The family of a man who died in Alexandria Police Department custody last summer is asking for accountability, as the city’s Independent Community Policing Review Board has taken up the case.
The family of Allan Tucker II wants the two arresting officers and their supervisor charged with criminal negligence in his Aug. 15, 2025 death. The 32-year-old Tucker was arrested for public intoxication in the hallway of his apartment complex home and later died in police custody while waiting 35 to 45 minutes in the back of an APD cruiser parked in the sally port of the Alexandria jail.
On Monday (June 29), the board received a report from Ameratu Kamara, the city’s independent policing auditor, determining that APD officers violated performance standards and body camera directives and disregarded the Tucker’s multiple requests to be taken to the hospital. More than a dozen of Tucker’s family members and friends spoke on his behalf.
Kamara also reported that the arresting officer and two other officers violated APD policy by muting their body camera to have a private conversation with other officers while Tucker was in custody. She determined that the arresting officer and another officer “failed to meet performance standards in the transport and monitoring of an arrestee in custody.”
Two officers were placed on administrative leave after the incident and resumed full duties six months later, according to Kamara’s report.
Sandra Jones, Tucker’s mother, said that reading the report was one of the most painful experiences of her life.
“No mother should have to read an official report stating her child asked for medical help, pleaded to go to the hospital and was ignored by police officers,” Jones told the board. “Above all, Allan deserved better. He deserved compassion when he asked for help, urgency when his life was in danger, and humanity from those that we, that he trusted.”
Tucker’s brother Dante Jones said that two arresting officers need to be held responsible for negligence.
“It’s because of their negligence that my brother isn’t here today,” he said. “If any of us fail to follow policy at our workplace and were negligent enough for someone to lose their life, we would all be fired from our jobs and have criminal charges pressed against us. These two should not be exempt.”
In January, Alexandria Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter announced he would not seek charges against officers involved in Tucker’s death. Porter made the determination after investigations by the medical examiner and the Northern Virginia Critical Incident Response Team.
Brittany Tucker said that family was further distraught when she picked up her brother’s valuables from APD headquarters in March. She said that the box had his clothing but also mistakenly included his fingernails that investigators clipped, a fingernail clipper, the handcuffs used on him and the seatbelt that Tucker was cut away from in the cruiser.
“I still feel the hurt and disbelief when I opened that evidence box and saw those handcuffs and seat belt,” Brittany Tucker said. “When Allan’s body was finally released to our family, I saw contusions on the side of his head, and a busted lip. He did not leave the house that way. Those injuries happened in the back of that police cruiser, where the officers stood outside.”
Brittany Tucker said that APD later acknowledged that the cuffs and belt were mistakenly handed over. She also said that they have both been turned over to a local attorney.
Board Member Jeanne O’Toole said that the incident represents a failure of supervision.
“Supervisors are held to a higher standard and are there to ensure that employees under their command are making decisions in the best interest of the people they serve the city and the police department, and this did not happen in this case, as we have heard this evening,” O’Toole said.
Kamara also recommended to Police Chief Tarrick McGuire disciplinary actions against the officers, but she would not disclose them at the public hearing.
“They are not contained in this report, though, because my disciplinary recommendations under state FOIA laws are considered personnel records,” Kamara told the board. “I also offered to meet with every board member to discuss what my investigation would be, and in those meetings I did take the liberty of sharing with the board what my disciplinary recommendations to Chief McGuire are, recognizing that I can’t make them public in my report, but also recognizing that you all need to have that knowledge in order to do what your job requires you to do.”
Vice Chair Alexis Stackhouse said the recommendations against the officers should be made public.
“We are charged with looking at outcomes, protecting the public transparency, thoroughness, finding out if there’s bias, ensuring that police accountability,” Stackhouse said. “How are we supposed to do our job if we can’t in a public setting have that information?”
Retired Sheriff Dana Lawhorne said Kamara exceeded her authority by recommending actions against the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office and asked the review board to not accept her report. The sheriff’s office put out a statement Monday claiming no policy violations from its personnel in Tucker’s death.
“A 40-minute wait time is legally acceptable and very common,” Lawhorne told ALXnow. “During this wait time, the police never told sheriff’s staff there was a medical concern. When the situation changed unexpectedly, they alerted sheriff’s staff, who immediately responded with the jail medical team and rendered first aid.”
David Parker, a member of the city’s Human Rights Commission, called for the termination of the two APD officers and for Porter to file charges against them.
“They were at the very least neglectful, the very worst criminal in their lack of action,” Parker said.
The Independent Community Policing Review Board went into recess at 9 p.m. and will reconvene to make their final recommendations at their upcoming meeting on Wednesday, July 1.
This is the eight-member review board’s first case since City Council founded it in 2021.
The board can take the following actions on July 1:
- Concur with all or some of the findings and determinations detailed in the Auditor’s investigation report
- Advise City Council, the City Manager, the Alexandria Police Department (APD), and the Auditor that the Auditor’s findings are not supported by the information reasonably available to APD and recommend further review, consideration, or action
- Advise City Council, the City Manager, APD, and the Auditor that, in the Board’s judgment, the investigation is incomplete and recommend additional investigation
- Recommend referral of the complaint to the Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Alexandria
