Citizen
Founder's Club Member
Read the article.
Googled the negotiator cop's name, which led to this audio tape of the negotiator cop's internal affairs interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STLQlFkJXZs
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7 months and still no resolution for John Greer's suspected murder by Fairfax police
- Thread starter ChristCrusader
- Start date
Read the article.
Googled the negotiator cop's name, which led to this audio tape of the negotiator cop's internal affairs interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STLQlFkJXZs
Citizen
Founder's Club Member
I didn't follow the case closely at the time in 2013.
After TheTruth's post about the settlement, I did a little googling--plenty of sites carrying information.
One thing that comes up is that FCPD or the prosecutor's office released information that Geer lowered his hand(s) and that was Torres' reason for firing. However, the documents and interviews released earlier this year clearly show multiple witnesses refuting Torres' claim, including the cop who was standing closest to Geer, trying to negotiate with him.
A site I checked made an interesting point: Ffx Co. had the witness statements not long after the shooting, yet later released the Torres' statement about Geer lowering his hands. That blogger calls for heads to roll for anybody involved in releasing that statement. I agree, and have one more question:
Why didn't the lower-level cops who knew the statement was untrue act as whistleblowers?
After TheTruth's post about the settlement, I did a little googling--plenty of sites carrying information.
One thing that comes up is that FCPD or the prosecutor's office released information that Geer lowered his hand(s) and that was Torres' reason for firing. However, the documents and interviews released earlier this year clearly show multiple witnesses refuting Torres' claim, including the cop who was standing closest to Geer, trying to negotiate with him.
A site I checked made an interesting point: Ffx Co. had the witness statements not long after the shooting, yet later released the Torres' statement about Geer lowering his hands. That blogger calls for heads to roll for anybody involved in releasing that statement. I agree, and have one more question:
Why didn't the lower-level cops who knew the statement was untrue act as whistleblowers?
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Citizen
Founder's Club Member
My pleasure.
I'm kinda glad TheTruth posted about the settlement in the civil suit. Until I read that article, I had already decided it was a bad shooting just because Geer was unarmed.
Really, that is the crucial point. That Torres then lied about his reason for shooting, while highly significant, does not change the significance of the crucial fact that Geer was unarmed.
However, having checked into things a very little bit, I think I will dig further.
You see, I've got this implied fact from that very little researching that the common-law wife only called police because he was tossing her stuff in the yard after she told him she'd signed a lease on an apartment or something--a split or separation they had been discussing for a while. They had two daughters and twenty years or more of relationship.
So, my question is, what were the cops doing there in the first place? Why were they working on getting him to come out of his own house when no violence had been alleged?
It sounds as if he was shot during a consensual encounter that Geer didn't know he could maybe end legally just by closing the door.
Was it his home, or jointly owned? How did the police determine the wife wouldn't be allowed to just carry her stuff back inside after he cooled down. Were the police just operating on the mindset that he might pose a threat of domestic violence and wanted to Terry detain him for more questioning? Why didn't that questioning happen at the door? Why did the police get themselves wrapped up in trying to get him out of the house?
I don't know the answers to those questions. And, of course, the answer to a couple would dictate how things would proceed from there.
But, now I'm getting real curious. I just have a feeling that Torres' shot might not be at the bottom of the situation. Maybe I've watched too many air-crash investigation shows--they almost always find the crash was not a single mistake, but a series of avoidable factors that made it that much easier for a fatal final result to occur. I can't help but wonder where the bottom is in the Geer killing. I just can't help but wonder if Torres' shot was just the final event in a series that started earlier with mindset, procedure, assumptions, and so forth.
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Citizen
Founder's Club Member
I agree in principle. Of course, we (meaning me) don't yet know whether all the tactical gear showed up after he mentioned he had a holstered gun, or arrived before it was even mentioned.
I recall calling police about a loud party next door years ago. The damned dispatcher asked whether I had observed any drugs or guns. (emphasis mine). So, one question I've got is whether the dispatcher asked Maura (the common-law wife) about guns in the house. If the dispatcher did, and Maura said yes, Maura may have unwittingly set the stage.
PS: I've changed my priorities for calling the cops since that loud party based on lots of reading about police. Next time I will call police only if there is just no other solution. And, if the danged dispatcher asks about weapons, I am going to say one of two things.
1. Why? Are you sending cops or Girl Scouts?
2. Hold on a minute. Let me go ask the revelers if they have any guns. <knock, knock> "Hey, y'all got any guns or drugs? The cops wanta know."
I had to laugh at that.
Not too long ago someone left a car, probably stolen, in my driveway. I called the cops to get it out. First thing the dispatcher asked was "are there weapons involved"....I said "no, the car is unarmed" they still sent 6 cops.
How psychotic does someone have to be to shoot and kill an unarmed man in his own home? Why is the police department being so hush hush and avoiding criminal accountability? How is there a civil settlement before any convictions have been made? What effects do the facts of the civil settlement have on any criminal judgement? Why are there no charges being filed against this pile of excrement that killed Mr. Geer?
Moreover, how does a county government shell out almost $3M without a criminal charge to the cop?
Moreover, how does a county government shell out almost $3M without a criminal charge to the cop?
Citizen
Founder's Club Member
And, this isn't the first one. In early 2006, the FCPD sent a SWAT team to arrest an alleged small-time gambler named Culosi. An optometrist. He was unarmed. Offr. Bullock shot him through the heart. His last words, spoken after the shot were, "What are you doing, man?" The PD and county made that family fight in the courts for five frikkin years before settling. And, they only settled when the family's legal team hired a videography studio to put together a video based on forensic evidence, the video visually proving the shooting could not possibly have happened the way the cop said it did. Meaning, they didn't settle because it was the right thing to do. They settled when it looked like the family would prevail in court.
A couple years later, a vet was shot in a red pick-up truck on Route 1 in Alexandria. The only word we have for the killing is the police. When a journalist asked the FCPD spokesperson for the name of the cop who fired the shot, he was told, "You don't need to know that."
Because of these two, and a couple personal encounters with FCPD, I am very curious to know more about the Geer killing.
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Grand Jury to convene to review John Geer shooting
NBC news is reporting that a grand jury will be convened to examine the shooting of John Geer and determine if criminal charges should be made.
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/l...ew-John-Geers-Shooting-in-2013-300956631.html
NBC news is reporting that a grand jury will be convened to examine the shooting of John Geer and determine if criminal charges should be made.
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/l...ew-John-Geers-Shooting-in-2013-300956631.html
Marco
Regular Member
The "System" is designed to protect it's self.
No Fairfax County officer has ever been charged with a crime in a police shooting in the department’s 74-year history.
The Fairfax police have shot and killed at least six people since 2011.
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That is a very telling set of circumstances.
Seriously doubt that is due to the 100% goal of following the letter, intent and spirit of the law.
Can see the Safe Work Environment sign now: 27,010 days of no safety violations :lol:
Yes, I make funny, but in reality it is sad......knowing what I have read/seen.
Citizen
Founder's Club Member
Damn!! I know of four but they date back past 2011.
Salvatore Culosi--2006
Geer--2013
The vet in the red pick-up on Rt 1 in Alexandria (a cop PR officer told an inquiring journalist he didn't need to know the name of the shooter cop).
I'll have to hunt up the rest; I didn't even know about them.
Marco
Regular Member
Master's was the SF veteran
Now, some of these are probably good shoots just providing names:
Smith
Bryant
McKenna
Leon
Croft
Kaeler
There may be more.