Trans man killed by Fairfax Police responding to mental health crisis
A Fairfax County Police officer on July 7 shot and killed a transgender man who family members say was having a mental health crisis inside the family home where he lived after the man, identified as Jasper Aaron Lynch, 26, lunged at three officers while wielding a wine bottle as a weapon and refused the officers commands to drop the bottle, according to a statement released by Fairfax Police.
Lynch’s parents released their own statement saying the use of deadly force was unnecessary and that the officers should have handled the incident “far differently.” The police shooting incident and the release by Fairfax Police of body camera footage of the incident was widely reported in the news media.
But the news that Lynch was a transgender man did not surface until Aug. 24, when the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, released a statement disclosing that Lynch was trans and expressed support for his parents’ contention that the shooting was uncalled for. “Aaron’s death marks the third fatal shooting by the police of a transgender person recorded by HRC since 2020,” the HRC statement says. “Transgender people, especially transgender people of color, are at increased risk of experiencing police brutality, even in the wake of other encountered violence,” the statement says.
In a detailed statement posted on their website, Fairfax Police say police involvement leading to the fatal shooting began shortly after 7 p.m.
