WASHINGTON — It has been more than a year since a Fairfax County police officer shot and killed Springfield, Virginia, resident John Geer, and the man’s family is still in a legal battle over his death.
Geer was killed in his doorway in August 2013 by county police officer Adam Torres during a standoff. Geer had guns in his home according to a report released last year and some witnesses claim that he was unarmed when he was shot.
Geer’s family is suing the police department for wrongful death.
Some say they believe the police department has been stonewalling the public and prosecutors in the case, but the lawyers for Geer’s family will ask for all internal police affairs files on Torres at a hearing Friday afternoon in Fairfax County Circuit Court, The Washington Post reports.
The Fairfax County police department had remained silent on the August 2013 shooting until Jan. 30, 2015, when a court order forced the release 11,000 pages of documents in the case.
In addition to the internal affairs files, Geer’s family will also request the files on an incident at the Fairfax County courthouse where Torres was fuming and cursing out an assistant county prosecutor, The Post reports.
There are three other internal affairs complaints or cases against Torres and the family lawyers want information to them as well.
Two of the complaints involved car accidents that Torres had in his police cruiser, but neither of the accidents was the officer’s fault and the third complaint involved a suspect’s lost property, The Washington Post reports.
Also, the family lawyers want documents on the internal affairs investigation into the shooting. That investigation began on September 2014.
