FAIRFAX, Va. — A video posted online of a Fairfax County police officer using a stun gun during an arrest has triggered an internal inquiry into the officer’s use of force. The officer is expected to meet with the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau on Monday morning.
Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler ordered the review this weekend, just hours after a video surfaced online of the Thursday, Sept. 24 arrest.
In the shaky, 15-second video, before the suspect and the officer drift off the screen, the officer appears to be pointing a stun gun at the suspect, who was later arrested on larceny charges.
“I’m very concerned because the part that I saw was a black man with his back turned that got Tased,” says Shirley Ginwright, president of the Fairfax County branch of the NAACP.
Ginwright says a complaint has been filed with her office over the Thursday incident, which occurred in the Rose Hill area of the Franconia District.
“I just thank God for the video cameras that are there that people can now put them on YouTube,” Ginwright says.
Fairfax County Police say they want a complete picture of what happened.
‘This is a very, very short snippet of information. We don’t know everything that led up to the event. We don’t know everything that happened after,” says Fairfax County Police 2nd Lt. Brooke Wright.
The Internal Affairs Bureau has already launched its investigation and is asking for any witnesses to the incident to step forward.
The man struck by the electronic control weapon declined any hospital treatment.
