Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer released this photo of the pellet gun reportedly held by a suspect in a deputy involved shooting earlier this month.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer announced Tuesday that no criminal charges will be filed against two Lewis County deputies who shot and killed a man in the early morning hours of March 3.
A report released by the prosecuting attorney’s office, and obtained by The Chronicle Wednesday, indicated the deceased — Robert D. Richardson, 40, of Graham, brandished what deputies thought was a semi-automatic handgun. It wasn’t until after it was recovered that investigators learned it was a pellet gun.
Meyer, in his report, wrote that the deputies were reasonable to believe that the gun Richardson wielded was an actual firearm. After Richardson had been hit with an unspecified number of rounds, deputies called for aid and asked him to put his hands outside the window. Instead, the deputies said, he again took up the gun and was shot multiple times.
“Here, the deputies describe a dynamic scene where each felt their lives were threatened because Mr. Richardson was armed with, what appeared to be, a firearm. In addition, the deputies interrupted their use of force, summoned aid and attempted to end the encounter. Only after Mr. Richardson refused the direct order and, again, threatened with the weapon, were the deputies left with no choice but to, again, discharge their firearms,” Meyer wrote.
Deputy Robert Nelson and Reserve Deputy Mark Anders were on patrol together in eastern Lewis County throughout that evening and early morning. Before the shooting, they reported making contact with the occupants of a vehicle parked by a closed-down business. The people were lost, and needed to get to a gas station. The deputies pointed them in the right direction, and continued their patrol.
Miles down the road, they saw a car with its headlights on, parked on Rainey Creek Road, just off U.S. Highway 12. They thought it might have been the same vehicle they had just helped, and drove up behind it. It was 1:06 a.m.
Richardson was the only person in the vehicle. He was in the driver’s seat — which was reclined back — and covered up with a sleeping bag. Both deputies’ interviews with investigators were released as a transcript. In Nelson’s, he said they made contact with Richardson. Richardson said he and his wife got into a fight and he had been looking for a place to park and stay.
Their conversation was cordial, Nelson said. Richardson gave him his license, and they learned there was a Pierce County warrant for his arrest for two counts of first-degree rape of a child and two counts of first-degree child molestation.
Nelson and Anders approached the vehicle, with the intention of detaining Richardson. Nelson said when he asked Richardson to get out of his vehicle Richardson replied negatively, saying he wasn’t going to get out and advised the deputies to leave.
“I said ‘Hey, you need to unlock the door.’ He starts to sitting up and I thought he was going to open the door. He says something like, ‘You need to get out of here,’ or something like that. I look, and he’s got a gun and he’s holding it in his right hand. It’s probably about, well, it was closer to his right shoulder,” Nelson said, according to the transcript.
Richardson started to extend the weapon out toward the deputy, and Nelson grabbed Richardson’s wrist. Nelson said that he didn’t recall seeing a muzzle flash or the sound of a gun going off, but reported feeling something go past him and for a moment thought he may have been shot.
He released Richardson’s wrist, went around to the back of the vehicle — unholstering his gun along the way — and began to fire rounds through the back of the vehicle.
Anders was toward the front of the vehicle, off to the side and out of Nelson’s line of fire, and fired through the front windshield.
They returned to the front of the vehicle. Richardson was clearly still alive at that point, and Nelson called medics to a staging position.
Nelson said they approached the car to secure the gun, and gave commands to Richardson to make his hands visible. Both deputies reported seeing his hand go back to the gun — which was sitting on his lap at the time. Both deputies again fired their weapons into the vehicle. The vehicle had been shot 24 times, with 17 rounds through the windshield. Richardson was shot 12 times.
Nelson learned during his interview that the gun Richardson held was not an actual firearm. First responders at the scene, when they recovered the gun, also didn’t realize until later that it was a pellet gun.
“There is little doubt the weapon here was perceived to be a deadly weapon by both deputies,” Meyer wrote. “In fact, it was not until Deputy Nelson’s interview that he learned the weapon used to threaten him was not, in fact, a firearm. During the presentation by the Region 3 CIIT (Critical Incident Investigation Team), it was disclosed that investigators were on scene for a significant amount of time before it was discovered the weapon was not a firearm. The officer that removed the weapon described the weapon as a semi-automatic handgun.”
Region 3 CIIT consists of the sheriff’s offices of Grays Harbor, Mason, Thurston, Pacific and Lewis counties and Washington State Patrol. Neither Pacific County authorities nor WSP took part in the investigation. Lewis County authorities — who in this case were the topic of the investigation — did not take part either, but did maintain a liaison.
Meyer wrote that if Richardson had lived, he would have been charged with felony counts of assault, harassment and intimidation of a public servant.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office indicated previously that it will conduct an internal investigation of the shooting.
