Fairfax County, Virginia (DC News Now) — The family of a man shot and killed by Fairfax County police during a mental breakdown has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.
Aaron Lynch, 26, was murdered in July 2022. Police responded to multiple calls reporting Lynch was in distress.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Fairfax County Circuit Court and first reported by The Washington Post, details the incident and accuses both officers of negligence and recklessness in their response, as well as inadequate training by Police Chief Kevin Davis.
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Just before 7 p.m. on July 7, 2022, a friend of Lynch’s family called 911 reporting that Lynch was having a mental crisis. The caller reiterated that Lynch had no violent history and that there were no weapons in the family’s McLean home.
Three police officers and a psychiatrist responded to the home after being notified but left when they were unable to find Lynch.
At 8:30 p.m., Lynch’s twin sister arrived from New York. Her boyfriend called 911 and explained that Lynch was having a mental health crisis and had been throwing and breaking things around the house.
Three officers who responded to the scene, all of whom are listed as defendants in the lawsuit, arrived minutes later and went inside the home.
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What happened next It was captured on police body cameras and released to the public. About a month after the shooting, Lynch was inside his home holding a decorative mask in one hand and a wine bottle in the other when he threw the mask at police officers standing just inside the front door. As Lynch ran toward the door with the bottle still in his hand, two officers fired their Tasers at him.
Lynch dropped the bottle as he fled but was shot four times, and when he reached the front door, one of the officers tackled him, after which Lynch was fatally wounded in what Fairfax County State’s Attorney Steve Descano called a “struggle.”
Judge Descano argued for no charges to be filed against any of the three officers.
Dexano wrote in his shooting report that because it was dark in the house at the time, it was “not unreasonable” for the officers to believe Lynch still had the bottle he was waving in his hand, and therefore the officer who fired the fifth and final shot “reasonably believed that Lynch intended to kill himself or another officer at the scene, or to seriously injure himself or another officer.”
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The wrongful death lawsuit claims Lynch had a non-violent history, posed no threat to officers and “weighed only 145 pounds.”
“Officer George had no probable cause to believe that he or anyone else was in immediate danger of death or serious injury from Aaron,” the lawsuit states.
Lynch-vs.-FCPD Download
It also alleges that officers entered the home before developing a plan to address the man’s psychological crisis and failed to take appropriate steps to de-escalate the situation.
Fairfax County Police did not respond to DC News Now’s request for comment.
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