Report blasts cops in review

SEATTLE  — A new report says the King County Sheriff’s Office’s failure to adopt reforms after the shooting of a teenager directly contributed to deputies needlessly escalating a confrontation with an man in Black Diamond two years later.

The document says that failure cost the man his life and one of the detectives his job, The Seattle Times reported.

The civilian-run Office of Law Enforcement Oversight review of the 2019 shooting death of Anthony “Tony” Chilcott, presented Tuesday to the Metropolitan King County Council’s Law and Justice Committee, is sharply critical of the sheriff’s internal review of the shooting and failure to recognize themes that have been present in other shootings.

The report lays out bad decisions by the detectives and policy and training failures or weaknesses within the sheriff’s office that oversight group concluded contributed to an unnecessary fatal outcome.

The report contains 23 recommendations for sheriff’s policy and training modifications. Among other things, the recommendations would clarify for deputies when they should risk taking law-enforcement action and especially when in civilian clothes how they should identify themselves if they do.

In a written response, Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht contested or disagreed with some of the OLEO recommendations, but added that the office “is in general alignment with your assessment of the incident.”