Once again Sharon Bulova and John Faust
said nothing and did nothing about it and now they want you to reelect them.
Fairfax County police release
video in 2009 officer involved shooting
By Tom Jackman May 6 at 5:33 PM
Fairfax County police Officer
David S. Ziants, left, and an unidentified Fairfax officer approach a green
Chevrolet Blazer, right, seconds before Ziants shot and killed the unarmed
driver, David Masters. (Fairfax County Police Department dashboard video)
Note: This post has been
updated to edit the video and add the comments of Masters’ father and ex-wife.
David Masters of Fredericksburg
was shot and killed by Fairfax County police Officer David Scott Ziants on Nov.
13, 2009, as Masters drove on Route 1 in the Alexandria area of Fairfax County.
Masters was unarmed and had ripped some flowers out of a planter in front of a
business, which led to the police pursuit.
On Wednesday, the Fairfax
police released the dash cam video from Ziants’s car. The actual shooting is
not visible, but the sounds of the shots can be heard (at 1:49), followed by
another officer apparently telling Ziants, “What are you doing? Hold up! Whoa!
Hold up! The —- you doing dude? Come on.”
Fairfax County police release
2009 video of officer involved shooting(3:00)
On Wednesday, Fairfax County
police released dash cam footage of the 2009 chase of David Masters, which
ended in him being fatally shot by police. (YouTube/Fairfax County Government)
Fairfax police did not explain
why they chose today, more than five years later, to release the video. In
March, the police rejected a freedom of information act request from The
Washington Post to allow a review of the investigative file in the case, also
without explanation. In Virginia, law enforcement agencies may release, or
withhold, any investigative information under state public information law,
indefinitely.
[The circumstances leading up
to the death of David Masters on Route 1.]
In a statement accompanying the
release, Fairfax police Chief Edwin C. Roessler said: “In an effort to continue
with increasing our transparency and the public trust, I have exercised my
discretion under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act by authorizing the
release of the in-car video from the criminal investigation into the
officer-involved shooting of David Masters that occurred in the Mount Vernon
District on Friday, November 13, 2009. Based on several requests, the video was
provided to the Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission and is posted here.
In reaching my decision to release the in-car video, I considered the following
factors: the local criminal
investigation has been completed; the U.S. Department of Justice criminal
investigation has been completed; and there is no pending or threatened civil
litigation.”
Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney
Raymond F. Morrogh ruled in January 2010 that Ziants had not committed a crime,
because Ziants believed that Masters was driving a stolen car, was reaching for
a gun and had run over another officer, none of which was true. Ziants was
allowed to remain on the force until May 2011, when then-Chief David M. Rohrer
fired Ziants.
Barrie Masters, 83, said the
Fairfax police sent him a link to watch the video, and “I am really distraught.
It’s totally wiped me out.” He asked, “How can we live in a world where a cop
can just come up behind somebody, no matter what he thinks has been going on,
and just shoot him in the back?”
Barrie Masters, a former Army
colonel now living in Florida, said, “The fact is, if David committed a crime,
the most it was was a misdemeanor for five dollars worth of flowers. The
[police] regulations specifically prohibit the use of deadly force.” Masters
said he was still hopeful that a special prosecutor might be empaneled to
investigate and charge Ziants.
Gail Masters, who was David
Masters’s ex-wife and remained his best friend and caretaker, was devastated
again Wednesday after seeing the video. Fairfax police did not contact her,
though she is the executor of his estate.
“I’m still miserable,” she
said. “I’ve been praying that they would charge him [Ziants]. It’s not fair
that he’s out there having a good time and Dave’s gone. I haven’t been myself
since it happened. It’s just like they say, a part of you leaves and doesn’t
come back.”
David Masters was 52, a former
Army Green Beret and carpenter living on disability payments after a work
accident, and had bipolar disorder, his ex-wife said. He was driving a
blue-green Chevrolet Blazer with the license plate “F001″ up Route 1 from
Fredericksburg when he apparently pulled over outside a landscaping business
and ripped some flowers out of some planters. An employee confronted him, but
Masters hopped in the Blazer, with several of his ex-wife’s puppies inside, and
continued north.
The landscaping employee called
police. As Masters headed north on Route 1, Ziants spotted him. Ziants, then 26
and a former Army soldier, told police that he confused Ziants’ vehicle with
another vehicle wanted in a stolen car case, Morrogh said in 2010. The video
shows Ziants turning on his lights and siren and pursuing Masters for about a
mile up the highway, with Masters at one point running a red light, then
squeezing through stopped cars at another intersection, refusing to stop for
the officer.
Finally at Fort Hunt Road,
another Fairfax cruiser blocks Masters’ Blazer in. Ziants and two other
officers approach the car. But the light turns green and the Blazer starts to
pull away. Ziants yells for the Blazer to stop, while another officer appears
to tell him, “No no no no.” Then, two shots, while the other officer loudly
implores him to stop firing.
