Fairfax County Police Watch: Murderous Arrogance: Six years later the Fairfax County Police Release tape of questionable killing…

Once again Sharon Bulova and John Faust said nothing and did nothing about it and now they want you to reelect them.

Fairfax County police release video in 2009 officer involved shooting

By Tom Jackman May 6 at 5:33 PM

Fairfax County police Officer David S. Ziants, left, and an unidentified Fairfax officer approach a green Chevrolet Blazer, right, seconds before Ziants shot and killed the unarmed driver, David Masters. (Fairfax County Police Department dashboard video)

Note: This post has been updated to edit the video and add the comments of Masters’ father and ex-wife.

David Masters of Fredericksburg was shot and killed by Fairfax County police Officer David Scott Ziants on Nov. 13, 2009, as Masters drove on Route 1 in the Alexandria area of Fairfax County. Masters was unarmed and had ripped some flowers out of a planter in front of a business, which led to the police pursuit.

On Wednesday, the Fairfax police released the dash cam video from Ziants’s car. The actual shooting is not visible, but the sounds of the shots can be heard (at 1:49), followed by another officer apparently telling Ziants, “What are you doing? Hold up! Whoa! Hold up! The —- you doing dude? Come on.”

Fairfax County police release 2009 video of officer involved shooting(3:00)

On Wednesday, Fairfax County police released dash cam footage of the 2009 chase of David Masters, which ended in him being fatally shot by police. (YouTube/Fairfax County Government)

Fairfax police did not explain why they chose today, more than five years later, to release the video. In March, the police rejected a freedom of information act request from The Washington Post to allow a review of the investigative file in the case, also without explanation. In Virginia, law enforcement agencies may release, or withhold, any investigative information under state public information law, indefinitely.

[The circumstances leading up to the death of David Masters on Route 1.]

In a statement accompanying the release, Fairfax police Chief Edwin C. Roessler said: “In an effort to continue with increasing our transparency and the public trust, I have exercised my discretion under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act by authorizing the release of the in-car video from the criminal investigation into the officer-involved shooting of David Masters that occurred in the Mount Vernon District on Friday, November 13, 2009. Based on several requests, the video was provided to the Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission and is posted here. In reaching my decision to release the in-car video, I considered the following factors: the local criminal investigation has been completed; the U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation has been completed; and there is no pending or threatened civil litigation.”

Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh ruled in January 2010 that Ziants had not committed a crime, because Ziants believed that Masters was driving a stolen car, was reaching for a gun and had run over another officer, none of which was true. Ziants was allowed to remain on the force until May 2011, when then-Chief David M. Rohrer fired Ziants.

Barrie Masters, 83, said the Fairfax police sent him a link to watch the video, and “I am really distraught. It’s totally wiped me out.” He asked, “How can we live in a world where a cop can just come up behind somebody, no matter what he thinks has been going on, and just shoot him in the back?”

Barrie Masters, a former Army colonel now living in Florida, said, “The fact is, if David committed a crime, the most it was was a misdemeanor for five dollars worth of flowers. The [police] regulations specifically prohibit the use of deadly force.” Masters said he was still hopeful that a special prosecutor might be empaneled to investigate and charge Ziants.

Gail Masters, who was David Masters’s ex-wife and remained his best friend and caretaker, was devastated again Wednesday after seeing the video. Fairfax police did not contact her, though she is the executor of his estate.

“I’m still miserable,” she said. “I’ve been praying that they would charge him [Ziants]. It’s not fair that he’s out there having a good time and Dave’s gone. I haven’t been myself since it happened. It’s just like they say, a part of you leaves and doesn’t come back.”

David Masters was 52, a former Army Green Beret and carpenter living on disability payments after a work accident, and had bipolar disorder, his ex-wife said. He was driving a blue-green Chevrolet Blazer with the license plate “F001″ up Route 1 from Fredericksburg when he apparently pulled over outside a landscaping business and ripped some flowers out of some planters. An employee confronted him, but Masters hopped in the Blazer, with several of his ex-wife’s puppies inside, and continued north.

The landscaping employee called police. As Masters headed north on Route 1, Ziants spotted him. Ziants, then 26 and a former Army soldier, told police that he confused Ziants’ vehicle with another vehicle wanted in a stolen car case, Morrogh said in 2010. The video shows Ziants turning on his lights and siren and pursuing Masters for about a mile up the highway, with Masters at one point running a red light, then squeezing through stopped cars at another intersection, refusing to stop for the officer.

Finally at Fort Hunt Road, another Fairfax cruiser blocks Masters’ Blazer in. Ziants and two other officers approach the car. But the light turns green and the Blazer starts to pull away. Ziants yells for the Blazer to stop, while another officer appears to tell him, “No no no no.” Then, two shots, while the other officer loudly implores him to stop firing.

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.