By Editorial Board
WHEN WILL Fairfax County and
federal authorities stop stonewalling in the 2013 death of John Geer, an
unarmed man shot at point-blank range by police as he stood in the doorway of
his home?
How is it possible that 15
months after he was shot in the chest and left to bleed to death in his home ,
the authorities have neither disclosed the name of the county police officer
who fired the deadly shot nor provided even the bare bones of an explanation
for the shooting?
Are the Fairfax County police
incapable of matching even the imperfect transparency and accountability of the
police in Ferguson, Mo., where Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael
Brown, an unarmed teenager? Was the Fairfax police chief, Edwin C. Roessler
Jr., even remotely sincere when he promised to “hold myself accountable” to Mr.
Geer’s family?
And what about the U.S.
Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Dana J. Boente, to whom the case
was handed by county prosecutors in February? Why has Mr. Boente, whose office
has conducted at least preliminary interviews, been mum? Is he pursuing the
case? If so, what is taking so long? If not, has he dropped it? And if he
dropped it, why?
Will Mr. Boente not answer any
of these questions even after they were posed to him, in a Nov. 13 letter, by
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who will soon become chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee? Are U.S. Attorneys accountable to no one? Does the fact
that Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors hired a high-powered Washington
lawyer to represent it in the case mean that the board has abdicated its
responsibility to press police for a truthful accounting of the facts?
And by the way, what are the
unspecified conflicts of interest that caused county prosecutors to punt the
case to the feds?
What in the world is going on
here? At least two other police officers witnessed the shooting at close range;
are their accounts to remain hidden indefinitely? What accounts did other
witnesses to the shooting, who include friends and neighbors, give to the
authorities?
Has anyone contradicted the
accounts of witnesses who told journalists that while Mr. Geer had been
drinking and was distraught that his longtime girlfriend was moving out, he
brandished no weapons and posed no threat to the police or to public order?
Following the shooting, why was
Mr. Geer allowed to bleed to death inside his home? Why did police and
emergency personnel leave his body unattended for an hour? Could prompt medical
attention have saved his life?
Does the officer who fired the
fatal shot remain on the county police force with full pay? Will he or anyone
be held accountable for the shooting of Mr. Geer?
How much longer will the
stonewalling in Fairfax go on?
