The Fairfax County Police need more time to learn to stop killing citizen

Fairfax Co. leaders press for patience on police overhaul

By Max Smith | @amaxsmith

FAIRFAX, Va. — Nearly three years after John Geer was shot and killed by a police officer in his Springfield home, and weeks after that officer pleaded guilty, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors took up recommendations for changes to use of force and transparency.

Community members said Fairfax County police mishandled the release of information regarding the 2013 shooting of John Geer, which created many of the concerns discussed Tuesday, said Tom Wilson of the Police Executive Research Forum.

Wilson’s group and a county commission, formed in the wake of Geer’s death, have made dozens of recommendations to the county that are being worked through by the board over the next year.

Only 7 percent of the recommendations have been completed.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova understands that votes on use of force policies and transparency next month may not appear to be coming soon enough, but joins other supervisors in backing more deliberate action.

“The public feels that we’re taking too much time,” Bulova said. “However, these are weighty issues, and we don’t want to look back a year or two or more and say we were too hasty and that we made bad decisions. This is important stuff.”

Tuesday’s committee meeting, and expected votes in late June, focus on communication and use of force.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said oversight of investigations and release of information that he is allowed to share ethically could help turn things around.

“I feel public confidence is on the wane,” he said.

His office was set to take former Fairfax County police officer Adam Torres to trial for the murder of John Geer, but Torres agreed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Even though many suggestions to the county remain outstanding, the chair of the ad hoc police commission’s use of force subcommittee, Phil Niedzielski-Eichner, praised Police Chief Ed Roessler for progress in many areas.

Supervisor John Foust said Roessler is making changes that at least will help public perception.

“I see a change, so we can argue about whether it was always this way or not, but I think it was a great police force, I think you’re doing some things that are going to make it better,” Foust said.

The county does not plan to immediately address some other commission recommendations, like police body cameras or changes to freedom of information laws.

Sean Corcoran of the Fairfax Coalition of Police Local 5000 said while the much-trumpeted new training is great, it is not a major shift.

“I don’t want to burst anybody’s bubble, but I see absolutely nothing new here,” he said. “This is fundamentals in communication, these are fundamentals in what we expect of our officers, there’s nothing that I haven’t been hearing for 15 years in this department and beyond that.”

Officers’ representatives questioned recommendations from PERF and the ad hoc commission to release the names of officers involved in deadly incidents within a week, raising concerns about potential threats to officers.

He also questioned the emphasis on proportional use of force.

“This is not some sort of choreographed fight scene from a Hollywood movie. If somebody makes that choice that they’re going to take that route and the officer or the officers have to use force, it needs to be definitive, it needs to be overwhelming, and they need to take care of it and get it done as soon as possible and resolve the situation as quickly as possible, because the longer we delay these things, that’s when injuries occur,” Corcoran said.

While there is public pressure to move forward with recommendations, both from members of the commission and others in the public who attended Tuesday’s committee meeting, Supervisor Pat Herrity is concerned that six police department command staff are spending the majority of their time working to address the recommendations.

“I think we need to move this stuff forward, but I don’t want to have this become the obsession when we’re dealing with heroin issues, human trafficking issues, crimes against the elderly issues, [etc.],” Herrity said.

Roessler says the department is doing new training and other changes so far within the approved budget.

“Don’t shoot until you have a clear AND SAFE target” is not taught or understood by the Fairfax County Police

Fairfax police hunt for robber after gun fight that leaves 1 hurt

By Dan Morse and Fredrick Kunkle May 21

A gun battle erupted between a jewelry store robber and a police officer at a Fairfax County shopping center Saturday afternoon — an exchange that wounded a bystander and sent people running for cover.

One nearby merchant said there were so many shots that it sounded like rain on a tin roof.

“A lot really fast,” said Jackie Caroe, a manager at Max Muscle, a nutrition supplements store in the Brookfield Plaza shopping center in the Springfield area.

Fairfax authorities on Saturday evening were searching for a man who they say traded fire with the officer, then climbed into a getaway car, drove off, crashed, carjacked another car, crashed again and ran away.

“The suspect exited the jewelry store and immediately opened fire upon our police officer,” said Fairfax Police Chief Edwin Roessler. “And the officer got engaged in a gun battle.”

Roessler said a bystander, who was in a car, was hit by a round that “appears to be from” the robber’s weapon. The victim was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said. The officer was not injured. It wasn’t clear whether the robber was hit.

At 12:22 p.m. Saturday, police received a call for an “unknown situation” inside the Dubai Jewelry store at the Brookfield Plaza shopping center, just south of the Interstate 95 interchange with the Capital Beltway. An officer who responded set up in a “cover and concealment” position outside the store, Roessler said.

The officer then saw a man exit the store armed with a handgun.

“The officer immediately challenged the suspect,” Roessler said. “The suspect then immediately opened fire.”

“As the officer continued with the gun battle, the suspect fled into a getaway car that was stationed nearby,” Roessler said. The gunman appeared to be acting alone, police said.

Inside the Max Muscle shop, Caroe wasn’t at first sure what she was hearing. Then she heard sirens, saw police and learned what had happened.

“I mean, it’s kind of scary,” she said.

Another person who heard the gunfire, Daysi Mazariegos, was working in her tax-preparing business. Mazariegos said she heard three shots, then a burst of eight or more. They sounded to her like a nail gun, as if from construction workers. That’s what she said to her husband, who was also in the office.

“No, those are shots,” he told her.

She looked outside and saw police officers and bystanders running along a wall.

After he drove off, the robber crashed in the area of Spring Village Drive. He stole another car, police said. No one was injured in the carjacking, police said. The robber then drove to the 7600 block of Hooes Road.

“The suspect crashed again,” the chief said, “and then fled on foot.”

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Patrol officers, police dogs and at least one helicopter were used in the search.

Police described the man as 20 to 30 years old, wearing all brown clothing. They cautioned that he may have changed clothes.

During part of the search, residents in the Hooes Road area were told to shelter in place.

Brookfield Plaza and the area around the jewelry store were sealed off while officers collected evidence.

Officials didn’t immediately know how many rounds were fired outside the jewelry store. “There were many shots fired,” Roessler said.

Fairfax County Police add to their greatest hits list

Fairfax police seek witnesses to a struggle before a ‘severely autistic’ man’s death

By Fenit Nirappil

Fairfax County detectives are looking for witnesses to a struggle in Falls Church between officers and a severely autistic man who died after the encounter.

Officers who were seeking a missing person found Paul Gianelos on a commercial strip on Annandale Road shortly after 1 p.m on April 20. Police said the 45-year-old man became combative for unknown reasons when they tried to escort him to a cruiser, and in an ensuing struggle, Gianelos ended up on the ground and in handcuffs.

Medics came to examine an abrasion on Gianelos’s head and determined he was “suffering a medical emergency,” police have said in a news release. He died later at a hospital, and autopsy results are pending.]

Authorities want to talk to passengers of a 3A Metro bus on Annandale Road heading to East Falls Church that passed by the struggle, in addition to anyone else driving or walking nearby.

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Gianelos was handcuffed on the 3100 block about a mile and a half north of Roundtree Park, where he had wandered off from a lunch organized by a group that helps people with disabilities.

Anyone with information can call Detective Cara Griffith at 703-246-7526.

The incident is under investigation by the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Fairfax County and the county police department’s Major Crimes and Internal Affairs divisions.

Gianelos had no history of violence and could not speak, his brother Jim Gianelos previously told The Washington Post.

Fairfax police release names of officers involved in struggle with autistic man who died

By Justin Jouvenal April 27

Fairfax County police released the names of the officers who were involved in a struggle with a severely autistic man who died following the encounter in Falls Church last week.

Police said Wednesday that Master Police Officer Michael Meszaros, a 25-year veteran, was the first to make contact with 45-year-old Paul Gianelos after he wandered away from his caretakers at Roundtree Park and they alerted authorities on April 20.

Meszaros and Pfc. Hyun Chang, a six-year veteran, found Gianelos over a mile away on a commercial strip and tried to escort the Annandale man back to a police cruiser, police said.

“It was at this time there was a struggle and the two officers and Mr. Gianelos found themselves on the ground,” police said in a news release.

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Fairfax County police did not detail what happened during the struggle or explain how Gianelos and the officers ended up on the ground. Officer Jessica Kenna and her training instructor, Pfc. Courtney Young, a 15-year veteran, then arrived on the scene and helped put Gianelos in handcuffs, police said.

The officers called for a paramedic team to assess an abrasion on Gianelos’s forehead. After the medics arrived, Gianelos suffered a medical emergency and the medics began performing CPR on Gianelos, the release said. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Police said the investigation into the case is ongoing.

Fairfax County cop collects kiddie porn

  

Ex-Fairfax police officer pleads guilty to possessing child pornography

By Tom Jackman May 23 at 2:09 PM

Former Fairfax County police officer William “Bud” Walker pleaded guilty Monday to 10 counts of possessing child pornography. (Fairfax County Police Department)

A former Fairfax County police officer pleaded guilty Monday to 10 counts of possessing child pornography, and he was handcuffed in the courtroom and taken to the Fairfax jail without bond as soon as his hearing ended.

William M. “Bud” Walker, 50, was a Fairfax officer for 15 years, with his last six years spent as a spokesman in the police public information unit, handling daily inquiries from the news media and the public about the department’s activities and cases. Prior to that, he was a school resource officer at South County High School. In April 2015, police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about suspected child pornography photos uploaded to a Tumblr account. Detectives eventually traced the account to Walker, assistant Fairfax commonwealth’s attorney Jessica Greis-Edwardson said Monday.

The prosecutor said Walker agreed to speak with Fairfax detectives and acknowledged managing the Tumblr account, which had been shut down once for an inappropriate photo. The police searched Walker’s home computer and submitted 20 images to NCMEC, which maintains a database of child porn victims, and the organization said two of the photo subjects were known victims, Greis-Edwardson said. She described the 10 photos that constituted the 10 counts as all being of naked teenage boys, some alone and some engaged in sex acts. Walker was not accused of creating any of the images himself.

Walker was arrested and jailed on April 15, 2015, and released on $15,000 bond two days later, court records show. He was indicted on the 10 possession counts in September. He did not speak in court Monday other than to plead guilty and answer questions from Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Daniel E. Ortiz. Each count carries a sentencing range of one to five years in prison, and there was no agreement reached with prosecutors as to the sentence. Ortiz set Walker’s sentencing for Aug. 12.

Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh said after the hearing, “I thought the Fairfax County Police Department did a great job in putting the case together and bringing Mr. Walker to justice.” Walker becomes the second Fairfax police officer convicted of a felony this year. Last month, former officer Adam D. Torres pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the 2013 shooting death of John B. Geer. He also is held in the Fairfax jail without bond awaiting sentencing next month, in which prosecutors have agreed to a 12-month jail sentence.