Fairfax County police release dashcam video of 2009 officer-involved shooting
For the first time since 2009, Fairfax County police released video of a deadly officer-involved shooting.
Details of the shooting have not changed, but dashcam video shows part of what happened when a Fairfax County police officer shot and killed an unarmed driver.
Video of the shooting back on November 13, 2009 shows an officer trying to pull over a green Chevy Blazer on Route 1 in Alexandria. But the driver, David Masters, does not stop.
Eventually, he was boxed in by traffic, but eventually starts moving again. That is when two officers, including 28-year-old officer David Ziants, move in with guns drawn.
Officer Ziants claimed he thought Masters was reaching for a gun.
Ziants fired twice and hit Masters once in the left shoulder with a shot that fatally pierced vital organs.
The Fairfax commonwealth's attorney determined the shooting did not warrant criminal charges, but Fairfax County police fired Ziants a couple of years later for improper use of deadly force.
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Why release the dashcam video years later? Fairfax County police did not say why, but according to the Washington Post, a few month ago in March, police rejected a Freedom of Information Act request from the newspaper to allow a review of the investigative file in this case.
But now, the video has been made public.