The election is still more than four months away, but the candidates for Fairfax County sheriff are sparring over the handling of a schizophrenic inmate who died after being Tasered by deputies at the jail in February.
Republican candidate Bryan Wolfe said in an interview last week that Natasha McKenna might still be alive if Sheriff Stacey Kincaid (D) had heeded his call for deputies to receive more training in handling the mentally ill when they squared off in the previous election.
Wolfe also sharply criticized Kincaid for refusing to release a video of the encounter between sheriff’s deputies and McKenna that preceded her death, saying the public has a right to assess whether excessive force was used.
Kincaid, who beat Wolfe by double digits in 2013 to become the county’s first female sheriff, disputed both assertions. In Fairfax, the sheriff runs the jail and provides courthouse security.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/death-of-inmate-at-fairfax-jail-becomes-contentious-issue-in-sheriffs-election/2015/06/21/0bc5196a-14fb-11e5-9518-f9e0a8959f32_story.html?hpid=z4