Fairfax police have released body camera footage of Officer Edward George shooting and killing Aaron Lynch, 26. The shooting took place on the evening of July 7 in McLean.

The 14-minute-long body camera footage, which includes audio from the second of two 911 calls placed, shows law enforcement asking extensive questions of family members about Lynch’s mental health — but then opening fire less than a minute after they make contact with him.

“We believe that the three police officers who answered the second 911 call could have, and should have, handled this far differently,” Lynch’s bereaved parents, Pat and Kathy Lynch, said in a written statement released today. “To respond to Aaron’s mental health crisis by shooting him at all, let alone multiple times, cannot be justified.”

“On the occasions when police officers use deadly force, it’s always a profoundly sad event, and this event is no different. A life no longer exists,” said Fairfax police chief Kevin Davis in a press conference. “We take it very seriously.”

Davis said two investigations into the shooting are under way: an administrative internal one, and a criminal investigation, in conjunction with the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office. George is on administrative duty while the investigations proceed, Davis said. He said he did not immediately know whether the other two officers on the scene are also on leave.

By departmental policy, Fairfax police release body camera footage within 30 days after police shootings.

The video footage released to the public today begins with audio from a 911 call placed by a family friend, who identifies himself as Lynch’s sister’s boyfriend.

“One of the family members here is having a bit of a psychotic break,” the person tells the dispatcher. “He’s throwing some stuff right now.”

The caller says they were outside Lynch’s family home home, and confirms that Lynch, who is white, is now inside. Someone who appears to be on the caller’s end of the line emphasizes that Lynch is not under the influence of drugs or alcohol and says there are no weapons in the home. “No weapons, no guns, no swords, nothing,” the second person says.

“He’s struggled with mental health, but he’s never had a breakdown like this,” the person adds. “He’s had anxiety, depression that he’s been working on, but this has never ever happened before.”

The footage shows officers discussing the situation and Lynch’s mental health history with Lynch’s sister. She describes arriving home to find Lynch in distress. She says the episode may have been triggered by grief at the news of the death of an ex-girlfriend. He hasn’t been eating or drinking for days, she says, and had asked for his family to call 911 earlier in the evening.

“What we can do is we can take him into custody and get him evaluated,” one of the officers says. The officers explain at length what that might entail, including using handcuffs and conducting a bodily search. “Do you know if he’ll talk to someone voluntarily?” one asks.

“He might talk, but it might not make sense,” she says.

The officers say they need evidence of harm to Lynch himself or others in order to intervene. One suggests to the family member that she go to a magistrate and testify that Lynch is a danger to himself. “For us to take him to a clinic, it has to be pretty bad,” one says. “It has to be at the point where we have to get involved.”

They agree that the officers will try to “make contact” and see if Lynch will go with the officers to receive treatment of his own volition.

When the officers walk through the front door of the home, Lynch throws something at them. In the video, he appears to be holding something else in his hand. “Woah, bud, put it down,” one officer says. One of the officers appears to be holding a taser.

“Bud, it’s okay, you’re not in trouble,” one officer says. “Put it down.”

“Are my parents here?” Lynch asks. “You asked to call 911,” one officer replies.

Lynch immediately throws a larger object — identified in the police press release as “a large decorative wooden tribal mask” and yells. His arms flail, and he begins coming towards the officers, swinging a bottle.

Two officers unsuccessfully try to tase Lynch. They shout “Back up!” Almost immediately after, George opens fire, shooting four times. The officers’ interaction lasts for less than a minute.

All three officers were trained in crisis intervention — a type of training designed to help police de-escalate situations with people in distress. Davis said close to half of Fairfax officers have received the training, which lasts a week and includes re-training. But some experts in the field have expressed concerns that crisis intervention training programs, which are popular with law enforcement agencies across the country, don’t effectively equip officers to help people in crisis.

Asked at the press conference why officers didn’t simply retreat from Lynch, Davis didn’t answer the question directly — but said he saw officers’ repeated commands to Lynch to drop the bottle and decorative mask as “verbal de-escalation.”

In the video, George’s gunshots come just seconds after the other two officers attempt to tase Lynch, but Davis nevertheless said the use of the taser was “another progressive effort to use less than deadly force to handle the situation.” He called Lynch’s movement toward the officers “an aggressive act.”

“That was a very active and chaotic incident,” Davis said.

Davis said Fairfax police have responded to more than 6,000 calls for service related to mental or behavioral health crisis, and used force less than 1% of the time.

Fairfax County and neighboring jurisdictions have started to invest in co-responder teams, where mental health providers accompany police on emergency calls. In this year’s budget, Fairfax dedicated an additional $1.2 million — for a total of more than $2.1 million — to the co-responder program.

Fairfax police currently has one mental health clinician available to ride along with officers. Ultimately, the department plans to hire 16.

The co-responder concept is showing some success locally — and in fact, a co-responder team arrived to try to support Lynch earlier in the night, but he had left the residence and the team couldn’t find him. The mental health clinician left to take care of paperwork and to conclude his shift, according to Davis.

“We recognize that, at times, police officers face grave and unknown dangers in the line of duty, but that was not the case for that call at our home regarding our son,” Lynch’s parents wrote, in an email shared by their attorney. “Aaron was about 5’ 6”, slightly built, and holding just a bottle and a decorative mask.”

“As parents, we mourn the heartbreaking loss of our son and are left with only memories and regret,” they continued. “Had we known there was any possibility that the police responding to the second 911 call would use lethal force against Aaron during a mental health crisis, we would not have involved them until a mental health counselor could be present, as was the case for the response to the first 911 call.

“We hope our efforts to find out more about this incident will, in the future, help families in similar situations avoid such a tragic outcome,” they said.

Regional leaders say the mental health system locally has become wildly overburdened as the pandemic drags on, with increased need for mental health staffing and beds for people in crisis.

In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly passed the Marcus-David Peters Act, named for a Black teacher shot and killed by Richmond police in 2018 while he was having a mental health crisis. The law outlines the creation of a so-called Marcus Alert system, a model that filters 911 calls involving behavioral health issues through regional call centers. Virginia localities, including Fairfax, are in the process of implementing the system. Nationally, the 988 suicide crisis hotline launched last month.

Earlier this week, Fairfax police shot and wounded a man in Seven Corners. Officers shot and killed another man in Springfield Town Center in June. Fairfax police have shot five people this year, several in mental health crisis. Davis said the number was unusual: the department usually averages about one shooting per year.

Previously: 

Fairfax County Police Fatally Shoot Man While Responding To ‘Person In Crisis’ Call