Almost everything about what happened the night of Dec. 17 in the shooting death of Dustin Griffin, 42, has been answered, with a Friday night media dump by the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office.
Almost everything.
Augusta County Sheriff Donald Smith authorized the release of four of five videos from body-worn cams and a dash cam from personnel at the scene of the attempted arrest of Griffin, who was wanted on seven drug-related charges stemming from an investigation that had begun in October.
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The questions answered in the videos:
- Griffin did in fact produce a gun as he was being apprehended, and in a struggle with two deputies, fired a shot, hitting one in the shoulder; that deputy can be heard clearly telling other deputies at the scene that he had been shot.
- A third deputy, approaching the scene, fired five shots that hit Griffin in the torso.
- The second deputy that had been involved in the struggle with Griffin fired a final shot, approximately four seconds after the final of the flurry of five shots fired by the second deputy. Smith acknowledged in a press release accompanying the release of the videos that the “final shot struck Griffin in the back of the head.”
The one video not released was from the deputy who fired the final shot; according to Smith, that video “will not be released due to the graphic nature of the content.”
It may eventually need to be, because there is still a hole in what we know.
It might help if somebody could explain what was happening during that four-second gap.
Smith noted in the release from his office that “the incident has been investigated by the Virginia State Police,” but it’s not clear at this writing if the State Police has actually concluded its investigation.
I made a Freedom of Information Act request to the State Police last week requesting a copy of its final report into the shooting; I’ve got another request to VSP to inquire if there is a final report in the case, and if so, for a copy, to be able to review.
The understanding that I was left with was that there wouldn’t or couldn’t be a final report until the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had concluded its review.
Earlier this week, the family of Dustin Griffin, through a Charlottesville-based civil-rights attorney, Elliott Harding, said in a statement that it had been told the Medical Examiner report wouldn’t be complete for several weeks.
I reached out to the family and to Harding tonight for comment on the investigation, and learned from Harding that the family had met with investigators and the sheriff at the Sheriff’s Office late this afternoon.
“The family is still processing what they were made privy to this afternoon,” Harding told me by email. “The fact that it went on social media within the hour of their departure from the Sheriff’s Office is unsettling and relatively inhumane, but until we’re able to fully evaluate what has been released publicly versus what were shown and given, we have to refrain from additional comment.”
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Augusta County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tim Martin had already issued a statement, back on Jan. 7, in which he exonerated the unnamed deputies for their actions in the shooting.
“On December 17, 2025, Dustin Griffin attempted to murder an Augusta County sheriff’s deputy,” Martin said in his statement. “Although he was unsuccessful, he did shoot a deputy in the arm, seriously wounding him. Before Griffin was able to kill that deputy or any of the other deputies on the scene, deputies shot Griffin to death. Their actions were not only justified, but entirely necessary.”
Martin concluded the statement: “Obviously, none of the deputies will be charged for their lifesaving actions that night.”
Donald Smith offered the following statement tonight:
“Dustin Griffin’s decision to produce a weapon, deliberately point it, and fire it on an Augusta County Sheriff’s Office deputy resulted in the use of deadly force to protect all the deputies involved. During this incident, deputies had no other choice, this decision was immediately made in response to Dustin’s decision to shoot.”
There is no doubt, from the video, that Griffin produced a weapon and fired, striking one of the deputies, and that the deputies would be justified in firing at him in self-defense to neutralize him from being able to fire again.
There is doubt, because the circumstances of the final shot are not clear in the videos produced for public dissemination, if Griffin was still a threat in the four seconds between the five shots to his torso and the final shot that struck him in the back of the head.
If he’s a continued threat, then the final shot is justified.
If he’s not, that might be another matter.
I reached out to Smith and Martin tonight with these questions, and haven’t yet gotten a response.
The unreleased video and the report from the Medical Examiner could hold the final answer.
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Chris Graham
