SEATTLE — One of the two Seattle police officers who were fired for shooting at a fleeing vehicle in October 2017 was wrongfully terminated, an arbitrator found earlier this month.
Arbitrator Stanley H. Michelstetter ruled that Officer Tabitha Sexton, listed as Officer S in the ruling documents, was not fired for a just cause. Michelstetter did rule that Officer Kenneth Martin, the other officer who shot at the vehicle listed as Officer M in the ruling, was fired for just cause by the Seattle Police Department (SPD).
Martin and Sexton each fired more than 10 times at a stolen vehicle that was not complying with officer orders and driving away from them through an alley. The car previously had driven at and then backed toward the officers while they were attempting to conduct a traffic stop, and both said they feared for their own lives and the safety of the public in justifying the shooting. Martin had used his department's high-powered rifle as part of what officers deemed to be a high-risk stop, documents show. Sexton fired from her service weapon, a handgun.
Body camera footage from the attempted stop and subsequent shooting was released by the department in the aftermath of the incident.
The arbitrator determined that Sexton should have instead been suspended by the department, determining 60 days as an appropriate length given the circumstances. Sexton is owed back pay from 60 days after her termination date by the department, which given her previous salary, will be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Then-Seattle police chief Carmen Best fired Martin and Sexton in July of 2018 after a review found the two officers violated the department’s use of force policies.
"Your failure to demonstrate any understanding about the way you responded to this situation, particularly by repeatedly firing at a vehicle while it drove away from you and others, leave me concerned that a similar incident could occur in the future," Best wrote at the time of the firing.
Martin, on the other hand, had acted "out of personal consideration" in attempting to prevent the vehicle from fleeing. Arbitration documents show Martin had been disciplined for initiating an unauthorized pursuit of the same vehicle he and Sexton later shot at. Martin also had nearly a decade less experience on the force than Sexton did. The driver and the passenger were injured in the shooting and were eventually arrested at another location.
Michelstetter did not mandate that Sexton be reinstated to the department, citing the years-long gap between her firing and the ruling.
The King County Prosecutor’s Office declined to file criminal charges against the two officers at the time, saying Martin and Sexton “bore a good-faith belief that the vehicle posed an immediate risk to the officers and the public.” The office said it believes that a jury would not find the officers had “malice or evil intent” when they fired at the car.
SPD policy states officers may only shoot at a vehicle driving away from them when there is an "immediate threat."
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell delivered a statement to KING 5 in response to the arbitrator's decision, which read in part:
“SPD policy is clear: Officers will not shoot at a moving vehicle. The use of force in this case was a significant violation of that policy, SPD training, and the expectations placed on Seattle’s police officers. This incident was comprehensively investigated by the Office of Police Accountability, which found a violation of policy. The Chief of Police agreed and fired both officers based on the severity of the violation. Despite this, and even while agreeing that both officers violated policy in this incident, an arbitrator reversed one of these firings.
”The Chief of Police’s decision to dismiss should be upheld. Effective public safety requires real accountability, and, as such, we are calling for this decision to be appealed.
