Fairfax County Police Watch: 02/13/15

Allegheny County sheriff's deputy involved in fatal shooting tested positive for cocaine

Police and other law enforcement officers investigate the scene of a Jan. 6 shooting in Knoxville that occurred when authorities went to serve an arrest warrant at a home.

By Paula Reed Ward and Liz Navrati / PittsburghPost-Gazette

An Allegheny County sheriff's deputy tested positive for cocaine in the hours after he was involved in the fatal shooting of a suspect last month.

Deputy Richard Dwyer has received notice of termination and will go through the grievance process as part of his union rights, officials said.

It’s unclear how much cocaine was in Deputy Dwyer’s system the morning of Jan. 6, when members of a federal fugitive task force went to the Knoxville home of Leslie Sapp III, 47, to arrest him on charges that he sexually assaulted a child. Officials said Sapp confronted officers with an airsoft gun, and several of them opened fire, including Deputy Dwyer.

Sheriff’s department policy requires that any officer who discharges a weapon undergo drug testing. In this case, the urine test for Deputy Dwyer came back positive for cocaine.

District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Wednesday that Sheriff William P. Mullen ‘‘briefed me personally as soon as he got the results back on this.’’

Mr. Zappala said he had not yet seen the test results, as the sheriff requested that he get a subpoena to obtain them.

‘‘We have not reached a conclusion as to whether that affected the [deputy's] cognitive abilities,’’ Mr. Zappala said, noting that he plans to consult with a toxicologist after he receives the test results to try determine whether Deputy Dwyer was intoxicated at the time of the shooting.

‘‘If an officer is under the influence of drugs and it affects his cognitive skills and somehow this person is dead because he didn’t react properly because of those drugs, that could be involuntary manslaughter,’’ the district attorney said.

Deputy Dwyer did not return a call seeking comment.

Mr. Zappala and Pittsburgh police Chief Cameron McLay, whose officers are leading the investigation, said that detectives continue to gather evidence.

The district attorney said task force members consistently described a scenario in which Sapp, armed with a black gun that shoots pellets, walked down a set of stairs toward the officers ‘‘with both hands on what they believed to be a weapon.’’

It’s unclear who shot first.

Detectives found 15 shell casings from four weapons, Mr. Zappala said. Seven shots struck Sapp. Mr. Zappala said the fatal shot, which traveled upward through Sapp’s heart, was fired by someone using a .40-caliber gun. He said Deputy Dwyer used a .45-caliber gun.

Although officials are considering the shot to the heart the fatal wound, ‘‘There are theories that being hit seven times, the accumulation of that many hits was fatal,’’ Mr. Zappala said.

The district attorney, who ultimately will decide whether to file charges in the case, said he hopes to complete his review of the shooting ‘‘fairly quickly.’’

Sheriff Mullen refused to comment.

Deputy Dwyer was recognized in November at the annual Law Enforcement Agency Directors award ceremony for helping to clear 201 warrants and make 134 fugitive arrests.

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.