FAIRFAX, Va. (WUSA9) -- In a closed-door session Tuesday, Fairfax County Supervisors discussed the officer who fatally shot John Geer.
Officer Adam Torres is still on the police force after firing the single shot that killed Geer on August 29, 2013. Geer was standing in the doorway of his Springfield home with his hands up when he was shot.
At the time, Torres was under investigation for an out-of-control "meltdown" in court that happened five months earlier in March 5, 2013. Commonwealth Attorney Charles Peters said Torres "flipped out" and cursed at him numerous times. It was so serious that five police supervisors including acting chief Ed Roessler, who is now the chief, called Peters to apologize.
Fairfax County made the information about the outburst public after being ordered by a judge to release information about the shooting.
Now, the Geer family is asking a judge to force Fairfax County to release the Internal Affairs investigation into Torres' outburst. That motion will be heard Friday afternoon,
"It certainly does bring into question that officer's frame of mind, not only on that day, but may all of the time," said Jeff Stewart, Geer's close friend and witness to the shooting.
Torres told investigators that he pulled the trigger because he saw Geer reach toward his waist and felt threatened. No other witness nor officer interviewed by detectives corroborates that story.
Earlier Geer had shown the officers a holstered gun and put it down by his feet. He stood with his hands up, talking with Officer Rodney Barnes and asking permission to scratch his nose. When Geer slowly lowered his arms to his shoulders, Torres suddenly fired, according to more than one account.
Torres' actions were also called into question back in March after that courtroom outburst. He had made an arrest for DWI after pulling over the defendant for not using a turn signal when changing lanes. Peters informed him that it was not illegal to change lanes without using a turn signal. Torres insisted it was. Peters said he shut the door to the witness room and "as calmly as I could," suggested to Torres that he didn't have reasonable suspicion to make the stop.
Peters said he tried to "lessen any tension by saying "we all make mistakes every day," but that Torres jumped up and: "told me that , I was, I was f___ up uh, that the court was, was f___ up....the hell with his job, uh, he's glad that he's out of here...at least 3 or 4 recitations that he made, all sequentially, about screw you, f___ you, f___ this place, f___ this department, I'm glad I'm out of here, and with that he, opened the door and rolled out the door."
Peters said Torres was so loud that others could hear him. After he left, another officer came in to make sure Peter was safe.
The DWI case was dismissed.
Fairfax County Supervisors Board Chair Sharon Bulova said there is a policy for dealing with officers who have such outbursts and that it was followed in the case. But whether Torres was disciplined, reprimanded or received any anger management training is unknown.
Geer family attorney Michael Lieberman says he wants know how the county dealt with Torres after his courthouse outburst. "What did they do about it? What's in the Internal Affairs report?"
Lieberman is also seeking the I.A. report into the Geer shooting, an investigation he says that wasn't begun until after the Geer family filed a $12 million civil lawsuit on September 2, 2014.
Lieberman says he wants to know there if there are any more witnesses to the fatal shooting and whether any more facts about it have been uncovered. Information he hopes he'll soon learn.
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