Thirty seconds of the incident
were caught on video, helping to spur protests expected to be some of the
area's largest.
Ed Krayewski
Police in Pasco, Wash., shot
and killed Antonio Zambrano-Montes, a 35-year-old orchard worker, after he
allegedly threw rocks at police and then tried to run away. Hundreds of people
are expected by organizers at a rally this weekend, some hoping it’ll be the
largest rally in the tri-city area’s history, in part because thirty seconds of
the incident, showing cops trying to use a stun gun and then shooting Zambrano,
were caught on video:
A “special unit” of various
local police are investigating the shooting, while Pasco police say cops fired
because they felt threatened by Zambrano. The police chief, Bob Metzger, spoke
with organizers at a local café, telling them police would give them anything
they need. “At the end of the day, we want to be safe,” he told them. “We all
want to make sure we got home safely to our families. That’s really what I am
here to help you with.” Court records show Zambrano had been previously
arrested for allegedly throwing objects at officers and allegedly trying to
grab an officer’s gun, but wasn’t convicted, and police aren’t saying cops were
aware of that.
The county coroner says he is
considering whether to request an inquest into the homicide—he’s only done so
twice in the last twenty years but says it’s an “open and transparent”
process. He may wait until the police
investigation is over.
One of the three cops involved
in the shooting, Ryan Flannigan, was previously the target of a federal civil
rights lawsuit over excessive use of force, where he was accused of brutalizing
a 30-year-old mother on her way to pick up her children because she was a
Hispanic woman like the teenager police say they were looking for. She says she
suffered second degree burns from
Flannigan and another cop pressing her face into the hood of their car
after she asked for an interpreter. She was briefly charged with “hindering”
the investigation but those charges were dismissed. The city settled for $100,000 and Flannigan
kept his job.
Zambrano is the fourth man shot
by police in Pasco, a city of 68,000, in the last six months. The previous
three shootings, each described by police as a confrontation involving an armed
suspect, were all ruled justified—one of
the men was killed by a SWAT team during a four-hour stand-off after firing
more than 70 rounds at police, another after allegedly leading cops on a chase
in a stolen car and pointing a pellet gun at them.
The third, Brad Jensen, was
shot while refusing to drop a knife after police responded to a call about a
man brandishing a knife. He was the son of a former city detective and
councilman. If the shooting of Zambrano is ruled justified, it’s likely to be
described as a confrontation with an armed man as well.
