(Updated at 16:15) The doctor who participated in an initial mental health call at a McLean home in early July was not present for a subsequent call that ended in a fatal shooting because he was doing paperwork, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said today (Thursday).
The Fairfax County Police Department currently has only one mental health physician available to accompany officers on behavioral and mental health crisis calls as part of the county’s still-new program. co-responder programaccording to Davis.
During the match on July 7, as shown in the recent release audio and video streamstwo officers deployed electronic control weapons and a third, identified in the updated press release as Police Officer 1st Class Edward George, a 10-year veteran, fired his gun, shooting and killing 26-year-old Jasper Aaron Lynch.
All three officers had received crisis intervention training, but the co-responsible physician who joined them on the first call to the scene in the 6900 block of Arbor Lane was absent when the team was called.
“That doctor had moved to another location at the end of his tour to complete some administrative paperwork,” Davis said. “That’s the only reason the doctor wasn’t in a place where he could respond with us to the second call for service.”
With the current budget effective July 1, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved funding to permanently expand the co-response program, which was presented as a pilot in the spring of 2021.
According to Davis, the program will advance to the second of four phases with the addition of another doctor on Monday (Aug. 8). The FCPD will eventually have 16 doctors alongside officers, with around eight on duty at any given time.
Even at full strength, co-response teams will only be able to handle a fraction of the thousands of mental health-related calls that come to 911. So far in 2022, the FCPD has responded to 6,700 calls for service, or about 33 calls a day, for people in mental or behavioral health crises, Davis said.
Davis noted that the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline has been simplified to 988, offering an alternative to calling the police for situations where someone is in crisis.
“[The co-responder model] it’s not a cure-all,” Davis said. “I think it’s our responsibility, both law enforcement and local media, to manage expectations. It will certainly result in many more better outcomes for people in crisis.”
For the most part, the 911 call and body camera video released today aligns with the FCPD’s preliminary account of the events leading up to Lynch’s death.
Note: The following video contains some images and sounds that readers may find disturbing.
Officers and the doctor first responded to the home around 7:11 p.m. after 911 received a call from a person in crisis, but left when they were unable to locate the person.
According to police, at 8:34 p.m., a man who identifies himself as Lynch’s sister’s boyfriend called 911 and said “one of the family members here is having a psychotic break.”
“He is inside the house right now. He just dropped some things and smashed them. We are currently out of the house,” the man said, noting that no one had been injured and no clashes had been heard since they left the house, so the person may have stabilized.
The 14 minutes of body camera footage released includes an extended conversation between arriving officers and a man and woman, whom Davis identified as Lynch’s sister and her boyfriend. At one point, the woman mentions that Lynch had apparently not been sleeping or eating.
Upon entering the home, officers can be heard telling a man shown standing in the foyer to “lower the house,” that he’s “okay” and “not in trouble.” Then an object police have said was a decorative wooden mask is thrown in the direction of the camera.
The crackle of stun guns being deployed can be heard as video shows Lynch moving toward officers, holding what police say was a bottle of champagne. The sound of multiple gunshots is heard in quick succession, as the man falls through the open front door.
At the end of the video, labored breathing can be heard, as someone says, “Gunshots. Initiate a supervisor rescue immediately.”
Davis said the officers’ conversation with Lynch’s sister was included “to show that our police officers are doing everything they can to ask the right questions.”
“We just don’t get to these scenes when someone is in crisis and, in the absence of additional information, at someone’s house,” Davis said. “Those days are long ago. I think our officers were faced with a very chaotic and dangerous situation, but again, the investigation is still ongoing. We’re only 28 days into this.”
There have been five shootings by Fairfax County police officers in 2022, a rate that Davis admitted “is unusual.” Lynch’s death came just a week after the year another fatal shooting in downtown Springfield.
Just last Tuesday (August 2), a detective shot a man during a drug investigation at Seven Corners. Since the police involved in that incident were undercover, they were not wearing body cameras, Davis said, noting that an investigation into the shooting is underway.
