A Fairfax County police officer remains on restricted duty after striking a hit-and-run victim with his police cruiser last month in Hybla Valley.
Both criminal and administrative investigations continue into the Sept. 24 incident, which may have contributed to the death of a 62-year-old woman, police said in a press conference today (Thursday).
“It’s never a good thing when a police department anywhere has contact with a citizen … and a life is lost,” Police Chief Kevin Davis said. “We take that very seriously.”
Alexandria resident Trina Jones, who was crossing Richmond Highway outside the Mount Vernon Crossroads shopping center, was first struck by an unknown driver who fled the scene, according to police.
But as responding officers raced to the scene a short time later, officer Jalin Phillips struck Jones — who was still lying in the roadway — with his police cruiser, police said.
Dashcam footage released today by the Fairfax County Police Department shows Phillips’s vehicle weaving through traffic congestion near the Belford Drive intersection before making contact with Jones.
In the video, the sound of contact can be heard and movement consistent with driving over a bump is seen.
“Please do not tell me I just ran over her,” Phillips can be heard saying after making contact.
Jones was transported to a local hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
She was alive before being struck by the police cruiser, according to Davis, who added that Phillips had been traveling around 14-17 miles per hour when he made contact with Jones.
“There’s no indication that his driving was egregious,” Davis said.
The FCPD’s Major Crimes Bureau is currently conducting a criminal investigation, while the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau conducts an administrative investigation.
Other investigations are simultaneously undertaken by the FCPD’s Performance Review Board, the Commonwealth’s Attorney and the county’s independent police auditor.
“There’s a lot of eyes,” Davis said. “We think there’s a lot of objectivity … We’re committed to that process.”
Law enforcement is still searching for the driver of the black Mercedes C300 sedan with temporary tags who initially struck Jones.
“We have still not located, recovered, examined, processed the vehicle for evidence,” Davis said, “and we really, really want to do that.”
No charges for man shot by police in Burke
Today, the FCPD also released body camera footage from a police shooting in Burke.
An unidentified 41-year-old man was shot in the lower body after police were dispatched to the residence in the 9700 block of Church Way on Sept. 28 for a report of an armed man.
Officers first responded after the man, armed with a chainsaw, reportedly began cutting things inside the residence with the saw, according to police.
The man was outside the house when police arrived, leading to a 48-minute negotiation with police. During that time, the man was armed with two chainsaws, a blow torch and an axe.
“It’s obvious that he was in crisis,” Davis said.
A short time later, officers heard the noise of a slide being racked from inside the home’s garage. The man claimed that he was armed with a real firearm, which he then placed in his waistband.
Officers later deployed less-than-lethal shotgun rounds at the man before one officer “made an independent decision” to fire her gun.
“Her independent decision to deploy lethal force was something she made based on what she saw in that moment,” Davis said.
The man was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Though he was later determined to be armed with a replica firearm, he has not been charged with any crime.
“He didn’t commit a crime, but the scenario was not a scenario that we could walk away from,” Davis said.
Private first class officer Diana Thomas, who fired the shot, remains on restricted-duty status as investigations into the incident continue, police said.
