A Springfield man is suing Fairfax County for $10 million, claiming he was shot five times after a sleepy female police department employee brushed off his pleas for help.
Najib Gerdak, 28, was shot in the abdomen, leg, shoulder and groin while standing in the parking lot outside the Franconia District Police Station.
The shooting occurred after a bizarre series of events brought Gerdak together with shooter Jeffrey Koger.
Gerdak was standing in the parking lot at around 3 a.m. when Koger — on a booze-fueled, gun-toting rampage — chased a taxicab and its driver into the police parking lot, according to court documents.
Koger at the time was facing charges of embezzling roughly $3 million from local homeowners associations while working at Koger Management Group, his father’s company.
Gerdak and another driver were sorting out a misunderstanding outside the police station when, according to the lawsuit, a taxicab raced into the police parking lot, followed closely by Koger’s blue sport utility vehicle.
Gerdak ran into the police station for help after Koger, 40, began ramming the cab with his SUV. According to the suit, Gerdak approached a sleepingfemale police department employee working at the station’s front desk.
The woman’s “eyes were closed, her feet were propped up on the desk, and she appeared to be sleeping,” court documents say.
Gerdak says he woke her up, and she told him to go back outside and tell the taxi driver to call his dispatch for assistance.
So he went back outside, where Koger shot him multiple times.
Gerdak says the female employee never helped him, and he had to call for an ambulance using his own cell phone.
Virginia and Metro Transit police officers later apprehended Koger after a brief chase and gunfire exchange, according to court statements from his 2009 trial. Koger was sentenced to 66 years in prison.
Gerdak’s attorney, Katherine Martell, said the February 2008 shooting “completely devastated” her client’s life, and that he may never be able to have children.
“That night was a failure as far as policing goes, and really puts the county to shame,” Martell said.
A Fairfax police spokeswoman said the department wouldn’t comment on pending litigation. A court date has not been set.
