OLYMPIA, Wash. – More than three months after an Olympia police officer-involved shooting, investigators released the first batch of documents surrounding the investigation.
There was no recommendation about whether Officer Ryan Donald should face charges in the shooting of two shoplifting suspects.
The Thurston County Prosecutor's Office says that decision will come in the next two weeks.
The report, which is hundreds of pages, included an interview with Officer Donald.
Officer Donald told sheriff's department investigators that Andre Thompson and Bryson Chaplin teamed up on him on May 21, and he said both men were larger than him.
Officer Donald said one of them grabbed his sleeve and pulled him off balance, while the officer claimed the other held a skateboard overhead preparing to strike. Officer Donald said he feared for his life and opened fire.
The officer said he then chased after the suspects after they started running. He says he fired two more times after he claimed the suspects came at him again down the road.
Shortly before the shooting, workers at an Olympia Safeway reported two men tried to steal beer before throwing it at the clerk and running away.
Officer Donald said Thompson and Chaplin fit the descriptions broadcasted out to police. He said that as far as he knew, there was an assault at the Safeway, so he was on heightened alert.
Thompson and Chaplin both survived the shooting.
A detective spoke briefly with Andre Thompson at the hospital just hours after the shooting.
The detective wrote Thompson denied being at Safeway at all and cut the interview short.
A Thurston County Sheriff's Department official said detectives tried to interview both subjects, but they declined interviews upon legal counsel.
Resource links:
