<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Ridgefield couple’s lawsuit tied to shooting delayed

Trial was set in excessive force case with SWAT officers from sheriff’s office, Vancouver police

By Jessica Prokop, Columbian Local News Editor
Published: January 27, 2016, 7:49pm

The trial in a federal lawsuit against Clark County and the city of Vancouver, stemming from an incident in which a woman was shot by SWAT officers, has been postponed indefinitely.

Ridgefield resident Mary Lee Andison and her husband, Bruce, filed the lawsuit in June 2014 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma that calls into question the Southwest Washington Regional SWAT team’s training and operations. Mary Lee Andison was shot in the head by police following a three-hour standoff at her Ridgefield home in June 2011.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges officers received insufficient training on de-escalating situations, communicating during critical incidents and dealing with people in psychological distress who are motivated to “commit suicide by cop.”

The trial was scheduled to begin Feb. 1. However, it was delayed because all of the individual defendants named in the suit are appealing a judge’s Jan. 13 order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton’s order would have allowed the Andisons to go to trial on a claim of excessive use of force.

The Andisons’ attorney, Robert Wagner of Miller & Wagner in Portland, said he expected to go to trial next month.

“We’re disappointed that the city and county don’t want to take the case to trial and that they want to delay it further,” Wagner said. “My view of it is that the appeal is a delay tactic by the city and county because they don’t want this case presented to a jury.”

Wagner said the Andisons are “heartsick” that they won’t get their day in court anytime soon.

Clark County and the city of Vancouver also are being sued by the Andisons under state law on an assault claim, similar to the excessive force claim. Six Clark County Sheriff’s officers and four Vancouver police officers are individually named in the suit. The Andisons say officers violated Mary Lee Andison’s Fourth Amendment right — the right to be free from excessive force during an arrest, investigatory stop, or other seizure.

Both the county and city argue that none of the officers violated Andison’s constitutional rights and that they’re entitled to qualified immunity. Qualified immunity protects officials “who act in ways they reasonably believe to be lawful.”

According to an internal investigation, Mary Lee Andison’s daughter called 911 at about 1 p.m. June 24, 2011, concerned that her mother was suicidal. She called back 10 minutes later and told dispatchers that officers weren’t needed, but a minute later deputies arrived. Clark County sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Shea found Andison in a room above the garage, separate from the rest of the house. She had a bottle of wine in one hand and a gun in the other.

Andison told him the gun was a starter pistol — unable to fire a bullet — and Shea said he thought he saw the signature colored tip.

SWAT and a crisis negotiation team responded and repeatedly tried to communicate with Andison by phone and a loudspeaker, but she refused to come out. About an hour and a half into the standoff, she called 911 to say she wanted the police to leave.

mobile phone icon
Take the news everywhere you go.
Download The Columbian app:
Download The Columbian app for Android on Google PlayDownload The Columbian app for iOS on the Apple App Store

However, officers continued to try to make contact with her. They unsuccessfully tried shooting the door with a less-lethal round and shot out the windows in an attempt to get Andison’s attention.

When she finally opened the door and emerged with the pistol in her hand, Vancouver police Officer Ryan Junker fired his SWAT-issued Colt Commando 223 rifle, hitting Andison in the face. Officers had ordered Andison to drop the weapon, but she ignored their commands, according to the investigation.

SWAT officers argued that they couldn’t be sure she didn’t have a live firearm, because there were other guns in the house, a key reason why the internal investigation ruled the shooting was justified.

Officers continued to yell commands at Andison even though she was incapacitated, and then shot her at close range with nonlethal 40 mm rounds, the lawsuit states.

Vancouver’s Assistant City Attorney Dan Lloyd, who is representing the city and Vancouver police officers, declined to comment on the appeal.

Efforts to reach attorney John Justice for the individually named county defendants were unsuccessful.

Loading...