Fairfax County Police Watch: 06/18/20

Hell has frozen over; a Fairfax County cop finally gets arrested.

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (ABC7) — In the wake of George Floyd’s police-custody death in Minneapolis, a Fairfax County Police officer was arrested for misdemeanor assault and battery.

A fellow officer’s body camera captured Officer Tyler Timberlake tasing an unarmed man who was having some sort of episode in the middle of a Mount Vernon street.

After the unarmed man was on the ground, the camera showed Officer Timberlake putting his knee on the man’s back, hitting him with the taser, then tasing him again.

The officer’s attorney said Timberlake thought the man was a different person.

The Police Chief, Commonwealth’s Attorney and County Executive condemned the officer’s actions.

Tuesday afternoon Chief Ed Roessler and Chief Equity Officer Karla Bruce reiterated Fairfax County’s values and the reforms it has made over the years to improve the department’s Use of Force Policy.

The Chief also updated the community on the body camera program, which the County Executive is accelerating after funding issues (especially with COVID-19) delayed Phase II and Phase II.

Phase I provided 416 cameras to the Mason, Reston and Mount Vernon Stations, as well as a few divisions within the department.

Once fully implemented, there will be more than 1,200 cameras on the streets of Fairfax County. The program costs more than $6 million.

The county’s policies and procedures were updated after the shooting of John Geer in 2013.

The Department’s Use of Force Policy only allows deadly force “in the most extreme circumstances where all lesser means of force have failed or could not reasonably be utilized.”

The department requires “officers hold the highest regard for the sanctity of human life, dignity and liberty of all individuals.”

Officers have a duty to intervene if they see another officer using excessive force.

Choke holds are banned, and de-escalation is expected.

if Descano were not in office, Timberlake would have gotten a medal

June 8:

A white Virginia police officer has been charged with assault and battery in connection with the use of a stun gun on a black man.

Body camera video shown at a press conference late Saturday shows Fairfax County police Officer Tyler Timberlake was trying to get the man into an ambulance to go to a detox center on Friday.

Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. says it’s unclear why Timberlake used the stun gun, but said he was "disgusted" after viewing the footage, which appeared to show him deploy an electronic control weapon and "escalate further" the situation.

"The video also erodes the public's trust of police officers, not only in Fairfax County but throughout this world," Roessler Jr. said at the briefing. "These acts are unacceptable."

He says the man has been released from the hospital.

It’s unclear whether Timberlake has a lawyer to comment on the incident.

Police were responding to a 911 call on Friday afternoon in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Fairfax County about a man "walking in the street shouting that he needed oxygen," Roessler said. The unidentified man was having some type of "episode," he added.

In the video, which the police department released to the public, someone can be heard attempting to get the man off a residential street and into an ambulance up the block. Another person, who appeared to be a medic, also addressed the victim, saying, "I'm here to help you, so tell me what you need."

While the man is walking on the street, the video appeared to show Timberlake approach and deploy a stun gun multiple times and put his knees on the man's back. The victim repeatedly shouts "No!" and says "I can't breathe" several times after being handcuffed.

Timberlake was charged on Saturday evening with three counts of misdemeanor assault and battery and faces up to 36 months of incarceration. He turned himself in to the Fairfax County Magistrate's Office on Saturday and was released on a personal recognizance bond, according to the Fairfax County Police Department's Media Relations Bureau.

Timberlake has been an officer for eight years and was assigned to the Mount Vernon District, Roessler said. The police chief said he is unable to comment on Timberlake's personnel history at this time.

Along with Timberlake, the other officers involved in the incident have been relieved of their law enforcement duties and placed on paid administrative leave pending criminal and administrative investigations, Roessler said. The other officers have not been charged.

Timberlake's "horrible use of force" will undergo an independent review by the Fairfax County police auditor, Roessler said. The county appointed its first independent police auditor in 2017.

The victim was treated at a local hospital and released and as of Saturday night was "at home resting with his family," Roessler said.

Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano called the footage "unsettling" and stressed the importance of body-worn cameras in this investigation.

"We are fortunate that this technology was in use in the region of the county within which this incident occurred," he said at Saturday's news briefing. "Without it, I fear we would have had an unfortunately narrow and somewhat distorted view of what happened in one of our own neighborhoods."

The incident comes amid mass demonstrations across the U.S. protesting against police brutality and racism following the death of George Floyd on May 25 while in police custody. In that case, second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter charges have been filed against Derek Chauvin, the ex-officer who prosecutors say held his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes.

Chauvin is set to make his first court appearance on Monday; his attorney has not commented on the case. Three other officers have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting manslaughter. Attorneys for two of the officers said the rookie cops tried to urge Chauvin to stop. All four officers have been fired.

YEAH BUT ITS STILL WRONG: Timberlake thought he shot a person named Anthony, who had an extensive criminal record. But the victim was somebody else entirely.

June 9:

Lawyers say a Fairfax County police officer charged with assault after firing a stun gun at an unarmed African American man believed his target was somebody else.

WTOP Radio reports that both a prosecutor and a defense lawyer for Officer Tyler Timberlake agreed at a hearing Tuesday in Fairfax County General District Court that Timberlake thought he shot a person named Anthony, who had an extensive criminal record. But the victim was somebody else entirely.

Defense attorney Brandon Shapiro said the fact is relevant to Timberlake's defense because it shows his actions toward the individual were not irrational.

Body-worn camera footage released by Fairfax County Police shows Timberlake, who is white, arrived on scene Friday in the county's Gum Springs neighborhood, advanced on an African American man and quickly fired his stun gun after other officers had spent several minutes trying to persuade him to get into an ambulance to go to a detox center.

Prosecutor Bob Frank disagreed about the relevance of the mistaken identity.

“A mistake on his part does not justify what he did,” Frank said.

Shapiro said Timberlake has no history of previous incidents and that the widely seen video is jeopardizing his client's right to a fair trial.

A judge granted a request from Shapiro that prosecutors turn over other video and recordings from before and after the shooting., including what Shapiro said were urgent requests for backup from officers prior to Timberlake's arrival on the scene.

The victim, who was acting in a disoriented manner in the middle of a residential street when he was shot, was treated at a hospital and released.

Timberlake, who is free pending trial, did not attend the hearing.

Charges dropped against man shot by Virginia officer with stun gun

By Associated Press ; Meredith Deliso, ABC News |

Prosecutors are dropping charges against an African American man who was shot by a police officer with a stun gun in northern Virginia.

Authorities say La Monta Gladney was the victim when Fairfax County police officer Tyler Timberlake shot him with a stun gun last week in the county's Gum Springs neighborhood. Still, Gladney wound up being charged with being drunk in public and resisting arrest.

On Thursday, county Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano said in a statement he is dropping the charges after reviewing the case and determining “the evidence is insufficient to support these charges.”

Body-worn camera footage shows Gladney speaking incoherently and walking around on a residential street while officers try to persuade him to go to a detox center. Several minutes later Timberlake arrives, quickly advances toward Gladney and shoots him with a stun gun.

Timberlake, who is white, is facing criminal assault charges. His lawyer has said he believed Gladney was someone else.

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.