Last weekend in the early morning hours, there was an Officer Involved Shooting that resulted in the death of someone. The incident occurred in the Hunters area in the presence of 3 deputies of the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office. The deceased was armed with a handgun. Only one deputy fired his weapon and the subject was struck by one bullet. An autopsy has been performed by the Spokane County Medical Examiner and the results of the examination will be available when the report is complete. It usually takes several weeks for all aspects of the medical examination to be finished.

As is the usual practice when there is an Officer Involved Shooting, the Spokane Incident Regional Response team conducts the investigation. This team is made up of skilled detectives from several agencies in the Spokane area who work together and with the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory to establish the facts of what happened. The process is very thorough and complete. The report that they produce is usually several hundred pages long and sometimes much longer.

When finished, the complete report is sent to me for review. My job is to take the known facts and apply the law of the state of Washington to those facts and then make a decision as to whether the officer should or should not be charged with a crime in connection with the incident. After I reach a decision, it has been my practice to send the file and my report to the criminal division of the Attorney General for an independent analysis.

I am happy that we do not have some of the problems that other regions of the country have. The people of Stevens County are well served by the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office. They are highly professional and put their lives on the line when necessary to protect us from the lawless among us. They also investigate after something has happened and by doing so, they help this office hold folks accountable for the bad deeds and evil they have done. We could not have a peaceful society without them.