Jonathan Shoop
Jonathan Shoop was called to be a cop.
He left a lucrative job at Amazon to become a police officer because he wanted to serve people and work for something bigger than himself, according to loved ones who spoke at his livestreamed memorial service Tuesday.
"This profession is a calling. Jonathan understood that more than most," Bothell Police Department Sgt. Brett Bernard said.
Shoop, 32, was killed July 13 by friendly fire from his training partner Mustafa Kumcur during an attempted traffic stop.
He was driving and Kumcur was in the passenger seat when the driver of the vehicle they were following, Henry Eugene Washington, approached their patrol SUV and fired two rounds into it, according to the Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team (SMART), which is investigating the shooting.
One of Washington's rounds shattered the driver's window and became lodged in the onboard police computer, and the second bullet hit Kumcur's firearm and ricocheted, striking Kumcur in the head and causing a deep graze wound, according to the SMART investigation and murder charges filed against Washington.
Both Shoop and Kumcur returned fire, and bullet fragments and at least nine shell casings were later found inside the police SUV, the charges say.
Kumcur continued firing after being wounded, and Shoop, caught in the crossfire, was struck by one of Kumcur's bullets, the charges say.
Shoop was 32 and had been working in his dream job for a little more than a year.
His older brothers, Jared and Evan, said he had always been a cool kid: engaging, smart and laser-focused, beyond the reach of status-seeking conceits.
"He never had time for fads, trends, posturing. He was above the influence of others and always authentic," Jared Shoop said.
Jared and Evan Shoop recalled their brother's love of skipping, Legos, pants with penguins on them, playing the trumpet, cats, the Huskies, his girlfriend Rachel, their mother and the family's Sunday dinners he never missed.
Jonathan Shoop grew up in Seattle, the youngest of three brothers, and attended Ballard High School. He graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in history, then went on to serve six years in the Coast Guard as a Marine Science Technician.
When he got out, he worked with Washington State Ferries, then managed teams at Amazon where he met Jeff Kight.
Kight said he was surprised when "Shoop" finally made the decision to leave Amazon to become a police officer, a goal he spoke of often.
"He wanted to spend less time behind the computer and more time helping people," Kight said.
And when he talked to Shoop later, it was "immediately clear by how happy he was that this was the right decision for him."
Evan Shoop says his brother's willingness to forgive and desire to put grudges aside is helping him deal with his grief, though he said he had "never been more angry."
But anger would not help him be the man his brother would have wanted him to be, he said.
For that, he will draw on the habits his brother lived with quiet resilience, "like showing up, being present, engaging with problems in good faith, like applying myself genuinely even when its difficult, like caring about something bigger than myself."
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