Fairfax County police released body-worn camera footage today (Friday) that captured last month’s fatal police shooting outside Greenbriar Town Center in Fair Oaks.
The shooting on April 23 resulted in the death of a Fairfax man and injuries to two police officers, who sustained gunshot wounds.
“We are very fortunate that we didn’t have two police funerals,” Police Chief Kevin Davis said at a press conference this morning.
Around 2:45 p.m. on the day of the shooting, officers initiated a traffic stop of a vehicle in the 4000 block of Majestic Lane. The driver, later identified as 36-year-old Jamal Wali, was “immediately hostile,” Davis said in an initial briefing on April 23.
During that first briefing, Davis said the stop was initiated for speeding, but the FCPD now says that officers noticed an expired registration sticker on the vehicle’s windshield.
In the body camera footage shared by the Fairfax County Police Department, Wali can be seen behaving erratically, speaking rapidly and gesturing when officers approach his window.
As officers engage Wali in conversation, he can be heard complaining about how he has been treated in the U.S. after he previously served as a translator for American military forces overseas.
“I can’t get a job, I can’t get on disability, and they took my glasses because I’m not able to pay the insurance,” Wali can be heard saying. “Why are you f—–g trying to kill me?”
“The system is f—–g broke,” Wali said later. “I should have served with [the] f—–g Taliban.”
Approximately five minutes after officers approached his vehicle, Wali unholstered a weapon and fired one shot at through the driver’s side window. He attempted to fire a second shot, but it didn’t discharge due to a malfunction, police said.
The bullet that Wali fired traveled through the bicep of one officer, then through the forearm of another officer before traveling across the street and shattering the back windshield of another parked car, Davis said. Both officers were treated at a local hospital and later released.
A police officer standing on the passenger side of the vehicle fired a shot, striking Wali, who was transported to a nearby hospital. He was later pronounced dead.
“Thanks to some strategic thinking, actions by our police officer … his deployment of that deadly force saved the lives of the two officers who were on the driver’s side of the car,” Davis said.
The FCPD has identified the officer who fired his gun as Ian Lachapelle, a 2-year veteran of the department assigned to its Fair Oaks Police District station. He was placed on restricted-duty status during the ongoing investigation of the incident.
Wali had lived lawfully in the U.S. since 2014 with four children and his wife, according to Davis. Citing information shared by the FBI, the police chief confirmed that Wali likely got a pathway into the U.S. based on his work assisting the U.S. military overseas.
According to Davis, the FCPD’s administrative investigation is underway, and the Office of the Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney is currently reviewing the incident, weighing whether to bring charges against any of the involved officers.
“We’re working with the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office to get to a point where I anticipate we’re absolutely going to have a letter declining to prosecute,” Davis said.
