John Geer stood with his hands on top of the storm door of his Springfield townhouse and calmly said to four Fairfax County police officers with guns pointed right at him: “I don’t want anybody to get shot. … And I don’t wanna get shot, ’cause I don’t want to die today.”

But as one officer tried to ease Geer through the standoff, another, Officer Adam Torres, shot and killed Geer from 17 feet away, telling investigators he saw Geer move his hands to his waist and thought he might be reaching for a weapon, according to newly released documents from the county.

Additional Images

A group called “Justice for John Geer” pickets outside the Fairfax County police department on Jan. 8. A federal investigation of the police department’s shooting of Geer is underway. Washington Post photo by Bill O’Leary)

The other three officers, and a lieutenant watching from a distance, said they saw no such thing, the documents show.

How and why Geer died on that afternoon in August 2013 have remained a mystery, as police and prosecutors have declined comment for 17 months. But late Friday night, under a court order obtained by lawyers for the Geer family, Fairfax released more than 11,000 pages of documents.

The other officers contradicted Torres’ story, all agreeing that Geer had his hands above his shoulders, did not move them to his waist and was unarmed when he was shot.

The documents also show that Torres was involved in an argument with his wife in the 16 minutes leading up to his arrival at Geer’s home that may have caused him to miss key facts about Geer and the situation at the townhouse. He also did not issue a warning to Geer before he pulled the trigger.

“When the shot happened, his hands were up,” Officer Rodney Barnes, who had been talking to Geer at the moment of the shooting, told investigators that night. “I’m not here to throw (Torres) under the bus or anything like that, but I didn’t see what he saw.”

The documents, which include police investigative reports, transcripts, timelines, photos and dispatcher audio tapes, indicate that Torres said he considered Geer “a credible threat,” because he had placed a holstered gun at his feet at the beginning of the standoff. But the other three officers told investigators they never considered firing at Geer.

“It’s not good,” said Officer David Parker, who was crouching 15 feet behind Torres. “He killed that guy and he didn’t have to,” he told investigators.

But Torres said he thought Geer could have had another weapon hidden in his waist. “It was not accidental,” Torres told investigators. “No. It was justified. I have no doubt about that at all. I don’t feel sorry for shooting the guy at all.”

Mike Lieberman, the Geer family lawyer, said, “It is hard to believe that a Virginia state grand jury has not been presented with this information.”

Related Stories