Attorneys for the parents of a man shot dead after throwing rocks at Pasco police have filed a claim with the city seeking $4.76 million.
Seattle-area attorney Charles Herrmann filed the claim Thursday on behalf of Agapita Montes Rivera and Jesus Zambrano Fernandez, the parents of Antonio Zambrano-Montes.
The claim is also on behalf of his two daughters, ages 13 and 15, who reportedly live in California.
Zambrano-Montes, 35, was shot up to seven times by three police officers during a February confrontation at a Pasco intersection near Fiesta Foods. The officers fired 17 times at Zambrano-Montes, who was high on methamphetamine and hurling large rocks and concrete.
The claim calls the shooting an “execution” and that Zambrano-Montes suffered “pre-death fright, terror and pain” when the officers chased him onto Lewis Street and shot him.
“In the final moments of this execution, Antonio did not represent a threat of grievous bodily harm to anyone,” Herrmann wrote in the claim. “His execution was totally unjustified.”
He also took issue with the delay in interviewing the officers.
“After 7-8 weeks of review and preparation, (the officers) finally gave intensely coached, contrived, and coordinated statements, which are contained in the voluminous files now maintained by the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney,” he wrote.
The claim seeks damages for pain and suffering, as well as funeral expenses and attorney fees.
The city has 60 days to respond to the claim. Otherwise, Herrmann said their legal team plans to file a federal lawsuit. In Washington, a claim must be submitted before a lawsuit can be filed.
Florida attorneys Benjamin Crump and Jose Baez also represent Zambrano-Montes’ parents. Both have worked on national high-profile civil rights and criminal cases.
Baez is best known for representing Casey Anthony, who was acquitted in 2011 of murdering her 2-year-old daughter.
Crump represents the family of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teen who was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo, and the family of Trayvon Martin, who was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla.
Herrmann has specialized in major airline crashes, including a Korean Air Lines flight shot down in 1983 by a Soviet fighter plane.
Yakima attorney George P. Trejo Jr. is representing Zambrano-Montes’ widow, Teresa De Jesus Ruiz, though it’s unclear if the two were legally married.
Initially, Trejo filed a $25 million claim with the city of Pasco shortly after the Feb. 10 shooting. Then Herrmann took over as Ruiz’s attorney for a brief period before Trejo was hired back.
An investigation into the shooting is being reviewed by Franklin County Prosecutor Shawn Sant, who will decide whether to criminally charge officers Ryan Flanagan, Adam Wright and Adrian Alaniz.
Flanagan recently resigned from the police department. Wright and Alaniz have been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.
