Police: Suspect Tried to Grab Officer's Gun During Saturday Night Arrest

The Fairfax County Police Department is crediting a new gun safety measure being used by its officers for keeping an incident from escalating in the Mount Vernon area Saturday night, when a suspect attempted to grab an officer’s gun. Here’s what happened according to an FCPD news release:

Last night, Saturday, January 31, at approximately 9:30 p.m., officers from the Mount Vernon police district responded to a trespassing complaint at a restaurant located in the 7600 block of Richmond Highway. The man who was trespassing, 39 year-old Shelbin L. Northern, had been previously banned from the property by restaurant management. Mr. Northern was told he was under arrest for trespassing and physically resisted officers.

During the struggle, the suspect attempted to remove one officer’s firearm from its duty holster. Thanks to the advanced holster mechanism and officers’ efforts, the suspect was unable to remove the pistol. Mr. Northern was eventually taken into custody and arrested. Mr. Northern was transported to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center where he was charged with trespassing, two counts of assault on law enforcement, attempt to disarm a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. Fortunately no one was injured during the incident.

The Fairfax County police department has started deployment of a new generation of holster which provides additional retention safety features. The holster design in this incident helped prevent further escalation of force which began with a call for service for trespassing. This demonstrates the commitment from our Firearms Training Unit staff to research products that ensure officers have the safest equipment available. Combined with use of force officer training, this provides increased safety for our county residents, officers and the suspects they come in contact with on a day-to-day basis.