A police officer fired his weapon three times after a man hiding in the woods allegedly tried to grab the gun from the officer’s hand at his side, the Fairfax County Police Department said.
One of the shots hit the man, whose name has not yet been disclosed, and he was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the police.
He will be facing charges of felony assault against a police officer and disarming a police officer of his firearm. The man could also be charged in relation to the original 911 call that drew the police response.
The man’s wife had called police for help just before 10 a.m. this morning (July 28) after he reportedly began to harm himself with two knives and threatened her as well, the FCPD said. Officers arriving on the 7000 block of Sutter Lane in Annandale saw him fleeing the home, as his wife pointed him out.
“Our police officers searched actually for about 15 good minutes before they located the suspect,” FCPD Chief Kevin Davis said during a press conference this afternoon. “He was in a wooded area. We took our time. We got a K-9 to respond to the scene to establish a perimeter. We suspected he went into a wood line, so we didn’t want to run after him necessarily, but we wanted to surround the area where we thought he ran into.”
Two K-9 officers and the dog began searching, and agreed in advance that while one would carry the gun, the other would carry a taser for a non-lethal force option.
The officer carrying the gun — identified as a second lieutenant with 13 years of experience — was walking in a higher area of the woods when the man they were seeking “abruptly emerged from a bush,” Davis said. With his right hand, he allegedly attempted “a full-on grab” of the firearm at the officer’s side.
“And when I when I say grab — and I’ve seen this body camera footage in the past half an hour, at least 50 times I looked at it — our suspect takes his right hand,” Davis said. “He grabs the firearm that the police officer had in his hand, and the top of the suspect’s hand was around the top barrel of that firearm, and the bottom of his hand was wrapped around the frame of that firearm. The officer obviously startled, discharged his firearm three times.”
The man had a “graze wound” on his upper right shoulder, Davis said. The police officer carrying the taser also fired his gun.
Davis said police were able to recover the knives the man was allegedly carrying after watching footage from neighborhood security cameras registered with the department. There are about 30 registered cameras in the neighborhood.
Davis said the body camera footage of the incident will be released within 30 days in accordance with FCPD policy. Both officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave while the incident is under investigation.
