The Spokane officer is on trial for having racial prejudice following fatal shots while working in Seattle

When Iosia Faletogo was killed by a Seattle police officer after escaping a traffic obstruction on December 31, 2018, protesters took to the streets of downtown Seattle.

The Seattle Times reported demonstrators chanted the 36-year-old Samoan’s last words, “I can’t reach,” referring to a gun nearby. Immediately after making this statement, Officer Jared Keller shot Faletogo in the head and killed him. A September 2019 investigation by the Office of Police Accountability found the shooting was warranted.

On December 15, a year and three months after this report was published, Spokane Keller police swore to the horror of Boots Faletogo, Iosia Faletogo’s sister-in-law and longtime Spokane resident who now lives on Coeur d ‘. Alene reservation.

On Thursday, Iosia Faletogo’s mother, executor of his estate, filed an unlawful death lawsuit against Keller, the City of Seattle and another traffic obstruction officer, Garret Hay.

According to the lawsuit in the US District Court in West Washington, officials had no legitimate reason to stop Faletogo if they used force against him so he was legally entitled to flee or defend himself.

According to the 2019 Office of Police Accountability (OPA) investigation, Keller stopped Faletogo over an alleged traffic violation. When Faletogo looked nervous and reached for the gear stick, officials suspected that he might have drugs or a weapon in his person, or an arrest warrant against him. All three suspicions have been shown to be true, according to the report.

Boots Faletogo said her brother-in-law had another reason to be nervous.

“I think as a minority we are scared,” said Boots Faletogo. “It’s a trauma response.”

The lawsuit said it was unclear why officials raided Iosia Faletogo, but that racial bias is likely a factor. At one point, an unnamed official called the car “dodgy,” the lawsuit said.

“Rather than any other explanation of why the car looked ‘shady,’ it stands that the officials’ attention – either explicitly or implicitly – was caught by the fact that Iosia was a Pacific Islander man who was in a car with one Blacks drove women in a predominantly white neighborhood in northern Seattle, ”the lawsuit said.

Police ran the sign and found that the registered owner of the car, an elderly woman related to Iosia Faletogo, had a suspended license. Once officials knew he was not the registered owner, the lawsuit alleged that they had no reason to believe that he had committed a crime contrary to the OPA investigation.

After some discussions about IDs, the officers called a backup. Iosia Faletogo ran. At the time, officials likely had reason to arrest him for obstruction of justice, the OPA report said. The lawsuit alleges that he had the right to run away from an illegal stop.

After a short time, five officers attacked Iosia Faletogo and Faletogo’s gun fell out of his pants, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit argues that Keller’s gun in Iosia Faletogo’s Temple and officials repeatedly yelled that they were going to shoot him as he tried to crawl away in an “instinctive but unsuccessful attempt to escape”. The OPA investigation found that a reasonable officer would believe Iosia Faletogo was reaching for the fallen pistol.

Officers called out to him to stop reaching out. All the officers involved told the OPA investigators that they had not heard Iosia Faletogo’s final words: “No, not reach.”

Keller’s gun fired first, he told investigators, and then fired again. Medics pronounced Iosia Faletogo dead, according to the investigation at the scene.

The lawsuit alleges that Keller and Hay are asking for more support and being more aggressive in traffic stops involving people of color.

The lawsuit also alleges that the Seattle police “inexplicably” allowed the destruction of video and audio in the car from the moments before the stop, so that the recording of conversations between officers was lost.

Boots Faletogo points out that Iosia Faletogo wasn’t the first man to shoot the basement. A year before Iosia Faletogo died, Keller was one of seven officers who fired a gun at a robbery suspect who died of gunshot wounds.

When she learned that Keller had been hired in Spokane, she said she was “absolutely disgusted” and started crying.

“I should be embarrassed about Spokane,” said Curtis Hampton, a member of the Spokane Community Against Racism (SCAR) and the Racial Rights Committee of the Spokane Regional Law and Justice Council.

“Perhaps this is an embarrassment that could have been avoided if they had taken the time to listen to what our communities are trying to say,” said Hampton.

Spokane police argued that Keller made the cut after a “rigorous” hiring process.

Last year, 21 applicants applied to other law enforcement agencies and the department hired nine, police spokeswoman Julie Humphreys said.

She said lateral adjustments are checked more than new officials because the department can review internal records of disciplinary actions, awards and community service.

Brian Coddington, Spokane Mayor spokesperson Nadine Woodward, also pointed out the hiring process, adding that Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl becomes familiar with each new hiring.

“It’s always tragic when people die, whether civilians or law enforcement agencies,” Meidl said in a statement emailed about Keller Friday.

Meidl said the department hired the Seattle officer because his background check showed he was a “highly motivated officer looking to keep his community safe” and that the OPA had “cleared him of all wrongdoing” .

For Pui-Yan Lam, professor of sociology at Eastern Washington University and a member of SCAR, the new lawsuit shows how premature it was to consider Keller “settled”.

“Chef Meidl makes it sound like this:” This is the end of the story, the investigation is over, “but that wasn’t really the case,” said Lam. “The family still found ways to achieve justice.”

Dan Nolte, director of communications for the Seattle prosecutor’s office, said his office intends to defend the city. The Seattle Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Iosia Faletogo’s father filed a federal lawsuit against Stadt und Keller in February 2019, but later withdrew the lawsuit, Nolte said.