Thursday, March 23, 2006

No Justice for Sal Today

This site is dedicated to the memory of our beloved son of 37 years, Dr. Salvatore J. Culosi. Sal was unjustly shot and killed by a member of the Fairfax County, VA police SWAT team on January 24, 2006. Sal was under investigation by Fairfax County police for supposedly taking sports bets. Police sent a fully-armed, paramilitary SWAT team to his home to serve a documents search warrant and killed him with a .45 Heckler & Koch handgun – a powerful weapon typically used by U.S. military forces in combat. Sal was alone, unarmed and cooperative outside his home - in plain view when he was shot and killed. He had no criminal history and did not own a weapon.

Sal was the most gentle and kindhearted human being. He had his whole life ahead of him. He was contributing to the community as an Optometrist. His practice at the WAL*MART’s in Warrenton and Manassas were established. His friends and patients are as saddened and outraged as we are that something so senseless could happen to our Sal.

A week ago today, our family decided we wanted to launch a blog site to keep the public informed on the status of the investigation into Sal’s death. For two months we’ve had no answers and we still don’t have answers. Our family and friends, Sal’s friends and patients and people we have never met from all over Fairfax County, VA and the country have come out of the woodwork wanting to help somehow right this terrible wrong. This site will provide resources for doing just that.

Our family was working really hard this morning - putting the finishing touches on the site so we could share it with you tomorrow - two months to the day that Sal was killed. Just before noon, we learned that Commonwealth Attorney, Robert Horan, would be announcing that charges would not be brought against the still unnamed officer who unjustly shot and killed Sal. Needless to say, we are devastated. We do not understand how Mr. Horan came to the conclusion that there is no evidence to bring criminal charges.

Our family is regrouping right now, but tomorrow, we will begin uploading more information to the site. Please stay tuned and come back! We will use this site to share what we learn with the public on exactly what happened to Sal.

There will be no Justice for Sal until the full details of what happened are publicly disclosed, those who are responsible are held accountable for their actions, and police policies and tactics are changed to prevent another senseless tragedy like this from happening again.

Please keep Sal and our family in your thoughts and prayers.

Salvatore J. and Anita Culosi
Proud Parents of Dr. Salvatore J. Culosi