Fairfax County officials who deceived public about police shooting as recently as a month ago should be fired

We’ve known since last Friday that four Fairfax County (VA) Police Department officers and two civilian witnesses all agree that John Geer did not lower his arms as if he were reaching for a weapon when Officer Adam Torres shot and killed Geer in August of 2013. They all very clearly dispute the reason Torres gave for shooting Geer. Fairfax County police had these witness statements within days of the shooting. But as recently as one-month-ago they told us a very different story. They lied.

It’s bad enough that Fairfax County officials stonewalled Geer’s family and the public when they didn’t share these key details and other basic information about the case for 17 months.  But it’s something completely different when they deceive and even lie to their citizens about something as serious as a police involved shooting.

On January 5, under months of pressure from the press, Geer’s family, a U.S. senator and a court order, Fairfax County began releasing basic information about the Geer case, including the name of the officer who fired the shot. On that day, Fairfax County issued a statement that is still on the Fairfax County website.

Instead of coming clean after 17 months, county officials told us something in that statement as fact that they knew was not true. They said John Geer was shot as he lowered his hands. They told us something that six witnesses, including a police lieutenant and four officers, told investigators was not true.

Remember, this wrong information wasn’t released shortly after the shooting. They had 17 months to get it right and they blew it. Here’s the operative sentence from that January 5 release:

Twenty-five days after the public statement from Fairfax County, 11-thousand documents from the case were released. It included the witness statements from the police officers who were with Officer Torres. Washington Post reporter Tom Jackman, who has been dogged in pursuing the truth in this case, summarized those statements in his article from last Friday that carried the headline, “John B. Geer had hands up when shot by police, four officers say in documents“:

(Officer Rodney) Barnes told investigators that Geer’s “hands were up.” (Officer David) Parker told investigators that Geer “started to move his left hand barely off the sill of the door.” (Officer Benjamin) Kushner said Geer’s hands were “right around his face area.” Lt. Ronald Manzo, who also was at the scene, said Geer’s hands were at “about his shoulder height.”

There appears to be no ambiguity in the statements from the officers. By all accounts of those, like reporter Jackman, who have read these documents, none of the officers, other than Torres, felt this was a good shooting. Yet, almost 17-months after Fairfax County knew all of this, they told Geer’s family and the citizens they serve a big, fat lie.

The officers on the street who witnessed the shooting served the citizens of Fairfax County extremely well despite a very difficult situation. They did what they were sworn to do and told the truth. They deserve out gratitude.

But at the highest levels of the same police department and the Fairfax County government, they lied, deceived and covered-up almost to the very end.

Any top official who knew the real truth but allowed this information to be released on January 5 needs to go. They should resign or be fired. If their bosses, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, don’t see it that way, they should also be shown the door in the next election.