Fairfax County Police Watch: 03/04/17

Fairfax County police release name of officer in fatal shooting after he drops suit

By Justin Jouvenal March 2

Fairfax County police released the name Thursday of an officer involved in a fatal shooting in January after he told a federal court that he would drop legal efforts to block making the ¬information public.

Master Police Officer Lance Guckenberger, a 16-year veteran, fatally shot a man in Herndon on Jan. 16 after police said the man lunged at officers with a knife following a standoff at his home.

Police said the man had previously shot two people and was holding a roommate hostage. He also set a fire in the home, putting the roommate at risk.

[Man fatally shot after standoff at Herndon home]

Police said Guckenberger was involved in two previous ¬nonfatal shootings in 2005 and 2010. In both instances, ¬prosecutors found the shootings were -justified.

Guckenberger filed a lawsuit in early February, claiming that the imminent release of his name in the Herndon shooting could put him at risk. Guckenberger cited threats other officers across the country had received after ¬police-involved shootings and use-of-force incidents.

A federal judge granted ¬Guckenberger a temporary restraining order but later rescinded it after Fairfax County police said they were still working to complete a standard threat assessment to ¬determine whether to release his name.

[Federal judge temporarily blocks release of officer’s name in fatal police shooting]

Last Friday, Fairfax County ¬Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. said that he found no credible threat against Guckenberger and that he would inform the officer that he planned to release his name.

Guckenberger could have ¬pursued another injunction but chose not to, according to court filings.

“I’ve been transparent with the officer throughout the entire process as I am with all officers in the same situation,” Roessler said. “In this particular case, we’ve concluded a very thorough risk assessment process. Obviously, there is no credible threat, so we are abiding by the policy [of releasing his name].”

Last year, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors enacted a policy requiring the county police department to release the names of officers involved in the use of deadly force within 10 days of an incident, except in instances in which there are credible threats to officers’ safety.

The policy was adopted as part of a wave of changes after the fatal shooting of an unarmed Springfield man, John Geer, in 2013. Police did not release ¬officer Adam Torres’s name until a judge ordered the department to do so, 16 months after the shooting. Torres ultimately pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Guckenberger’s attorneys thanked the police department for the thorough threat assessment, which was conducted with the assistance of the FBI.

“Police officers who do their job and saves lives under these types of extraordinary circumstances should be afforded ¬appropriate protections and support that are no less than ¬members of the community, especially where all the facts have not been made public due to ongoing investigations,” said Amy -Conway-Hatcher, an attorney for Guckenberger.

The issue of naming officers involved in use-of-force incidents has become a flash point across the country after national protests over fatal encounters between police and minorities.

Reformers say naming officers is critical for transparency, but officers and their unions have said that it can put police in harm’s way.

The criminal and administrative probes are still underway for the fatal shooting involving Guckenberger.

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.