Coroner plans inquest in fatal shooting

PASCO – The Franklin County coroner said Friday he plans to order an inquest into a deadly police shooting earlier this week in hopes of defusing rising tensions.

The family of an orchard worker killed Tuesday after he was accused of hurling rocks at police has filed a $25 million claim with the city of Pasco, and the president of Mexico reiterated his country’s condemnation of the violence against a Mexican citizen.

Police involved in the investigation confirmed Friday that Antonio Zambrano-Montes was not armed with either a gun or a knife. Whether he had a rock in his hand when he was shot is still under investigation, Kennewick police Sgt. Ken Lattin said.

Witnesses have said the man was running away when police fired. Some people who saw the shooting at a busy intersection videotaped the confrontation.

Franklin County Coroner Dan Blasdel told the Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday night that he’s decided to order an inquest, which would be open to the public, in hopes of calming “some of the fears and outrage of the community.”

While an inquest won’t proceed until police finish gathering evidence and witness statements, “it’s going to make this whole investigation transparent,” Blasdel said. Also needed will be pathology and toxicology reports expected to take six to eight weeks.

More than half the residents of this agricultural city of 68,000 are Hispanic. Blasdel said he hopes to have Hispanics represent at least half of the six-person panel.

“The main thing is we don’t want another Ferguson in Pasco,” he said, referring to the unrest that followed the Aug. 9 killing of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri, and a grand jury’s decision not to indict the white officer who shot him.

Franklin County Prosecutor Shawn Sant said it was too early to speculate about what charges potentially could be brought against the three officers involved. They have been placed on leave.

In their wrongful death claim against the city of Pasco, Zambrano-Montes’ widow and daughters said the 35-year-old orchard worker “posed no danger” to the three officers who followed him across a busy downtown intersection during rush-hour and shot him to death on a sidewalk as he moved away.

The officers had responded to a 911 report of a man throwing rocks at cars and Zambrano-Montes struggled with one officer before two others arrived. Police say two officers were struck by rocks and said the man’s behavior was erratic and threatening.

His was the fourth fatal police shooting in this community of 68,000 since last summer and has sparked national outrage and local protests, due in large part to graphic cellphone video posted by one witness on YouTube that has been viewed more than 925,000 times.

Detectives from a multiagency Tri-Cities Special Investigations Unit, or SIU, overseeing an investigation into the shooting have located and are taking statements from 40 witnesses and believe there may be more, said spokesman Sgt. Ken Lattin with the Kennewick Police Department.

He said 15 detectives from four agencies have been assigned to the investigation.

Officials have said the investigation will focus on whether Zambrano-Montes had a rock in his hand when police fired.

During a Friday briefing on the investigation, Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Shawn Sant said preliminary autopsy results showed Zambrano-Montes died of gunshot wounds to the torso. Sant would not say how many.

Witnesses reported at least 13 shots were fired.

Lattin promised an objective investigation but cautioned reporters that it could take weeks or months to complete. He urged restraint and respect in the meantime.

The officers-Ryan Flanagan, Adam Wright and Adrian Alaniz-are on administrative leave and will be the subject of a Pasco police internal investigation focusing on their decision to open fire with so many people around, said Pasco Police Chief Bob Metzger.

“Those three officers are going to have to live by their decisions,” Lattin told reporters. “Was it right? That will come out later on.”

As Lattin and Sant addressed reporters, Yakima lawyer George Trejo filed a claim on behalf of Zambrano-Montes’ widow, and their two daughters, ages 15 and 12.

The claim alleges the officers who shot him used unnecessary, excessive force. His widow is a resident of the Central California town of Atwater, according to the claim, and a law firm in Tustin, Calif., Carrazco Law, will also represent her.

“At the time he was shot and killed,” the claim alleges, “Mr. Zambrano-Montes posed no danger to the three officers, such that they were justified in the use of deadly force, resulting in his immediate death.”

Even so, the claim says, police handcuffed him as he lay bleeding.

The claim also alleges negligent hiring and inadequate training of Pasco police, pointing out that there have been four fatal police shootings since summer.

The claim serves as notice to the city that the family intends to file a lawsuit if the claim is not settled. The city has 60 days to respond.

The video of the shooting has sparked outrage, and a small memorial has gone up on the sidewalk where Zambrano-Montes died. Two earlier protests have led to plans for a larger gathering at City Hall today.

Lattin, the SIU spokesman, urged restraint and respect.

Zambrano-Montes is from Michoacan, Mexico, and has lived for about a decade in Pasco. He has worked as a farm laborer and has had trouble with police, including an incident in 2012 in which he allegedly assaulted officers and tried to grab one of their guns.

He had been in jail last weekend for failing to pay a fine in that case.

Still, his death has attracted attention from Mexican authorities. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday reiterated his country’s “condemnation of the disproportionate use of lethal force” on a Mexican citizen by Pasco police.

He promised a “close monitoring of the investigation” by his foreign secretary, whom he ordered to offer support to Zambrano-Montes’ family.

Meantime, a group of Latino businessmen said they had met with Pasco police Chief Bob Metzger two weeks before the shooting to discuss a sometimes strained relationship between police and the community.

Felix Vargas, the head of Consejo Latino, made up of some two dozen Hispanic businesses in the downtown core of Pasco, said few of the city’s mostly white police force speak Spanish and that they seem to avoid downtown businesses unless there’s a problem.

“By and large, downtown businesses rarely see the police except when there’s been an infraction, or some homeless person has overdosed, or there is something gang related,” he said