A Virginia State Police contact tells us today that the investigation into the Dec. 17 officer-involved shooting of Dustin Griffin is still ongoing, which seems to catch Augusta County Sheriff Donald Smith in either an untruth or, at the least, a misdirection.
“BCI says it is still under investigation,” the State Police contact told me by email – BCI refers to the agency’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
ICYMI
Smith, on Friday night, authorized the release of four of the five body-worn cam and dashcam videos from the incident, and in a press release from his office last night, and a social-media post, asserted that “the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office intentionally refrained from making any public statements during the investigation so as not to influence its outcome.”
Then he went on to make a public statement, during the still-ongoing State Police investigation:
“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,” Smith said.
From the videos shared both with local media and on social media, it is clear that 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 in the videos telling other deputies at the scene that he had been shot.
A second deputy, approaching the scene, fired five shots that hit Griffin in the torso, to neutralize the threat from Griffin.
There is then a gap on the video of approximately four seconds before the second deputy that had been involved in the initial struggle with Griffin fired a final shot; Smith acknowledged in the press release accompanying the release of the videos that the “final shot struck Griffin in the back of the head.”
Video: Different angles of the shooting
The one video of the five available to investigators that was not released last night was, you guessed it, 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 could be the case that it’s not being released because it is still a key to the investigation into the shooting of Griffin, 42, who was wanted on seven drug-related charges stemming from an investigation that had begun in October, according to the sheriff.
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That video, from the perspective of the deputy who fired the shot to the back of Griffin’s head, would seem to hold the final answer as to the nature of whatever continued threat Griffin was to the deputies on the scene after having been shot five times in the torso.
Another piece of information that would be important here would be the final report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, as to a determination on the nature of Griffin’s injuries, and if it can be ascertained which shot fired at Griffin, of the six, was the fatal one, or if the death was the sum result of the accumulation of the six.
Griffin, we know, was declared dead at the scene.
The Medical Examiner report is not expected to be completed for several weeks; that would seem to be the holdup to the final completion of the State Police report into the incident.
ICYMI
- Augusta County: Man killed in officer-involved shooting; one deputy airlifted
- Augusta County: Medical examiner confirms ID of man shot, killed by deputy
- The story of the man killed in Augusta County officer-involved shooting
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Chris Graham
