Fairfax County Police Watch: Police Officer Shooting At Dog Hits Nearby Toddler, Leaves ‘Without Offering Help’

The family's attorney says ""There was absolutely no reason for him to shoot. He was within 10 (or) 12 feet of the children."

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A 4-year-old girl who was shot in the leg when a police officer fired at a dog is recovering after surgery as her family questions how the officer responded.

Ava Ellis was hit accidentally on the afternoon of June 19 when an officer fired at a charging dog at a home in Whitehall, in central Ohio, according to Columbus police. The department said another relative had flagged down the officer for help after the girl’s mother cut herself on glass.

Ava’s parents, Andrea and Brad Ellis, and their attorney disputed the police account Tuesday and alleged the policeman fired unnecessarily and acted recklessly with children nearby on the porch. They say the roughly 40-pound dog, a bulldog mix named Patches, was retreating inside from the porch when the officer fired.

“The dog may have barked at the officer; however, the officer should not have shot,” attorney Michael Wright said. “There was absolutely no reason for him to shoot. He was within 10 (or) 12 feet of the children.”

The family also says people yelled to notify the officer that the girl was hurt but claims he drove away without offering help, and other emergency responders had to care for the girl.

The department identified him as Officer Jonathan Thomas, who had been with the force for five years.

He is not on paid administrative leave, as the Ellises’ attorney suggested, Alex-Bouzounis said.

The Ellis family and their attorneys are conducting a private investigation separate from the pending police investigation of what happened, said Wright, who added that it was too early to comment on possible legal action by Ava’s parents.

The family says the bullet broke Ava’s leg, and she’ll require further surgeries.

THESE COMPANIES SUPPORTED THE FAIRFAX COUNTY COPS SPORTS GAMES

John Geer is still dead

The cop who killed him is still on a paid vacation after two years

The cops refuse to wear body cameras

and the companies saw to fit to underwrite the cops....thanks for nothing

HI!

I'm John Faust

I am on the board of supervisors and I have never, not once, ever, spoken out or spoken up about the Fairfax County Police. When they shot and killed two unarmed men...I said nothing...and now I want you to reelect me.

YOU GET THE GOVERNMENT YOU DESERVE

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.