Fairfax County Police Watch: January 2020

Fairfax County police shoot suspect armed with 'assault-style' weapon in Falls Church

A man was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the police officer was not injured.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Fairfax County police shared more details Wednesday on an officer-involved shooting in Falls Church late Tuesday night.

Police said their Special Weapons and Tactics Team were serving a narcotics warrant in the 7600 blocks of Lee Landing Drive around 10 p.m.

As officers went inside the home they came face-to-face with an armed man, identified as 24-year-old David Vo, with an assault-style weapon, police said. One of the SWAT officers fired his weapon, striking Vo, police said.

Officers immediately tended to Vo's wounds and he was taken to a hospital, where he was treated and released, officials said.

Vo was charged with felony distribution of marijuana and felony failure to appear in court, police said. In addition to the underlying charges, police said Vo is also charged with:

• Distribution of Marijuana while Possessing Firearm

• Possession of a Firearm w/ Schedule I or II Drug

• Felony Distribution of Marijuana

• Ammunition Possession By Felon Conviction within 10 years

• Firearm Possession by Non-Violent Felon

• Drugs Possess Schedule I or II

Vo is being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, officials said.

Additional charges are expected, authorities said.

Detectives recovered multiple assault-style weapons, including a pistol and narcotics inside of Vo's home, police said.

The officer that was involved is a 16-year veteran of the Fairfax County Police Department and is assigned to the Special Operations Division, authorities said in a news conference Wednesday.

Police said the officer, who has not yet been identified, was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal and administrative investigation.

The announcement came on the heels of a fatal police shooting Monday in Temple Hills, where a Prince George's County officer was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter after a handcuffed man in the front seat of a police cruiser was killed.

Prince George's County Police Chief Hank Stawinski called the announcement "the most difficult moment of my tenure as your chief of police."

Cpl. Michael Owen Jr. was placed on administrative leave Monday evening and taken into custody late Tuesday afternoon. The incident was not caught on a body camera, as Owen was not wearing one, according to police. On Wednesday, police released the charging documents against Owen.

Meet the police dogs helping officers heal from PTSD

Police dogs have been around for more than a century, sniffing out criminals, detecting explosives, searching for victims and guarding officers and property. Today, K9s are deployed across the country and in most branches of law enforcement, including the TSA, the FBI and Customs and Border Protection. There are so many trained dogs in the field that there doesn’t seem to be an accurate count of how many are on active duty in the United States, let alone in police forces around the world.

But the five new recruits at the Fairfax County, Va., police department have a special mission — to help police officers suffering from psychological trauma and disabled officers with everyday tasks.

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.