Five Prince William County police officers involved in a shooting outside Dumfries did nothing wrong, the county’s Commonwealth Attorney determined.
The officers were dispatched to the Four Seasons, a gated retirement community just off Route 234 at 7:15 p.m. December 10, after a woman reported her husband Kurtis Kay Frevert, 79, was armed with a gun and was threatening suicide.
With the information that the man fled his home, officers initiated a search, calling for assistance from a helicopter crew from neighboring Fairfax County, which located the man in some nearby woods.
At 8:24 p.m., the helicopter crew told police on the ground the man was walking out of the woods and back to his home, police said. Police found the armed man on his front porch and demanded he put down the weapon. The man ignored those commands and pointed his gun at officers, police said.
Five officers drew their pistols and shot the man. Those same officers rendered first aid to the man, who was taken to a local hospital where he died about an hour later.
Prince William County posted to its website a press release about the determination of the Commonwealth Attorney.
Upon reviewing the facts and details of the investigation, Ms. Amy Ashworth, the Commonwealth Attorney for Prince William County, ruled the actions of the officers involved in the incident were “…justified and reasonable under the circumstances of this tragic encounter.” Ms. Ashworth stated, “In this incident, the danger posed by the decedent was real… Each of the officers expressed that they believed either they, individually, were in danger of being killed or that the other officers present were in danger of being shot or killed.”
“This incident underscores the dangers officers face each day,” said Jarad Phelps, Acting Chief of the Prince William County Police Department. “The officers involved were faced with an imminent deadly situation in a matter of seconds. This incident is very tragic for everyone involved, and I ask everyone to keep the family and the officers in their thoughts and prayers.”
In the hours immediately following the shooting, Ashworth created a special panel to investigate the incident.
Despite the officers being cleared of any wrongdoing, the county outed the officers’ names, ages, and patrol areas involved in the shooting. “None of the aforementioned officers have been involved in a previous officer-involved shooting. All officers have been cleared to return to duty,” the press release notes.
Following the shooting, Kenny Boddye, who represents the Occoquan District on the Board of County Supervisors, called for a civilian review board that could review police officers’ actions and dole out punishment for officers who break the rules.
During a special session of the Virginia General Assembly, Democrats passed legislation that would allow local governing bodies to create such civilian review boards.
On top of that, Democrats on the Board of County Supervisors this fall created a new commission on social justice that will spend 2021 investigating the county police department’s hiring practices and use-of-force policy. The board will serve as an additional layer of bureaucracy in a county government that, since 1992, has successfully operated a commission on equal rights.
The new social justice commission comes after Woodbridge District Supervisor Margaret Franklin criticized the county police department when law enforcement agencies used tear gas during a riot that occurred at the intersection of Sudley Road and Sudley Manor Drive outside Manassas on May 30.
Four Prince William police officers were injured in the riot — one with a significant head injury, which required treatment at a local hospital.
