The family of a man stabbed to death in May 2025 by a Clark County sheriff's deputy has raised questions about the deputy allegedly turning off or muting his body camera during the confrontation, calling it suspicious and problematic."
Attorney Mark Lindquist, the former Pierce County prosecuting attorney, said the sheriff's office is looking into "systemic misuse" of body cameras by deputies in the department.
Lindquist and his law partner, Angus Lee, wrote a letter to the sheriff's office pointing out irregularities with the use of body-camera video and audio in a May 7, 2025, confrontation between Deputy Bryson Layton and Marc Fogle, a commercial truck driver Layton had arrested for intoxicated driving.
The attorneys contend Bryson wasn't the only one whose camera was muted, but they provided no other names or instances.
"The concern presented here is not simply that audio is missing, but that deputies wrongfully, and suspiciously, muted the audio at critical times immediately in the aftermath of an officer-involved killing," the attorneys said in a news release.
They state the action violates the county's policy and "deprives investigators of contemporaneous evidence. It deprives prosecutors of potentially relevant
information. It deprives courts and juries of objective evidence. It deprives the public of the transparency body-worn cameras were intended to provide."
Clark County Sheriff John Horch said in a statement that his office has "received the concerns raised by counsel for Mr. Fogle's family and are reviewing the issues presented regarding the muting of body-worn cameras to determine whether department policy was followed."
Horch said the office is "committed to openness, transparency, and maintaining public trust." He added, "We caution against accepting characterizations contained in advocacy materials as established fact."
"We remain committed to conducting a thorough review of agency policy and will provide additional information when appropriate," the sheriff said.
Layton's body-worn camera captured the beginning of the confrontation and its graphic aftermath, as the deputy and another officer attempt to provide first aid to Fogel, who was face down and bleeding heavily from a series of obvious stab wounds in his upper back.
The deputy repeatedly said, "I'm not going to let you die, Marc."
An autopsy showed Fogle suffered 17 stab wounds to his back.
A portion of the video is missing and some audio is missing. Lindquist and Lee contend "that deputies intentionally muted critical conversations during the Fogle death investigation so no record of the audio exists."
According to an investigation by the state office of independent investigations, the body camera "stopped recording" for about one minute during the struggle and the audio for 30 seconds more afterward. The investigation said the sequence of events is consistent with the device being "turned off manually, intentionally or by pressure on the (off) button," which is located on the front of the camera.
In a statement after the stabbing, Layton said he noticed his body-camera was no longer activated and turned it back on.
Fogle was arrested earlier that night after running into two parked cars near the intersection of Northeast 14th Court and Northeast Minnehaha in Vancouver. He admitted he'd been drinking, told the officers he was a commercial truck driver, and repeatedly said, "My life is ... over." Layton transported him to a State Patrol scale house for a breathalyzer test.
Once inside the weigh station, Layton told Fogle, "If you cooperate with me and are cool with me, I'll take you out of handcuffs. Promise you're not going to hurt me?" the deputy asked.
"I promise," Fogle said, and sat on a nearby bench, initially with his hands on top of his head, body-worn camera video shows.
"My life is ... over,"Fogle said again. "I can't make a living."
Layton tries to calm him. "It's not as big a deal as you think it is," the deputy said.
"I'm a dead man," Fogle replies. "You're talking to a dead man."
Fogle sat quietly for several minutes, then his attitude seems to change.
"What's crazy is it's just you and me in this ... room," he said. "How many people are here in the room?"
Layton asks if Fogle is trying to threaten him and asks him to stand up and turn around, presumably to put handcuffs back on him. The deputy grabs his shoulder to spin him around and Fogle turns on him and grabs his arm and a fight ensues. The deputy broadcasts on his radio that "I'm fighting with one" and says Fogle "is reaching for my gun."
"You're going to get ... shot Marc!"
"Yeah, yeah that's what I want," Fogle replies.
They continue to fight and eventually fall to the ground, with Fogle on top of the deputy.
The body camera video did not capture the stabbing itself. According to investigators, Layton, apparently unable to reach his firearm, pulled a "special operations combat dagger — his own weapon, not department issued — and repeatedly stabbed Fogle in the upper back.
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