Officer-Involved Shootings

As a plaintiff’s attorney and former prosecutor, I believe neutral and professional reviews of officer-involved shootings are best for everyone involved. Victims and their families deserve this. Officers and their colleagues deserve this. The community deserves this.

Public trust depends upon this.

Recently The Tacoma Weekly covered the issue, including a specific request in one of my cases against Clark County. There have been three wrongful shootings in about 15 months by deputies with the Clark County Sheriff’s Department, starting with the killing of Kevin Peterson Jr.

One of the deputies who wrongfully shot Kevin Peterson Jr. later shot and killed an off-duty police officer, Donald Sahota. In both killings, the deputy fired his weapon before he understood the situation.

Clark County is a charter government with five County Council members, including Chair Karen Dill Bowerman. The council has shown no signs of corrective action or even a willingness to accept responsilibity. This understandably concerns many in the community.

Below I’ve posted the entirety of The Tacoma Weekly article by Matt Nagle, which covers the specific shooting and the larger issue as well.

Attorneys Ask for Neutral Review

Attorneys Mark Lindquist and Angus Lee have asked Clark County Prosecutor Tony Golik to request a neutral review in a fatal shooting by Clark County Sheriff’s Deputies. 

In October of 2020, Kevin Peterson Jr., a 20-year-old black man, was shot by sheriff’s deputies as he ran away from a drug sting operation. The first deputy to shoot said Peterson wouldn’t stop running, so he shot him. “I kinda just drew the line in the sand…. He continued to run. I started shooting.”

Surveillance video confirms deputies started shooting at Peterson’s back as he ran away. When shot, Peterson fell and raised his cell phone. Deputies fired additional rounds. In all, deputies fired 34 shots.

Former Clark County Sheriff Chuck Atkins initially claimed Peterson shot at deputies, but this was disproven by the law enforcement investigation. There were also claims Peterson raised a gun after he was shot, but evidence shows the object in his hand was a cell phone. 

Golik initially sent the case and the investigation done by The Lower Columbia Major Crimes Team and Southwest Washington Independent Investigation Response Team to the Pierce County Prosecutor for review. The case received extensive local and national media coverage. 

Lack of Investigation

Lindquist and Lee, both former elected prosecutors, represent the Peterson family in a civil lawsuit. They are asking for a new review based on information revealed in the civil prosecution of the case. 

First, the attorneys allege the lead-investigator and co-lead investigator believed it was their job to merely “take statements” from the shooting officers rather than investigate the killing. The co-lead investigator admitted in the pending civil case, “I didn’t do any investigating.”

Further, the investigators are represented by the same attorneys representing the deputies they were tasked with investigating. 

Conflict of Interest

Second, Pierce County Prosecutor Mary Robnett had a conflict or the appearance of a conflict. The lawyer representing Clark County and the defendant deputies is the same lawyer who represented Robnett when she was sued for the political termination of a whistle-blower. The prosecutor reviewed the Peterson case while the firm was representing her in a significant case where the jury found against her and awarded the whistle-blower more than two million dollars. 

Lindquist and Lee write, “The prosecutor’s review falsely states officers didn’t shoot until Kevin threatened them with a gun. In fact, this contention is directly contradicted by Detective Anderson’s recent deposition in the civil case where he admits Kevin never pointed the gun at him or anyone else prior to the initial shots.  The primary factual claim that the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office relied on when it declined charges is simply not true. Anderson has now admitted that under oath.” 

Lindquist and Lee also noted the investigators and the prosecutor “didn’t even pursue obvious fundamentals,” such as retaining an expert to analyze the U.S. Bank surveillance video, which recorded the killing of Peterson. 

“To put it as plainly as possible,” the attorneys summarize, “the defendant officers, the officers who were supposed to investigate the defendant officers, and the prosecutor who was supposed to do an objective review, were all represented by the same lawyers and appear to be on the same team protecting each other. This obviously undermines public trust in the result.” 

Lawsuit Background

Robnett was successfully sued by Tacoma attorney Jack Connelly who represented a long-time public employee who became a whistle-blower. Trial was in December of last year. Connelly won over two million dollars and attorney fees. Evidence indicated Robnett fired the civil servant for political reasons. Robnett denied this, but jurors sided with the employee who was the Chief of the Prosecutor’s Office Civil Division for three different elected prosecutors, including Lindquist. 

Lindquist was the elected Pierce County Prosecutor for almost ten years. During his tenure, he was respected for a strong focus on community safety and victim’s rights. Since 2019, Lindquist has been a personal injury lawyer handling wrongful death cases such as the Peterson shooting, aviation cases, including the two fatal crashes of the Boeing 737 Max, and other incidents of death and serious injury. The Tacoma Weekly published a cover story on his transition from public service to private practice.

Angus Lee was a former elected prosecutor for Grant County, WA. He handles criminal defense and civil rights cases in Southwest Washington. Lee is a long-time advocate for body cameras and launched the first state-wide voter initiative for body cameras in 2015.

Justice Going Forward

As former elected prosecutors, Lindquist and Lee invoked Golik’s sense of justice and public duty. “Like you, we believe strongly in our system of justice. Now more than ever, prosecutors and police must do everything possible to earn public trust in our system. We ask you to do so in this case.”

Golik’s options include sending the case to a different prosecutor, or to the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, which he has done with officer-involved shootings in the past. He could also ask the Governor to authorize the Attorney General to review the case. 

As of July 10, 2023, the new Washington State Office of Independent Investigations is accepting requests to review prior cases of deadly force by law enforcement where there is new evidence. The legislature considered House Bill 1579 in 2023, which would have created an independent office for prosecutorial review of officer-involved shootings, but the bill failed to garner sufficient support.