The chief prosecutor in Fairfax County, Va., called for state police to investigate a Fairfax police shooting outside a church in September because he had lost confidence in the county police department's ability to cooperate fully with him, reports the Washington Post. Newly released e-mails show that prosecutor Raymond F. Morrogh took the extraordinary step of asking for intercession by an outside agency after he had been stonewalled by Fairfax police in the August 2013 police shooting of John B. Geer in Springfield, the e-mails indicate.
Morrogh had sought the internal affairs records of the officer involved in the Geer case, but Chief Edwin C. Roessler refused to turn over the files. The e-mails, released by Morrogh, lay bare the tension within Fairfax County government as a result of the Geer case. Geer was unarmed and witnesses say had his hands up when he was killed by Officer Adam D. Torres. Fairfax officials had been silent for more than a year about what happened and did not release details until ordered to by a judge in a civil case filed by Geer's family. Morrogh turned the investigation over to the U.S. Justice Department because of the county's obstruction, he said.