Fairfax County Police Watch: 10/21/19

Fairfax County police officer responding to call strikes, kills pedestrian early Sunday

By Luz Lazo

A Fairfax County police officer responding to a call struck and killed a pedestrian in the Falls Church area early Sunday, police said.

The officer was driving in the eastbound lanes of Arlington Boulevard (Route 50), approaching Graham Road when he struck Carlos Romeo Montoya, 40, at a crosswalk about 12:15 a.m., according to police. Police did not have a current address for Montoya.

There is no indication that the officer had activated the lights or siren of his marked cruiser, but he did have a green light, according to Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr.

“The best information we have right now is the officer did have a green light, was proceeding through the intersection, and that the pedestrian unfortunately was crossing against the ‘don’t walk’ sign,” Roessler said at a Sunday afternoon news conference.

The area is a busy commercial corridor that has multiple travel lanes and has come to be known as a dangerous stretch for pedestrians.

The incident closed three lanes of the highway for several hours.

Roessler said the officer, identified only as someone with more than four years of law enforcement experience, was responding to a call for service for disorderly subjects.

Police on Sunday were still trying to determine the actual speed of the cruiser at the time of the crash, Roessler said. The posted speed in the area is 45 mph.

Roessler said the cruiser’s in-car video system shows the officer was driving through a green light, eastbound on Arlington Boulevard approaching the intersection of Graham Road, when he struck the man in the left lane. The officer got out of the cruiser to aid the victim until emergency personnel arrived, Roessler said.

Police said Montoya was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Pedestrians continue to be at high risk on Washington region’s roads, data show

The crash revived concerns about pedestrian safety in the county — where 14 pedestrians have been killed in traffic crashes so far this year — and about that section of Arlington Boulevard in particular, which has a history of tragedies involving pedestrians.

A 36-year-old woman was struck and killed in the area just over a year ago.

The incident also is the latest of several fatal crashes this month involving pedestrians in the Washington region. An unidentified man was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Laurel on Oct. 12. A day later, a 67-year-old Takoma Park man was killed when he was struck by two vehicles at an intersection in the Silver Spring area of Montgomery County. And, last Monday, a 54-year-old Suitland woman was killed in a hit-and-run in Prince George’s County.

The number of pedestrians fatalities in the region has been on the rise in recent years. Pedestrians accounted for one-third of the 290 traffic deaths in the greater Washington area last year — their largest proportion of the region’s road fatalities in more than a decade, according to data compiled by The Washington Post.

Fairfax County traffic-safety advocates said Sunday’s crash highlights the safety concerns along a portion of highway that is known to have poor lighting and where cars are traveling at high speeds and pedestrians are forced to cross eight lanes of traffic.

“Unacceptable!” tweeted Shawn Newman of the Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling.

“This section of Arlington Boulevard is designed for 50+ mph speeds with 8 crossing lanes and minimal light through a dense residential and commercial area,” Newman tweeted using the group’s handle.

In a separate message directed at the Virginia Department of Transportation, the group tweeted: “Stop just telling people to slow down, build the roads safer.”

The Virginia Department of Transportation is conducting a study of a segment of Route 50 between Wilson Boulevard and Jaguar Trail, including the intersection where Sunday’s crash occurred; a public meeting is scheduled for Monday. As part of the study, the department is considering changes to traffic signal timing, turn restrictions and other pedestrian improvements.

Roessler said the investigation into Sunday’s crash will determine the lighting conditions at the intersection as well as condition of the pedestrian walk signs and the speed of the cruiser; it will also include a forensic medical examination.

The officer involved in the crash has been assigned to administrative duties pending the investigation, Roessler said, and the results will be sent to the Fairfax County commonwealth’s attorney’s office for review.

“All of us in the D.C. area are trying to combat the pedestrian crashes and the fatalities, which is very unfortunate in our urbanizing area,” Roessler said. “This is just horrible. . . . We have an individual that has died. It is traumatic. I pray for the victim, their family, this officer.”

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.