Fairfax County Police Watch: May 2024

A cop who fatally shot a McLean man in 2022 violated Fairfax County Police Department policies. Fairfax County Independent Police Auditor Richard Schott affirmed the finding. The cops, three of them, shot 26-year-old Jasper Aaron Lynch at his home on July 7, 2022. The primary culprit is a cop named Edward George — violated other policies by not turning on his body-worn camera during the first of two calls to the house on Arbor Lane and not carrying his taser during either response, according to Schott’s report. George had left his taser “in the trunk of his patrol car”

Lynch’s sister and a family friend called the police twice that night seeking assistance for Lynch, who was experiencing a mental health crisis. During the second call, one officer deployed a taser twice after Lynch threw a “wooden tribal mask” at him, according to the report.

Four seconds later, another officer tased Lynch when he began approaching while carrying a wine bottle, which he then dropped. George fired four shots with his handgun, followed by a fifth into Lynch’s neck after Lynch collided with the second officer.

Lynch died at the scene. As described in Schott’s report, the encounter unfolded within a minute of the officers entering the home at 8:52 p.m.

The camera footage indicated the young man was on the ground and unarmed when George fired the final, fatal shot.

George still has a job. The kid is still dead.

Anthony Santaniello Migrant charged with child sex crimes in Virginia, released twice before ICE arrest

by: Tannock Blair

WASHINGTON (WRIC) — A man charged with child sex crimes and was released on bond twice by Fairfax County law enforcement has reportedly been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Deportation officers reportedly arrested a 30-year-old Honduran national at his residence in Bladensburg, Maryland, on Monday, April 15, and served him with a notice to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge.

“The Honduran national unlawfully entered the United States on an unknown date, at an unknown location, without being inspected, admitted or paroled by a U.S. immigration official,” a release from ICE reads.

According to authorities, the man had previously been arrested by the Fairfax County Police Department on July 5, 2023, when he was charged with felony carnal knowledge of a child 13-14 years of age.

ICE reportedly placed an immigration detainer against the suspect with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on July 6, 2023.

An immigration detainer, according to authorities, is a request from ICE to other law enforcement agencies “to notify ICE as early as possible before a removable noncitizen is released from their custody.”

“The Fairfax County Adult Detention Center did not honor ERO Washington, D.C.’s immigration detainer and released the noncitizen from custody on a $10,000 bond on July 10, 2023,” the release from ICE reads.

The Honduran national was arrested again by Fairfax County Police on Feb. 22, 2024, and he was charged with the following:

• Two additional counts of felony carnal knowledge of a child 13-14 years of age: without force

• Two counts of felony indecent liberties with a child less than 15 years of age

“Later that day, the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center released him from custody before ERO Washington could file an immigration detainer against him,” the release from ICE reads.

“The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office has consistently told Immigration and Customs Enforcement that an administrative detainer is not sufficient to hold an inmate past their release date in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center,” a spokesperson with the sheriff’s office told 8News. “The Sheriff’s Office has informed ICE that a judicial immigration warrant is needed to effectuate a transfer to ICE custody. This ensures that the FCSO only detains individuals with lawful authority. Despite ICE’s knowledge of this, they declined to obtain a judicial warrant for this individual.”

The spokesperson said the inmate was released on bond on all charges after both arrests.

“The individual in question was twice released on bond on all charges by a Fairfax County judge,” the spokesperson said. “At the time the inmate was ordered to be released, the Sheriff’s Office had no outstanding judicial warrants on file. He was therefore released pursuant to the court order as was required by law.”

8News reached out to the Fairfax County Police Department for comment on Friday, April 26, but has not yet received a response.

Following the arrest on April 15 by deportation officers, authorities reported the man will remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of his removal proceedings.

“This Honduran noncitizen stands accused of some very serious crimes and represented a threat to the children of the Washington, D.C. area,” said ERO Washington, D.C. Field Office Director Liana Castano. “When local jurisdictions have policies in place which prohibit them from cooperating with ICE ERO and from honoring our lawfully issued detainers and administrative warrants, they put the suspects, law enforcement officers, and most importantly, the members of our local communities at risk.”

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.