Rioters aimed to “takedown” Manassas police department, targeted its chief

Manassas Police Chief Douglas Keen stood before the city council Monday night, about 24 hours after a peaceful protest turned into a riot.

There, he explained how nearly 200 rioters chased him and his officers, pinning them down in the Battery Heights neighborhood just off Signal Hill Road.

“Quite honest with you, it was myself and three of our officers that they spotted and decided to come after us, so I’ve been doing this a long time, SWAT team member, police officer 30 plus years, I will tell you is one of the more tense situations when you have 200 people chasing yourself and your officers with rocks and bottles and chanting they’re gonna kill you,” Keen said.

The protest began peacefully at 5 p.m Sunday just across from Battery Heights, on Liberia Avenue, at WaWa gas station on the border of Prince William County and Manassas City. Potomac Local News was at the rally, organized by a pastor from Chapel Springs Church when it began. Hundreds stood outside the gas station, held signs, chanted for “no justice, no peace,” in the wake of the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd.

Prince William police were also on the scene, while Manassas police stood and watched from across the street. Chief Keen was, too, standing alongside the protestors in solidarity.

“That started off almost five hours of peaceful conversation, hard conversation, but honest conversation that needs to happen,” Keen said.  “That’s what needs to happen, it was great, but we could see the crowd changing to be honest with you as the sun started to set.”

Things went downhill at about 11:30 p.m.

Keen said of the people who came to protest after dark, “…our intelligence is telling us that you have the ANTIFA, anarchist, and criminal mindset people that want to come out after dark and have no desire to have a conversation, they’re there for anarchy, disruption, criminal activity, whatever you may call it.”

While they were chasing the officers, Keen explained that there was the destruction of window fronts at a Glory Days restaurant on Liberia Avenue, and he described how rocks and bottles smashed his police cruiser. Windows on three police other cruisers were shattered.

Police deployed a civil disturbance team, with officers from the city, Prince William County, and Virginia State Police. These are the same agencies that assisted Prince William police in a riot just five miles outside the city the night before.

It wasn’t until officers were pinned down in Battery Heights that officers got assistant from the Civil Disturbance Unit, Keen explained. Then rioters marched toward the nearby city police headquarters, chanting that they were going to “takedown” the police department and that they were coming after the chief, he explained.

Virginia State Police encircled the police station to protect the budding.

 “It was a very moving sight to see, there to protect us and our staff and me, I appreciate that,” Keen said.

Just before the group of protestors reaching Mayfield Intermediary School, the police and the Civil Disturbance Unit made a “hardline” and declared an unlawful assembly.

“We did not let them advance any further,” Keen said. “… our tactics were holding the line, we are not going to deploy any gas or munitions because that is what they’re looking for so that they can justify more violence. We decided to wait them out. We held our line. They got tired of us and bored.” Keen said.

Police pushed back the group toward Liberia Avenue, were it split into separate groups.

No officers, protestors, or rioters were injured, and no arrests were made.

Protestors did go back to the Prince William County side of Liberia Avenue, to Walmart, where they broke into Walmart and began looting, Keen explained.  At that point, four arrests were made by Prince William County Police –  there were people still inside the Walmart, Chief Keen noted.

“It’s saddening. Distasteful to hear. Disgraceful to hear the kind of thing that’s taking place and anybody that supports that… well. Good people should not support that kind of thing,” said Mayor Hal Parrish II.

Councilman Mark Wolfe asked Keen about Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, which occurred as a now-former police officer who is charged in his death was attempting to arrest him. Video shows that officer placing his knee on Floyd’s head, and audio from the video indicates Floyd told the officer he couldn’t breathe.

Keen reminded the council that its police department had earned national accreditation — a feat that less than 2% of departments in the nation have achieved. Certification is about best practices and holding yourself and officers accountable, Keen explained. 

“It’s an illegal hold, illegal move, unacceptable. We are as disgusted by those kind of behaviors, just like everyone else,” Keen said. “I would much rather have vacancies than have bad apples on the force.”

Manassas police officers are required to attend de-escalation training annually, Keen explained, adding that they re-train on defensive tactics, as well as focus on mental health.

During the work session on Monday night, there were still active protests taking place in Old Town Manassas that began at about 1 o’clock that afternoon. 

“As I am sure you feel the same way I do, I am saddened and frankly I am disappointed in some of the things that are taking place in our nation and in our state and locally as well and I know you are, as well and in fact some of the things that we have all seen and – certainly I’ve seen – are a disgrace to our nation and our state and our locale and I’m sorry to see them,” said Parrish.

Councilman Ian Lovejoy said that council should get through the pivotal items on the agenda, and let the police go to monitor what’s happening now.

“We are in here but there’s quite a bit of uncertainty out there,” Lovejoy said.

Parrish adjourned the meeting early.