SEATTLE -- A Seattle police
officer who broke a woman's eye socket during an arrest this summer won't face
criminal charges, King County Prosecutors said Friday.
Officer Adley Shepherd had
responded to a call on June 22 that a woman was threatening a family member at
a Seattle home.
Shepherd arrived to find the
woman was drunk and argumentative and when he began to arrest her for suspicion
of domestic violence, she began to resist, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say Shepherd acted
"professionally and with restraint" until he was kicked in the head
by the woman as he was putting her in his patrol car. Shepherd immediately
responded with a punch to the woman's head that broke her eye socket.
The case was investigated by
the Washington State Patrol and passed on to King County prosecutors for review
of a potential assault charge. But prosecutors determined while Shepherd may
have had other options than punching the woman in the head, their investigation
concluded they would be unable to prove Shepherd's use of force was criminal.
The case has now been referred
to the Seattle Police Department for any internal penalties. Shepherd has been
on administrative leave for the past six months.
"The Seattle Police
Officers Guild hopes that Officer Shepherd will be returned to full duty as
soon as possible, and that SPD will review its Force Investigation Team
procedures to review whether the system is working in the best interest of all
involved," Seattle Police Officers' Guild President Det. Ron Smith said in
a statement released to the media.
Smith said the guild believes
Shepherd used reasonable and necessary force to stop the suspect's assault.
"It is our opinion that
had the suspect heeded the officers’ commands, the resulting incident in
question would not have occurred," he said.
On Friday night, the Seattle
Police Department released video of the incident.
