The widow and daughters of the rock-throwing man shot and killed Tuesday by Pasco police filed a $25 million wrongful-death claim against the city Friday as police and prosecutors promised a thorough and objective investigation into the killing.
The claim alleges that 35-year-old orchard worker Antonio Zambrano-Montes “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.
Prosecutors and police on Friday confirmed Zambrano-Montes was not carrying a firearm or a knife when he was killed.
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 (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, and the SIU has set up a hotline and asks anyone with information to call 509-491-4011.
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 report 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.
Franklin County Coroner Dan Blasdel has said he is considering calling a separate coroner’s inquest into the shooting, a public trial-like proceeding where a jury would hear evidence and consider if the shooting was justified.
Even so, Sant, the prosecutor elected in 2011, has the final decision on whether to charge any of the officers.
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, Teresa de Jesús Meraz-Ruiz, and their two daughters, ages 15 and 12.
The claim alleges the officers who shot him used unnecessary, excessive force. Meraz-Ruiz 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 on Saturday.
Lattin, the SIU spokesman, urged restraint and respect.
Zambrano-Montes is from Michoacán, 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 Peña 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.
“They mostly stay in their cubbyholes,” he said, referring to police. “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.”
The chief assured the group that his department had the training and expertise to avoid the sorts of friction seen elsewhere.
And then Tuesday’s shooting occurred.
“I don’t think he was trying to mislead us, so we’re confused at this point. What is really going on?” Vargas said this week.
