Fairfax County Police Watch: The national problem of mentally unstable cops

Retired White Plains cop dead after killing two daughters, family dogs: officials

BY TERENCE CULLEN , NICOLE HENSLEY , THOMAS TRACY , ELI ROSENBERG

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Westchester town shaken by a former police officer's murder of his two teenage daughters continued to come to grips with the unspeakable tragedy Sunday and was scheduled to open at noon to offer counseling to grief-stricken students.

Glen Hochman, a 22-year veteran who left the White Plains Police Department in January — killed his daughters Alissa, 17, and Deanna, 13, as well as the family's pets in their Adelphi Ave. home in Harrison Saturday before killing himself, authorities said.

"No words to describe it," said Chris Garritano, 17, a senior along with Alissa at Harrison High School. "We always hung out. It's just unreal to see her gone....She always seemed happy."

Police did not immediately reveal how the murders were committed. The retired White Plains cop was recently honored for saving a man’s life.

An autopsy was scheduled to determine the facts surrounding the heinous killings of the raven-haired girls. The family’s German shepherd mix and another animal were also slain, neighbors said.

White Plains cop Glen Hochman (left) killed 17-year-old daughter Alissa (right) and another daughter before killing himself Saturday in their Harrison home, authorities said.

“We believe that there were pets that were killed,” Harrison Police Chief Anthony Marraccini said late Saturday.

The 52-year-old Hochman’s wife, Anamarie DiPietro-Hochman, 50, and their eldest daughter, Samantha, 22, were out of town, Marraccini said.

“I do not believe the wife came home,” the police chief explained. “My understanding is they were not on the scene and they did not find the bodies inside the house.”

Harrison police discovered the carnage after a neighbor called 911 at about 3:30 p.m.

DiPietro-Hochman and her surviving family were inconsolable late Saturday and would not come to the phone when reached.

The grieving mom’s Facebook page was teeming with pics of her three beautiful daughters and husband — including one with Hochman shaking the hand of the dog he later apparently killed.

Adelphi Ave. residents were stunned by the untempered violence.

"As I got closer I heard basically crying, screaming," said Dante Garritano, 53, a neighbor who arrived to the crime scene on his block shortly after police. "It's just a shame...Everyone was very upset."

Retired White Plains officer Glen Hochman killed two teenage daughters before killing himself, authorities said. In this exclusive photo, the medical examiner looks over the body of Glen Hochman inside the garage of his Westchester home late Saturday night.

Other neighbors struggled to understand the senseless bloodshed.

“Adorable, sweet kids. Terrific ladies — all of them,” said neighbor Howard Hollander, 52. “I think we’re all shocked by what’s coming out here tonight. I just can’t say anything that would lead to this.”

Hollander described Hochman as a quiet man who would politely say hello when he was out walking the dog.

“He was kind of a to-himself kind of guy,” he said. “He was quiet.”

The Harrison Community School District issued a statement Saturday night, calling the slayings an “incomprehensible tragedy.”

Hochman served with “honor and integrity” and had an unblemished record, White Plains Public Safety Commissioner David Chong said.

“The department is shocked and horrified by the news of this unfathomable tragedy,” Chong said in a statement provided to the Daily News. “We can only pray for the family.”

Hochman and another officer were honored with their department’s Life Saving Award in May 2014 for racing into the home of a dying man and saving his life with CPR.

Neighbors hinted that the retired cop was having marital problems, News 12 Westchester reported.

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.