Fairfax County Police Watch: 09/06/18

Fairfax Co. police defend response after killing of Fairfax Co. teen Jholie Moussa

By Max Smith

Fairfax County Police Chief Ed Roessler offered a defense Friday against suggestions they did not move quickly enough or spread the word loudly enough after 16-year-old Jholie Moussa disappeared in January. (WTOP/Max Smith)

FARIFAX, Va. — Fairfax County police offered a defense Friday against suggestions they did not move quickly enough or spread the word loudly enough after 16-year-old Jholie Moussa disappeared in January.

She was found dead two weeks later not far from her home, and on Thursday an ex-boyfriend was charged with her murder.

Police did not put out a public notice that she was missing when her family reported it the Saturday of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. Police initially considered her a possible runaway, since she had said she was going to Norfolk for a party the night prior.

“From the moment that we got this call, we did not stop [the effort] to find Jholie,” Fairfax County Police Chief Ed Roessler said Friday, as her family sat in the back of the room.

“We entered her into the missing juvenile system, which then has national and regional reach,” Roessler said.

Police also checked several leads on Moussa’s possible location that weekend, the department said.

“The police department and every other agency did everything possible to find Jholie. We are now doing everything possible to bring justice,” Roessler said.

Nebiyu Ebrahim, who is now 18, is charged with first degree murder. While the case has been filed in juvenile court since he was under 18 when Moussa was killed, Virginia law outlines a process that would allow the case to be shifted to adult court.

“This is yet another horrible, tragic death of a young person from our community that had a bright future,” Roessler said.

Police continue to search for additional evidence.

A dive team searched for more evidence Friday in a retention pond near Woodlawn Park in the Alexandria area where Moussa’s body was found in a shallow grave. The pond is also near Ebrahim and Moussa’s homes.

Police Body Camera Pilot Program Set To End In Reston District

Researchers are surveying local residents and officers on what they thought of body cameras worn by Fairfax County police.

By Chris Gaudet, Patch Staff

RESTON, VA — A pilot program to test body cameras on Fairfax County police officers ended Friday in the Reston, Mason and Mount Vernon police districts. Officers began wearing the body cameras and undergoing training in mid-February. The program was fully implemented by mid-March.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved the 90-day pilot in November, and it was extended to 180 days to better assess its impact. A total of 203 body-worn cameras was distributed to officers in the Reston, Mount Vernon and Mason districts, as well as to Motor Squad officers and Animal Protection officers. Not all officers wore body cameras, and school resource officers did not participate.

The three police districts were selected for the program because of their communities' diversity, the various types of calls for service and incidents resulting in the use of force, the Police Department said.

Under the program, officers wearing body cameras recorded any call for service, law enforcement action, subject stop, traffic stop, search or police service. Officers did not record in certain situations or places like courthouses and medical facilities.

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American University researchers are studying how the program worked. This includes surveying residents and officers on their perceptions of the body cameras. A full analysis could be released early next year.

Like in-car videos, the body camera program is designed to give Fairfax County police a chance to build trust with the community and bolster accountability. Depending on how the pilot works out, the Board of Supervisors could consider a permanent body camera program.

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.