police in Pasco, a city of 68,000, in the last six months. The previous three shootings, each described by police as a confrontation involving an armed suspect, were all ruled justified—one of the men was killed by a SWAT team during a four-hour stand-off after firing more than 70 rounds at police, another after allegedly leading cops on a chase in a stolen car and pointing a pellet gun at them.

The third, Brad Jensen, was shot while refusing to drop a knife after police responded to a call about a man brandishing a knife. He was the son of a former city detective and councilman. If the shooting of Zambrano is ruled justified, it’s likely to be described as a confrontation with an armed man as well.

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.