Police firing their guns seems to have become a little more prevalent this week in the Puget Sound area than normal. Most of the time when a officer opens fire it is because their training has kicked in due to the situation displaying a serious threat to their lives and the community. But twice this week it seems that the use of deadly force has been brought into serious question and the events leading up to the killings, as depicted by the law enforcement agencies, were biased.

The first shooting happened on Monday when a Seattle Police Officer opened fire on a man sitting on a street corner carving a piece of wood. The officer said that the man approached him with a knife, but a witness to the shooting neither saw a knife nor did he see aggressive action on the part of the victim. Though the victim was a habitual homeless inebriate, he had no history of violence and the knife was not under the definition of a deadly weapon. The SPD is currently investigating.

Then on Tuesday, police spotted a stolen truck, which prompted a slow-speed chase that began in the WalMart parking lot on 16th Avenue South. Police tried PIT maneuvers to run the suspect off of the road, but were unsuccessful until yards from the victim’s front door where they were able to successfully ram the pickup off the road causing it to crash through a fence at South 360^th.

It is the moments after the crash that a witness disputes the events that lead to the death of 23-year-old Dave Young.

Wrongful Death

Federal Way Police say that, as an officer approached the truck from behind, the driver threw the truck in reverse started advancing the truck toward the officer “in an aggressive manner,” according to Cathy Schrock, a spokeswoman for the Federal Way Police Department. The officer fired to “stop the threat of being seriously injured.”

The officer opened fire, shooting 8 to 10 shots, one of them hitting Young in the back of the head, killing him instantly.

It was only seconds after the shooting that a witness, the owner of the fence, was able to flip his video camera on and caught some of the details of the crime scene. These details are in conflict to those given by police, even in the explanation given by an officer on the videotape telling the homeowner what and how the incident happened.

Skip Leingang, the son of a retired Sheriff’s Deputy, was the man who shot the footage. Though he is a staunch supporter of law enforcement, he felt it was his duty to reveal his footage to the media prior to releasing it to law enforcement.

The reason for this is that, as Leingang explained, after police rammed the truck into the fence, the truck was high-centered, balanced on a broken post, with the back wheels raised off the ground. The truck is a rear-wheeled vehicle that could have never reversed in that position.

When the truck was removed the post was facing one direction, but Leingang said that his fence post was facing in the opposite direction under the truck. He said it was pulled back like a lever when the pickup was towed out.

This shows that the truck did not surge back, move, or pose any kind of threat to the arresting officers. That is why deadly force has been now brought into question.

Wrongful Death Attorneys

Both of these cases, as investigators sort through the evidence, are hampered by the fact that the very agencies that are under suspicion are the agencies that investigate the incident. This has long since been a problem in law enforcement that has led to a serious rift in whole communities with their public servants that are sworn to protect them.

It is important for the community to be confident that their local law enforcement officers. They are humans and make mistakes, but are trained to recognize dangerous situations. But this does not exonerate them from accountability for their actions during these situtations. It is their job to keep a level head and to seek a resolution rather than violence. Perhaps area law enforcement has veered away from that as of late.

Accountability cannot solely be left on the side of law enforcement. It is the victim’s families right to seek justice through civil court. It is a way for them to send a message to those who wrongfully killed their loved one that there is a price to pay when proper procedures are overlooked.

Phillips Webster represents families of victims who have been wrongfully killed in Washington State. They are skilled attorneys in wrongful death lawsuits and personal injury lawsuits with years of experience that they will use to  assure the you get the compensation you deserve.

Call Phillips Webster today for a free consultation.

Learn More About:

• Filing a Wrongful Death Lawsuit
• Wrongful Death Settlements
• Financial Entitlements in Wrongful Death Cases