Arlington County police union demands apology from Commonwealth Attorney candidate

ARLINGTON COUNTY, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - The Arlington County police union is demanding an apology from a Democratic candidate running for office county wide office regarding a flyer that calls for prosecuting police officers.

Parisa Dehgani-Tafi is running in the primary for Commonwealth Attorney for Arlington and Falls Church.

Commonwealth Attorney is the top prosecutor's job in the county.

Despite the union's demand, Dehgani-Tafi and her campaign aren't backing down.

The flyer says that current commonwealth attorney Theo Stamos refused to prosecute police officers in cases of brutality - specifically in reference to a May 2015 fatal police shooting. In that case, the officer was cleared after an investigation determined that the officer fired his weapon in self defense.

Now, the Arlington Police Beneficiary Association and the Arlington Coalition of Police are furious with Deghani-Tafti, calling her "shameful."

"She's double-downed on this lie, and instead of saying anything along the lines of an apology, or I could have used better language, or I mischaracterized it she's trying to say it's a call for independent review of police shootings, but that's not what she said!" said Arlington Police Beneficiary Association Past-President Matt Martin,

FOX 5 repeatedly reached out to Parisa Deghani-Tafi for an interview on Thursday, but she refused.

Instead, she emailed a statement saying, "I'm looking for impartiality in these cases - period. Everyone should appreciate that because impartiality leads to community trust, which increases public safety for everyone, including officers on the job."

Stamos blasted Deghani-Tafti, saying the accusation she made is a deliberate distortion of the facts.

The election is just 34 days away on June 11.