Police chief defends use of lethal weapon against woman in crisis

FCPD Chief Kevin Davis speaks at a press conference about the recent police-involved shooting. [FCPD]

Body camera footage of a police-involved shooting at a group home in North Springfield appears to show that the use of less-lethal force wouldn’t have been as effective in a chaotic situation with other people in harm’s way, said Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis.

Davis spoke about the incident at a press briefing Aug. 5, where he also released recordings of the 911 calls and police radio communications, as well as body camera footage. 

Police had been called to a group home for people with mental disabilities shortly after 5 p.m. on July 19 in the 8000 block of Gosport Lane.  

When two officers arrived, a resident of the home charged at them with a knife. They tried to de-escalate the situation by repeatedly ordering her to drop the weapon but she refused and threatened to stab them. One of the officers discharged his service weapon, striking her in the upper body. 

A screengrab from the video of the two officers’ body cameras.

The woman, identified by the FCPD as Jiyoung (Jessie) Lee, age 30, was treated in the hospital and is expected to recover. She was charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer. Davis said she was in crisis but doesn’t know whether it was behavioral or mental illness. 

The officer who shot her is on restricted leave pending the results of criminal and administrative investigations, he said. The FCPS has not yet released the officer’s name.

The recordings of the 911 calls show how chaotic the situation was. Lee can be heard screaming in the background as the employee who made the call said  “she was saying she wants to kill herself,” “wants to fight people,” and “she wants to kill me.” 

Lee was breaking things, “banging on the walls, running up and down in the room,” the caller said, while the other people in the home were scared and hiding. 

Related story: Police investigating incident involving officer who shot a woman threatening him with a knife

“A knife is a deadly weapon,” Davis said. The officers knew there were other people in the home, including two trapped in the basement with no way out and one hiding in an upstairs bedroom. Had she gone down the stairs immediately behind her, “we could have had a double homicide.” 

“Based on the speed and the dynamics of this situation, even if an electronic control weapon, aka a taser, or other less-lethal weapon were on the scene,” he said, “I’m not too sure that this situation would not necessarily have lent itself to its use. It happened so quickly.” 

Davis said he is reviewing the FCPD policy on tasers and plans to have a taser issued to every operational police officer. Currently, every police station has tasers. “Officers are required to take them on patrol if available. They are not issued to each police officer.” 

The knife used by the suspect to threaten the police.

The officers in this situation didn’t have tasers. “A taser is not deadly force,” and the suspect was “approaching the officers with a deadly weapon,” Davis said. “Police officers are required to make life and death decisions in a condensed amount of time and under an enormous amount of stress.” 

Both of the police officers who were the first to arrive had lots of experience with people suffering from mental health and behavior crises, Davis said. The shooter, a 14-year veteran with FCPD, had completed crisis intervention training.