The mother of a man who allegedly used a gun in an attempted carjacking outside Columbia Center mall in Kennewick and then was shot and killed by a Benton County deputy has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.
Benton County Sheriff Mike Clark and Benton County are named along with Deputy Elias Perez in the lawsuit filed in Eastern Washington District U.S. Court by the mother of Jeffrey Reeder on behalf of his estate.
Reeder, 31, was being pursued by law enforcement in a stolen Audi on June 4, 2023, at speeds that reached 100 mph or more before he crashed the car near Columbia Center mall at the corner of Columbia Center Boulevard and West Quinault Avenue.
Reeder was tied to a string of car thefts and police chases and earlier had rammed a police vehicle with a different stolen car. Pasco police had linked him to a burglary case and Richland police had cause to arrest him for robbery and vehicular assault, according to police reports.
Perez and a Washington State Patrol trooper were trying to stop the Audi the evening of June 4, 2023, as it cut through the Burlington Coat Factory parking lot, and then crashed across Columbia Center Boulevard in a grassy area of Bank of America, according to a Washington state report related to the use of deadly force.
Reeder got out of the Audi, reached toward his waist and pulled out a gun as he ran away from the car, the report said.
He climbed a fence into the U.S. Bank parking lot and ran over to a car and yelled at the driver to open the door. When the man refused, Reeder hit the driver’s window with his gun and then pointed it at the driver, the report said.
Perez had arrived then and got out of his patrol car with his rifle in his hand and ran toward Reeder. Perez fired nine times at Reeder, hitting him five times in the arm, pelvis and torso, according to the report. The trooper also got out of his car and ran after Perez.
The Regional Special Investigations Unit (SIU) conducted a criminal investigation to determine if Perez violated any laws. The unit draws detectives from Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla counties to investigate officer-involved shootings.
Benton County Prosecutor Eric Eisinger reviewed the report and determined the shooting was justified, according to a letter provided to the Pasco police Capt. Jeff Harpster, who led the SIU investigation.
The Washington State Auditor’s Office examined the investigation, and did find that witness officers were allowed to talk in private before giving statements.
Perez still works for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Mike Clark and Eisinger declined to comment about the lawsuit because it is still pending.
While the prosecutor said the shooting was justified, Reeder’s estate, represented in the lawsuit by Leavy Schultz & Davis of Kennewick, claims that Benton County failed to adequately train Perez on its use of force policy.
Several of Perez’s actions leading up to and resulting in Reeder’s shooting death violated state and county policies, it said.
The lawsuit says that Perez used both hands to "rack” his AR-15 assault rifle while driving 55 mph on Columbia Center Boulevard before encountering Reeder.
Perez also had a handgun with him but chose to shoot the weapon that would inflict the most lethal force, the lawsuit says.
When Reeder saw Perez at one of the bank’s parking lots, Reeder began to run toward a rock embankment, the lawsuit says. Perez pursued him and fired at him, with the shots that hit Reeder entering the back of his body, the lawsuit says.
Before pursuing Reeder, Perez did not take any action intended to minimize the likelihood of the need to use force, the lawsuit alleges. It also accuses Perez of failing to use de-escalation tactics, such as clear instructions and verbal persuasion, or other communication to calm Reeder as he ran.
Perez allegedly failed to identify himself or give a verbal warning that he intended to shoot, the lawsuit says. The first time he spoke to Reeder was to tell him to “show me your hands” after shooting him, the lawsuit says.
Reeder would later die at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland.
As other officers arrived, Perez’s supervisor took his AR-15 and put it in his squad car. However, the lawsuit said that Perez asked for his rifle back and his supervisor gave it to him.
Multiple officers at the scene said their body cameras were activated, which the lawsuit alleges was a reminder to law enforcement not to say anything that would be documented. Another officer motioned to Perez not to talk by making a “zip your lip” gesture, according to the lawsuit.
Despite protocol that requires witnesses to be separated, Perez was accompanied by a deputy who may have witnessed the shooting during the ride to a law enforcement station, according to the lawsuit. Both later declined to make a statement of the events to the Regional Special Investigations Unit.
The Office of the Washington State Auditor said Benton County policies do not require supervisors to order involved and witness officers not to discuss cases until they provide statements to investigators, which is common practice to help ensure statements can be made independently.
The family said in the lawsuit that Reeder suffered from mental health issues.
Between the time Perez was hired in 2014 and the 2023 shooting, Perez was involved in at least two other shootings, the lawsuit said.
They included the shooting death of two Rottweilers that had escaped their Kennewick home and were spotted just off 10th Avenue in a pocket of unincorporated land popular with walkers within the Kennewick city limits.
Perez was one of three deputies who responded to a complaint that the dogs were aggressive, but did not shoot the dogs. He did not have his body camera operating, the lawsuit pointed out.
In the other case, he was one of four officers who opened fire on Aug. 25, 2021, on Ryan Kaufman. In one of the worst crime sprees in Tri-Cities recent history, Kaufman left four people dead and one wounded, plus was linked to nearly a dozen fires.
Kaufman’s hours-long rampage from Finley to West Richland ended when Kaufman was believed to have fire from inside a burning truck in West Richland and the four officers fired back with rifles.
Defendants in the lawsuit by Reeder’s estate, which includes a son, deny many of the allegations in the lawsuit, including that Perez was not adequately trained and that Reeder’s shooting death was in violation of county and state policy.
When Perez positioned himself to fire his AR-15 at Reeder, he was acting immediately to protect innocent citizens and fellow officers from serious harm or death, defendants said in a court document.
This is in line with Eisinger’s letter to Harpster, saying that Perez knew Reeder was armed and was allegedly in the middle of trying to steal a car as Perez was approaching.
“Deputy Perez must have discerned the only reasonable conclusion possible — that (the driver’s) life was in danger and that without his immediate intervention, the deputy was observing an otherwise potentially deadly encounter,” Eisinger’s letter said.
The injuries and damages claimed in the lawsuit were Reeder’s fault, and the force used by law enforcement was “reasonable, necessary and lawful under the circumstances,” the defendants said.
They are asking that the lawsuit be dismissed and that they be given costs and attorney fees incurred.
Reeder’s estate is asking for economic and noneconomic damages, punitive damages, interest and attorneys’ fees and costs.
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