An officer who fatally shot a McLean man in 2022 violated Fairfax County Police Department policies, but the shooting itself was within policy and legal bounds, a new report on the FCPD’s investigation says.

In the report, which was released yesterday (Wednesday), Fairfax County Independent Police Auditor Richard Schott affirmed the police department and Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s findings that none of the three responding officers violated criminal law when they tased and shot 26-year-old Jasper Aaron Lynch at his home on July 7, 2022.

“I believe the conclusions reached by the department were correct in this case, although I acknowledge they may be difficult to accept,” Schott wrote. “The death of [Lynch] was unquestionably tragic. But that does not mean that the force — even the deadly force — used during the incident was legally unreasonable.”

Though it determined the shots and tasings were “lawful and allowed by departmental policy,” the FCPD’s investigation found that the officer who shot Lynch — identified by police as Edward George — violated other policies by not turning on his body-worn camera during the first of two calls to the house on Arbor Lane and not carrying his taser during either response, according to Schott’s report.

The department requires all officers to activate their body camera when making contact with community members during calls for service, and officers certified to carry an “electronic control weapon” must have it on their person. George had left his taser “in the trunk of his patrol car,” the report says.

An FCPD spokesperson declined to comment on whether George faced any discipline for the policy violations, stating that the department “cannot release details about administrative personnel files.”

No criminal charges against officers

Lynch’s sister and a family friend called the police twice that night seeking assistance for Lynch, who was experiencing a mental health crisis. During the second call, one officer deployed a taser twice after Lynch threw a “wooden tribal mask” at him, according to the report.

Four seconds later, another officer tased Lynch when he began approaching while carrying a wine bottle, which he then dropped. George fired four shots with his handgun, followed by a fifth into Lynch’s neck after Lynch collided with the second officer.

Lynch died at the scene. As described in Schott’s report, the encounter unfolded within a minute of the officers entering the home at 8:52 p.m. Read More

(Updated at 3:30 p.m. on 10/6/2023) The Fairfax County Police Department has come out in opposition to the prospect of enhanced powers for the two entities charged with overseeing its handling of community complaints and conflicts.

The department has adopted or is in the process of adopting all but nine reforms proposed by the nonprofit Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and community members in a Police Reform Matrix Working Group (MWG), Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis told the Board of Supervisors at a safety and security committee meeting yesterday (Tuesday).

However, Davis said the police “do not concur” with the MWG’s recommendations that the county expand the authority of its Police Civilian Review Panel (PCRP) and Independent Police Auditor (IPA), which were both created in 2016 to provide independent oversight of the FCPD.

“The FCPD has engaged in mutually respected dialogue and cooperation with both the civilian review panel and the independent police auditor since the creation of these two entities,” Davis said. “We do not concur that any of these changes are necessary, merited by inefficiency on the part of the FCPD or required for any objective review of the circumstances.”

Convened in June 2020 by Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, who chairs the board’s safety and security committee, the working group recommended in a May 12, 2023 report that the panel and auditor be granted the authority to conduct independent investigations and suggest or impose discipline against officers.

The group also called for an expansion of the PCRP’s scope to include automatic reviews of FCPD administrative investigations involving allegations of bias or profiling, and an option for the IPA to recommend that the commonwealth’s attorney turn over criminal investigations of shootings by police and in-custody deaths to independent investigators.

Currently, the panel is only authorized to review completed police investigations into abuse of authority and serious misconduct allegations, while the auditor reviews use-of-force investigations.

When the Board of Supervisors established the two entities, Virginia had no set model or regulations for civilian oversight of law enforcement, but a state law adopted in 2020 granted broad powers, including the ability to independently investigate complaints and make or recommend disciplinary decisions.

The PCRP pushed for that expanded authority in a review of its first four years released in February 2021, and its stance hasn’t changed, according to current panel chair Todd Cranford.

“The PCRP continues to advocate for increased authority to review certain FCPD activities on behalf of community members in Fairfax County,” Cranford said in a statement. “[In] furtherance of this objective, we have had, and continue to have, constructive discussions with Chief Davis and the Board of Supervisors on this and other issues. Chief Davis has expressed his disagreement previously, but we remain committed to seeking reasonable expansion of the Panel’s authority.”

Cranford noted that the decision on whether to expand the panel’s authority “will ultimately lie with the Board of Supervisors,” as dictated by state law.

Independent Police Auditor Richard Schott, who has served in the position since 2017, says, if the county hires and funds independent investigators, as suggested by the MWG, decisions about when to utilize them should be left to the commonwealth’s attorney.

“I do not think the Auditor should be called upon to decide when to mobilize investigators who are employed by the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office,” Schott told FFXnow.

Lusk says he would be open to looking at adding independent investigators to the commonwealth’s attorney’s office, but the county would have to delve more deeply into the potential costs and how exactly that arrangement would work.

He expressed support for expanding the PCRP’s authority. However, the panel has added “a number of new members” in the past year, and the county is also now searching for a new executive director after Steven Richardson, the first person to ever hold the position, stepped down.

While Lusk doesn’t know all the circumstances around Richardson’s departure, he says it could take a few months for the county to hire a replacement. The Board of Supervisors and human resources department hope to start interviewing candidates “in the next month or so,” he told FFXnow.

“But once we have completed the training for the panel members and hire the new executive director, I think the first step would be for us to go with monitoring authority for the panel and then we could move from there into the investigatory authority,” Lusk said.

In his presentation, Davis noted that the IPA has never disagreed with the police department’s findings on an investigation, and the PCRP has only diverged once, though both groups have made policy and training recommendations in their incident and annual reports.

“This speaks to our commitment to work in alignment with our community groups and demonstrates the effectiveness of our partnership,” the FCPD said in a statement, which can be read in full below.

In a statement released prior to the committee meeting, the Fairfax County NAACP, ACLU People Power Fairfax and faith leaders on the MWG argued that the “lack of disagreement is indeed concerning, but reflects the limited scope of [the PCRP’s] authority rather than the good conduct of the police force.” Read More