http://komonews.com/news/local/kent-pol ... ring-chase

https://q13fox.com/2018/07/22/kent-poli ... e-of-duty/

"A preliminary investigation by the Washington State Patrol found that the officer was deploying spike strips near Reith Rd. and Kent Des Moines Rd. when he was hit by a Kent patrol vehicle. The suspect vehicle continued east on Kent Des Moines Rd., where it crashed near Washington Ave. One suspect was arrested.

“Make no question about this, were it not for the actions of this suspect or suspects, this officer would be alive today. It’s directly because of the suspect or suspects’ actions that led to the officer’s death” Washington State Patrol Captain Ron Mead said at a news conference at Kent City Hall."

Damn, that’s heartbreaking.

I'd think the prosecutor could make a case for felony murder, as the officers death was a result of the suspect committing the felony of eluding police.
RIP officer, and swift recovery to the injured officer who is in critical condition.

Horrible for the family of the fallen Officer, not to mention the Officer who hit him and has to live with it.
Murder charges will be forthcoming.

As sad as this is (and it’s absolutely horrible) the captain needs to look at the definition of ‘directly’ and ‘indirectly’



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Yup. Looks to me like 1st Degree Felony Murder for the fleeing suspect. And if not, it's gotta be 2nd degree. Largely academic as they are both class A felonies.

As far as "causation" is concerned, it's long been established that any death that occurs during the course of a serious felony where death is threatened/likely, all the co-conspirators of that felony are criminally responsible for the death. For instance, 3 co-conspirators do an armed bank robbery. The driver in the car is culpable to the same extent if the partners in the bank kill people. And upon their escape, the passengers are just as responsible if the driver runs down kids crossing the street. And they're all responsible if cops in pursuit hit more kids. It's all proximate cause as part of foreseeable events in such a co-conspiracy to commit armed robbery and escape.

Cops were responding to a "shots fired" call, which is probably at least aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (attempted or completed murder? robbery? who knows). And of course, a vehicle can be a deadly weapon as we've seen in this case. Suspect gave reckless high speed chase, showing indifference to human life. Suspect is going to be responsible for any deaths and injuries as a result of such criminal conduct.

https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9A.32.030

RCW 9A.32.030 Murder in the first degree.
(1) A person is guilty of murder in the first degree when:
(a) With a premeditated intent to cause the death of another person, he or she causes the death of such person or of a third person; or
(b) Under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life, he or she engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to any person, and thereby causes the death of a person; or
(c) He or she commits or attempts to commit the crime of either (1) robbery in the first or second degree, (2) rape in the first or second degree, (3) burglary in the first degree, (4) arson in the first or second degree, or (5) kidnapping in the first or second degree, and in the course of or in furtherance of such crime or in immediate flight therefrom, he or she, or another participant, causes the death of a person other than one of the participants: Except that in any prosecution under this subdivision (1)(c) in which the defendant was not the only participant in the underlying crime, if established by the defendant by a preponderance of the evidence, it is a defense that the defendant:
(i) Did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command, importune, cause, or aid the commission thereof; and
(ii) Was not armed with a deadly weapon, or any instrument, article, or substance readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury; and
(iii) Had no reasonable grounds to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon, instrument, article, or substance; and
(iv) Had no reasonable grounds to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury.
(2) Murder in the first degree is a class A felony.

RCW 9A.32.050 Murder in the second degree.
(1) A person is guilty of murder in the second degree when:
(a) With intent to cause the death of another person but without premeditation, he or she causes the death of such person or of a third person; or
(b) He or she commits or attempts to commit any felony, including assault, other than those enumerated in RCW 9A.32.030(1)(c), and, in the course of and in furtherance of such crime or in immediate flight therefrom, he or she, or another participant, causes the death of a person other than one of the participants; except that in any prosecution under this subdivision (1)(b) in which the defendant was not the only participant in the underlying crime, if established by the defendant by a preponderance of the evidence, it is a defense that the defendant:
(i) Did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command, importune, cause, or aid the commission thereof; and
(ii) Was not armed with a deadly weapon, or any instrument, article, or substance readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury; and
(iii) Had no reasonable grounds to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon, instrument, article, or substance; and
(iv) Had no reasonable grounds to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury.
(2) Murder in the second degree is a class A felony.

There was a NYC case back in the 60's where a couple girls were actually convicted of rape.
Some kids climbed up a fire escape into an old ladies apartment with the intention of robbing her.
They beat and robbed her and left, but one guy stayed behind and raped and killed her.
All were convicted of rape and murder, even though the majority weren't there at the time it happened.

So, charge the guy with murder for the stupidity of the officers?

How about some responsibility?

Yup, that's the SOP for charging co-conspirators in a conspiracy. They all did everything. Even if you helped plan it, got the gear around, but stayed home sick from the event, you're just as guilty.

It goes without say, but I'll say it anyway, NEVER get involved in any conspiracies. Bad ju-ju...

Stupidity of the Officers? They wouldn't have been there if not for the POS that fired the gun and ran from them.

The Fucking stupidity of the Criminal Miscreant is what caused the entire incident, that cop would be at home alive otherwise.

Yeah, Fucking give that POS the death penalty in my opinion. Hell, you need someone to Pull the handle, the switch, or the Trigger?

I'm your Man.

All that is well and good but it doesn't change the definitions of directly and indirectly.

Even though the criminal's responsibility for the death will be the same I expect officials to use correct terminology.

TW, I'm just going to highlight this post as future reference when you claim you don't have an anti-cop bias.

At 1:30am (darkness...), a clearly violent person who apparently committed a felony (at least ag assault with a weapon by firing it at a restaurant) and then fled from police in a high speed pursuit, resulting in a car accident and officer death... and you blame the cops???

I'm actually not persuaded it's an incorrect usage of "direct" in a legal sense. It's an interesting academic discussion, but in my view it's not clearly incorrect. A car accident and death involving vehicles in a high speed pursuit of a violent armed fleeing felon is probably closer akin to "direct" than it would be to "indirect."

Direct would be anyone in the logical, natural course of the flight or pursuit. This is a foreseeable and therefore direct result.

Indirect would be, for instance, an ambulance that is diverted to the crash scene, and someone else who needed the ambulance across town dies b/c the ambulance was preoccupied. This is more unforeseeable and indirect. Or perhaps a surgeon on call is called in from home, and races to the hospital and loses control of his car and hits a tree and dies in a car accident en route.

He must not have seen the Chris Rock PSA
"Stop immediately. If the police have to come and get you, they are bringing an ass kicking with them"

The cop drove recklessly and killed the other cop, did he not?


The officer is responsible for his actions and the death. The criminal is responsible for running and being a fuckup, shooting at cops, or whatever.

You take risks, there are consequences. Driving at high speeds is a risk.

Yep. The shooter/runner is a fucknut, but he wasn't behind the wheel of the cruiser that killed the officer.

I feel bad for the dead cop and his family, but think about it.

The cop gets out of his car after running over the other officer, and points at the other guy in the distance saying 'It's his fault!'....


The cop was in (or out of) control of that vehicle. His actions caused his vehicle to impact the other officer deploying the stop sticks... Yeah, dipshit shouldn't have been running, but neither should the cops be driving so recklessly that they run over someone.

If the suspect hit the cop car and sent him out of control, it'd be a different story, but that's not what I'm getting from this story.

Cop failed to maintain control and hit someone....

If you're driving so fast/recklessly that you hit someone, are you driving safely? Sure, let's say cop was in the road (likely), are you outdriving your lights? Driving so fast that the distance illuminated by your lights is insufficient to offset the speed, so you can't reasonably stop if something enters the cone of light? Is that safe?

So, if I have a guy with a knife, and I shoot him, and end hitting 9 innocent bystanders, am I gonna point to the guy with the knife and say 'HIS FAULT!'? Or are you gonna say its my gun,my bullets, and I chose to shoot, so I'm responsible for the bullets? (It's a real NYPD event, BTW). Am I not responsible for the safe operation of my vehicle? Is the officer responsible for his?

Blaming the perp is just a diversion from the negligence of the officer..