Crime & Safety
Sengel: Alexandria Officers Acted in Self-Defense in Shooting
Seven police officers remain on administrative duty until completion of an internal investigation.
The Alexandria police officers involved in the shooting death of 30-year-old city resident Taft Sellers will not face criminal charges, according to a report issued Monday by Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Sengel.
The 30-page document indicates that Sellers, a T.C. Williams graduate and former Marine, pointed a firearm at police during a Feb. 17 encounter at his grandmother’s apartment complex in the 3400 block of Duke Street.
Sellers’ sister notified police that he had a gun after the two got into an argument. He did not threaten to use it. Sellers then encountered a police officer in a stairwell at the complex.
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According to The Alexandria Times:
The first officer on the scene – not far from the department’s massive headquarters complex on Wheeler Avenue – spoke with Sellers, who was not wielding a firearm, in an open-air apartment complex stairwell.
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But he retreated after the former military man put a hand behind his back and took a “shooting stance.” As other officers arrived, Sellers ducked behind the stairwell wall.
Officers repeatedly asked Sellers to show his hands, according to the report, but he refused. He then pointed his weapon at the officers.“The gun was fully loaded but Sellers did not fire it; and he was shot by officers who feared Sellers was going to shoot at them,” reads the report. “Under these circumstances, the law clearly supports the conclusion that the officers were entitled to use deadly force in response and that they fired in self-defense. Criminal charges against the officers are not appropriate.”
According to the report, the officers fired 37 shots at Sellers using handguns, a shotgun and a rifle. Sellers was hit five times in the abdomen and head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sengel’s report indicates Sellers had sent an email to friends and family the day of the shooting implying suicide. Sengel said the investigation showed nothing in regards to post traumatic stress disorder, but that Sellers had been treated for depression. Sellers was prescribed phenytoin, an antiepileptic drug, according to the report.
The seven officers remain on administrative duty until an internal investigation is completed determining if they followed department policies.
According to The Washington Post:
Chris Sims, a friend of Sellers from high school, said that if a gun was shown, then officers probably had the right to fire. Still, he said, he wished fewer officers had fired, and he wished they had fired in such a way that spared Sellers’ life.
“I understand that it’s for the safety of the police, and if a gun was shown, then I understand,” he said. “I just wish it wasn’t lethal force.”
Sengel said he voluntarily released the report because it was “important for the public to understand what happened” following plenty of “speculation, rumor and innuendo” into the case.
The Alexandria Times editorial board advocated another law enforcement agency or prosecutor’s office investigate the case in a March editorial.
“The integrity of criminal justice system is not judged or beholden to innuendo,” Sengel wrote in the report. “As the elected prosecutor for the City of Alexandria, it is my responsibility to address this case fairly and impartially.”
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