Fairfax chief apologizes in Masters shooting, but family isn’t satisfied
By Tom Jackman, Published: August 12
After Fairfax County police acknowledged in late June that they had fired the officer who shot and killed unarmed motorist David Masters in 2009, Chief David M. Rohrer said he would apologize to the Masters family.
Eventually, Rohrer called Masters’s father, mother, sister and ex-wife and offered each his apologies. He also arranged to have Masters’s truck towed back to Fredericksburg, where Masters’s ex-wife and stepdaughter, the executors of his estate, live.
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But Masters’s parents said they were offended that the chief called the victim’s ex-wife first, and only called them in response to an inquiry from Barrie Masters, his father, a month later. The chief then declined to share any information with them about the shooting, Barrie Masters said.
David Masters’s ex-wife, meanwhile, said that her former husband’s truck had been left open to the elements in a police field in Chantilly for more than a year and a half, and that all of his carpenter’s tools were gone.
Barrie Masters, a retired Army colonel living in Florida, said when he asked Rohrer for a copy of a police report on the shooting, he was “shocked that a police department would act like they’re above the law; that he would tell me it was none of my business. I’m just the father of the victim.” He said he planned to offer his support to a Fairfax citizens’ group that wants to establish independent oversight of the police.
Rohrer declined to comment through Mary Ann Jennings, a Fairfax police spokeswoman.
David A. Masters, 52, was driving his Chevrolet Blazer up Route 1 in the Alexandria area, just south of the Capital Beltway, on Nov. 13, 2009, when officers signaled for him to pull over near Fort Hunt Road. But when he began to slowly roll away from the three officers, Officer David Scott Ziants told investigators he thought the driver was reaching for a gun. Ziants fired his weapon, killing Masters.
Prosecutors soon cleared Ziants of any criminal liability. But in May of this year, Rohrer fired Ziants. Jennings acknowledged the firing on June 28. And in a July 2 Washington Post editorial, Rohrer said that he would apologize to the Masters family.
On July 11, Rohrer phoned Gail Masters, David Masters’s ex-wife, who remained his closest friend. She said Rohrer apologized and had two police commanders drive to Fredericksburg, pick her up and take her to the Fairfax police shooting range, where the Blazer was located in a field.
Gail Masters said the vehicle was uncovered, its rear window open after having been shot out 20 months earlier. She was shown the front seat — still blood-spattered and cluttered — and said she nearly fainted.
She said she asked if David Masters’s tools were in the back and was assured they were. But when the Blazer was returned to Fredericksburg, the tools were gone, she said. She said the police offered to pay for a missing miter saw.
Barrie Masters had read about the chief’s offer of an apology, but after waiting for four weeks, he decided to call Rohrer himself. He said Rohrer called him back two days later and that he told the chief, “You haven’t called anybody and I’m outraged.” Rohrer told him he’d called Gail Masters, but Barrie Masters said, “She’s not a member of the family,” having divorced his son years ago.
Barrie Masters then reminded Rohrer that his son’s mother, Delores Masters, and sister, Joyce Shields, live in Manassas and hadn’t been contacted. Rohrer then called both the women.
“We just find it amazing,” said Jon Shields, Joyce Shields’s husband, “that Chief Rohrer could be so insensitive to the feelings of a 79-year-old woman . . . it appears his intention was never to apologize until Colonel Masters called.”
Jennings said the chief apologized because “it hurts him when somebody dies, regardless of the justification or circumstances. He feels it, and he feels for the family.” She declined to comment on the Masters family’s complaints.