Sal Culosi, December 17, 1968 - January 24, 2006

As we take in the gun-to-a-snowball-fight travesty, a reminder that D.C.s MPD isn't the only place around here to employ folks who shouldn't have guns: Saturday's Washington Post had a story from Tom Jackman that tried to keep some attention on last month's killing of David Masters by a Fairfax County police officer.

Masters was shot from behind as he sat in his car after being pulled over. He didn't have a weapon. Not even a snowball.

The police and other law officials in Fairfax County refuse to release any information about Masters killing.

From Jackman's piece:

[Masters] drove 50 miles from his $3,600 trailer in Fredericksburg, stopped outside a landscaping business in Fairfax County and pulled a bunch of tall flowers out of a planter. A few minutes later, the police spotted him and signaled to him to pull over. At Route 1 and Fort Hunt Road, he stopped, and the officers got out of their car. And then, perhaps, Masters did something. The Fairfax police won't say what. A furtive gesture? A yell? And a Fairfax officer shot through Masters's rear passenger window and killed the unarmed man as he sat in his Chevrolet Blazer.

One month after the former Green Beret and disabled carpenter was slain, Fairfax police have not publicly said why Masters, 52, was shot in the middle of a busy intersection on the gray afternoon of Friday the 13th in November. They won't say who fired the shots, what Masters did to provoke the shooting, how many shots were fired or what the many witnesses at the intersection told them they saw.

The killing of Masters is only the latest case of a police officer shooting unarmed folks in Fairfax County. And the silent routine is the M.O. the county always uses  in these situations.

Two of the higher profile wholly unjustifiable killings by Fairfax County:

Read More "Yes, Virginia, Police Outside D.C. Pull Out Their Guns, Too" »

Good morning, City Desk readers. It's Libertarian Friday, are you ready to rage against the system? Great! Here's some news:

• Culture11, the conservative/libertarian Web magazine started by Conor Friedersdorf, Peter Suderman, Joe Carter, David Kuo, and James Poulos and based in Arlington, laid off its entire staff on Wednesday. According to Kuo: "We raised a certain amount of money last year predicated on the assumption we would raise more money...Then the fall’s fall occurred and we stretched money as long and far as we could without incurring any debts. With no new money in the door the board decided the most prudent thing to do was suspend business operations." Andrew Sullivan's eulogy for the magazine is especially touching.

Read More "Our Morning Round-Up: Culture11 Bites the Dust" »

I wrote a column this week about the killing of Sal Culosi, shot three years ago last weekend by Fairfax County SWAT officer Deval Bullock. At the time of his death, Culosi was under investigation for sports betting.

Nobody was ever charged with any crimes in either the gambling investigation or the killing of Culosi, who was unarmed when he was gunned down in front of his house.

Culosi's death came during what felt like a spree of deadly and indictment-free police shootings in Northern Virginia.

Just five days before Culosi's killing, a civil jury had awarded the family of Prince Jones $3.7 million in a wrongful death suit.

Jones, an unarmed Howard U. student, was shot five times in the back in a Falls Church driveway in September 2000 by an undercover Prince George's County cop, Carlton Jones (no relation).

Read More "The Killing Fields of NoVa…" »