We asked Virginia State Police for an update on the status of the investigation into the Dec. 17 officer-involved shooting death of an Augusta County man.
The update: there is no update.
We reached out to a VSP spokesperson this week to try to get an ETA on the release of a report from the agency into the shooting death of Dustin Griffin, 42, who was shot by an Augusta County sheriff’s deputy as authorities were attempting to serve an arrest warrant.
The word back to us on Saturday: “There isn’t an ETA right now.”
ICYMI
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Per releases from VSP and the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office, three deputies assigned to the Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit showed up at the residence of a family member of Griffin around 8:30 p.m. the night of Dec. 17 to serve an arrest warrant.
Griffin was apparently the subject of an investigation dating to this past October, though, according to a family member, Griffin was unaware that he was the subject of an investigation until the attempt at service.
We learned this about Griffin not from authorities, but from the family member, who reached out to us in the hours immediately following the shooting to ask us to look into the details of the shooting that took place at the home of the family member in the 800 block of Parkersburg Turnpike.
Griffin had a lengthy rap sheet, dating back to 2012, from our review of the online Virginia court system database, but it appears his most recent issue with the criminal-justice system stemmed from an April 23, 2019, arrest on a drug-distribution charge.
According to the online court database, he was convicted in 2020 and sentenced to 10 years in prison, with eight years of that sentence suspended.
Since his release from prison on that charge, we find a speeding charge in 2022, an improper lane change charge in 2023, a failure to stop/yield charge in 2024, and then a vehicle registration charge from this past Oct. 25 that was due to be heard in Augusta County General District Court on Dec. 22.
As to what happened on the night of Dec. 17, we’re more than two weeks past that date, and, we don’t know.
The wording of the press release from the sheriff’s office leaves a lot of room for interpretation as to what happened:
“Augusta County Sheriff’s Office deputies were attempting to serve an arrest warrant on a suspect in the 800 block of Parkersburg Turnpike. When the deputies arrived, they encountered the wanted suspect, and a physical altercation occurred. A deputy was shot in the upper arm area during the altercation.”
There’s also room for interpretation on what happened from the release from the Virginia State Police:
“Preliminary information indicates three deputies assigned to the Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit were attempting to take a subject into custody when shots were fired. One deputy was struck in the arm and was transported by medical helicopter to the University of Virginia Medical Center for treatment.”
Per both releases, the deputy was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
As for how things went down:
- We don’t know the nature of the charge(s) against Griffin, though we can guess, given that we’re told that it was the Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit involved in the operation.
- It’s not being made clear in either release who fired the shot that injured the deputy.
We’re going to keep putting pressure on the authorities to get answers to the public.
Video: The latest on the investigation
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Chris Graham
