Officer Donald Sahota’s widow files lawsuit against Clark County, ‘trigger happy’ sheriff’s deputy who shot him

The widow of former Vancouver police Officer Donald Sahota has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit alleging Clark County failed to properly train the “trigger happy” sheriff’s deputy who mistakenly shot her husband in 2022 and that the shooting was unreasonable and reckless.

The lawsuit, filed by Dawnese Sahota on Jan. 22 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, alleges negligence, excessive force, depravation of familial relationships and failure to train. The suit seeks unspecified damages to be determined at trial.

On Jan. 29, 2022, law enforcement officers from multiple agencies had chased the suspect in an armed robbery at an Orchards gas station, Julio Segura, to the area of the Sahotas’ Battle Ground home. Segura, 23, stabbed Donald Sahota, 52, as the two struggled in Sahota’s driveway. Moments later, Clark County sheriff’s Deputy Jonathan Feller arrived and mistakenly shot Donald Sahota.

The lawsuit alleges Feller did not take the time to identify his target or provide any warnings before he shot Donald Sahota within four seconds of arriving in the driveway and parking. Feller also did not give Donald Sahota the chance to identify himself, and Feller had no idea if there was anyone inside the house in danger, the suit alleges.

“Clark County’s lack of corrective action allowed Defendant Feller to again make a hasty and unjustified decision to use lethal force,” the suit states. “Officer Sahota would likely be alive but for Clark County’s failure to discipline or retrain Defendant Feller after the previous shooting.”

A panel of prosecutors that reviewed the shooting said it could not reach a consensus about the reasonableness of Feller’s actions. The panel was split between those who felt Feller should’ve taken the time to identify who he was aiming at before shooting and those who felt that the information Feller had at the time reasonably led him to believe he was aiming at the robbery suspect instead of Sahota.

The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office subsequently declined to charge Feller, saying that a reasonable officer in a similar situation would have believed it necessary to shoot. The county instead charged Segura, the robbery suspect, with murder in Sahota’s death.

In May, a Clark County Superior Court jury found Segura guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, possession of a stolen vehicle and attempting to elude law enforcement officers. A judge sentenced him to 29 years in prison. At Segura’s sentencing hearing, Dawnese Sahota said she holds Segura 100 percent responsible for her husband’s death by creating the confusion that led to his shooting.

Segura has appealed his conviction, court records show.