By Tim Peterson
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/
It’s been more than 16 months
since John Geer of Springfield was shot and killed by a Fairfax County Police
Department (FCPD) officer. And since the Aug. 29, 2013 shooting, scant
information on the incident has been provided by the FCPD or the county Board
of Supervisors, such as an explanation of what transpired up to and following
the shooting, and the identities of the officers involved. They’ve kept this
information from the media, the public and the Geer family, citing an ongoing
federal investigation into the death.
That was until Jan 5, when
Fairfax County released a 304-word statement regarding the events surrounding
Geer’s death. For the first time, the officer who shot Geer was named: PFC Adam
Torres, who the statement said, “fired a single shot that struck Geer.”
#“We’ve had policies in place
regarding when a police officer’s name and information is released,” Board of
Supervisors chairman Sharon Bulova said Monday night. “Usually it’s a matter of
weeks. In this particular case it turned out to be an unusual situation that
took longer.”
#Police had been called to
Geer’s house by his partner and mother of his two daughters Maura Harrington,
over a domestic dispute. The statement says officers, “including a trained
negotiator,” talked with Geer for over half an hour while he stood in the
doorway of his house, arms raised above his head and resting on the doorframe.
#“Geer was reported as having
multiple firearms inside the home,” the statement says, “displaying a firearm
that he threatened to use against the police, and refused the officers’
requests that he remain outside and speak to them.”
#Torres then shot Geer in the
chest when he began lowering his hands.
ACCORDING TO THE STATEMENT a
SWAT team entered Geer’s house, after Geer died, and found a loaded, holstered
handgun on the stairs by where he had been standing.
“A large amount of citizens have guns in their
home. Does that give them the right to come and shoot you?” said Jeff Stewart
of Chantilly, a friend of Geer’s for over 25 years who witnessed the shooting.
“At the time he was shot he wasn’t bearing any
arms. He owned them. Why is it relevant to the release? Does a loaded gun show
intent? The burden fell on the police to defuse the situation, let the guy go
inside, chill out.”
Geer’s father Don didn’t hear
about the county’s release until someone called to say it was happening on
television.
“The press release I felt was very tainted
towards the police department,” he said. “It depicted John as being a terrorist
or something, had all these guns in the house. He was a hunter. It didn’t sound
like that.”
THOUGH THE COUNTY’S STATEMENT
refers to a Circuit Court ruling that they “may release some information
pertaining to the Aug. 29, 2013, officer-involved shooting of John Geer,” the
Dec. 22 opinion from judge Randy Bellows was a court order.
After a Dec. 19 hearing in
Fairfax, Bellows quickly turned around a response forcing the county to produce
more than 100 documents being sought by lawyer Michael Lieberman in a $12
million civil suit over Geer’s death. According to Lieberman, the county had
previously objected to all but six of 127 requests for documents.
“That’s pretty amazing to have a judge turn
around and give you a 12-page opinion over a weekend,” said Lieberman. “He
obviously worked on it all weekend, he listened carefully.”
The documents include
everything from 911 calls and witness statements to the medical treatment of
Geer and blood pattern examination. Bellows is holding off granting or denying
production of several documents as they relate to the county’s internal
investigation or the federal investigation. He gave the county 30 days to
produce all the others.
The FCPD has defended their
silence so far through the criminal investigative privilege afforded by the
Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The department declined to comment
for this story and the Fairfax County Attorney’s office didn’t respond to an
interview request.
In his opinion piece, Bellows
wrote: “The entity seeking to assert the criminal investigative file privilege
is no longer responsible for any aspect of the criminal investigation and the
entity that is now solely responsible for the criminal investigation has made
it clear that it has taken no step to discourage the custodian of the criminal
investigative files from disclosure of most of the files at issue.”
Bellows referred to
correspondence between U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Assistant
Attorney General Peter Kadzik, acknowledging that the case currently sits with
the U.S. Department of Justice, not the state’s attorney or the FCPD. Grassley,
ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent formal inquiries to FCPD
Chief Edwin Roessler and U.S. Attorney Dana Boente about the case in November
2014. He sent another letter to Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond
Morrogh in December.
Kadzik answered Grassley that
the FCPD wasn’t instructed to withhold information about the shooting, only the
federal investigation.
Lieberman has continued to
criticize the Board of Supervisors, who have authority over the FCPD and
allowed the silence from that department to continue.
For Stewart and the Geer
family, the continued silence, even with this recent disclosure, has been
frustrating and painful.
“It’s surreal enough to watch your friend get
shot,” said Stewart. “It goes to a whole different level when no one’s held
accountable.”
“I can’t figure out why I’ve had to go through
this miserable 16 months in order to hear anything being done at all,” said Don
Geer. “Closure would be why someone pulled the trigger and killed my son,
that’s as much as I can expect at this point in time. A better idea of why did
it happen.”
“We need to be transparent and
we haven’t been,” he said in a recent interview. “The county attorney is
supposed to provide advice, we make decisions. I think we’ve been following
overly protective legal advice instead of making the right decision in this case,
is really what it boils down to.”
Lieberman said he sees this
action by the county as “preemptive damage control.” He continued, “The only
positive thing I take out of it is some claim they’re finally going to change
the policies.”
Bulova admitted the Board of
Supervisors, FCPD and County Attorney’s policies on information sharing all
need to be examined. "In retrospect,” she said, “our policies need to be
changed to provide information sooner if there is a delay like this.”
She also addressed the possibility
of revisiting creating a citizen’s police advisory council.
“At least it’s getting their attention,” Geer
said. “The idea of the police investigating the police just doesn’t work.
That’s all there is to it.”
Lieberman is optimistic that
future hearings will help produce more documents, and for now at least some
answers to 16-month-old questions are coming forward.
“The nightmare of John’s shooting isn’t ever
going to end,” he said, “but the nightmare of what the county’s done, at least
we can see the light at the end of the tunnel for getting over that part.”
