Olympia officers cleared in man's fatal shooting

Olympia police officers' fatal shooting of an Olympia man after a car chase in Lacey on Nov. 15 was justified, and no criminal charges will be filed, according to the Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

Jose Ramirez-Jimenez, 24, was fatally shot after a chase that started when Olympia police tried to pull over the Honda Del Sol he was driving. The Honda matched the description of a car involved in a shooting in Olympia earlier that evening. During that incident, a man was shot in the leg.

Three Olympia police officers — Paul Bakala, 38, Mike Hovda, 46, and Chuck Gassett, 54 — fired a total of six shots when the chase ended, at 26th Avenue and College Street in Lacey. One of the shots struck Ramirez-Jimenez in the neck, and another struck his back, Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock said.

Ramirez-Jimenez died at the scene.

Ramirez-Jimenez wouldn't stop when Olympia police officers tried to pull him over at the Shell station near Pacific Avenue and Martin Way in Olympia. After the chase, he refused to obey commands after Gassett disabled the Honda, according to a memo by Thurston County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jon Tunheim.

Tunheim's three-page memo describes the circumstances leading up to the shooting but does not state which officers fired the shots that struck Ramirez-Jimenez. Tunheim said Tuesday that he could not determine, based on the reports, which officer or officers fired those shots.

Tunheim added that regardless, each of the three officers was justified in using deadly force.

A news release from the prosecuting attorney's office reads, in part: "In this case, it appears clear that the officers were attempting to apprehend a person who they reasonably believed had committed a serious felony (i.e. an earlier shooting) and further, given the circumstances of the pursuit, the suspect's defiance of orders even at gunpoint, and his actions with the vehicle immediately prior to the shooting, the officers also had probable cause to believe that this suspect posed an immediate risk of serious harm to themselves or others."

The news release also states that "there is no evidence to suggest that these officers in any way acted in bad faith or with malice when they chose to open fire."

New details

Tunheim's memo, released Tuesday to The Olympian, reveals new details about the investigation of Ramirez-Jimenez's shooting. The investigation was conducted by a team of South Sound law enforcement agencies, led by Thurston County Sheriff's detective Dave Haller.

According to the memo:

• The interagency shooting team's investigation "consisted of a thorough examination and documentation of the shooting scene, interviews of all relevant witnesses, review of traffic footage, recorded 9-1-1 calls, and the recorded radio conversations of the officers involved. The three officers involved in the shooting incident also agreed to be interviewed. Those interviews were recorded and transcribed."

• Witnesses of the earlier shooting at Wilson Street and State Avenue, where a man was shot in the leg, described the suspect as a "dark-skinned or perhaps Hispanic male driving a dark blue or black Honda Del Sol."

• Ramirez-Jimenez seemed "agitated and nervous" when officers spotted him at the Shell station about 5 a.m.

• Ramirez-Jimenez was driving at least 80 miles per hour during the police chase.

• All three of the officers who fired shots were involved in the investigation of the Olympia shooting earlier that night, and all three were "convinced" that the driver of the Del Sol during the chase was the same person who committed that shooting.

• Gassett used his patrol car to pin the Honda against a curb when Ramirez-Jimenez tried to turn onto College Street from 26th. Gassett then got out of his patrol car and pointed his gun at the driver. He was concerned that Ramirez-Jimenez had a weapon and ordered him to show his hands. Ramirez-Jimenez refused.

• Bakala and Hovda stopped their patrol cars behind Gassett's and approached the Honda on foot, with their guns pointed at the driver. "They also began to yell out commands to the driver," the memo says. "They both observed the suspect looking around at them and refusing to obey their commands."

• The officers saw a female passenger of the Del Sol "yelling at the driver. At one point, she grabbed hold of the driver's face and scream(ed) 'Don't do it,' at him." The officers saw the driver moving "frantically" in the vehicle, and the officers thought he was "searching around the driver's area with his hands." At some point, the female passenger exited the Honda, and she was escorted away from the vehicle by another officer.

• The officers heard the engine of the Honda "rev up" and saw its reverse lights activate, and the Honda backed up, "moving Officer Gassett's patrol car slightly." Ramirez-Jimenez tried unsuccessfully to drive forward, then moved backward again, toward the officers. "At this time officers Bakala and Hovda were positioned behind the vehicle and in its path with little or no opportunity to escape should the Del Sol lurch backward. At that time, all three officers opened fire on the vehicle," the memo states.

• Gassett fired one of his rounds into the front driver's-side tire of the Honda. The other five rounds were fired at Ramirez-Jimenez.

• During a search of the Honda, "detectives discovered, in open view, a handgun, a holster, and a magazine for the handgun containing several rounds of ammunition. The handgun was observed to have blood on it. Closer examination revealed that there was no blood on the grip of the weapon. Similarly, when the suspect's hands were examined, there was blood on his right hand, but not on his palm. The area of the gun and the suspect's palm that did not have blood would provide a reasonable inference that the suspect was in fact holding the handgun in his right hand at the time that he was shot. It is undisputed however, that none of the officers at the scene were able to observe the suspect's hands and none observed the handgun."

According to court records, Ramirez-Jimenez had prior convictions for first-degree theft, driving under the influence, methamphetamine possession, third-degree assault, simple assault, domestic violence and unlawful possession of a firearm. He had an active warrant for his arrest for escaping from community custody at the time of his fatal shooting Nov. 15, police said.

Ramirez-Jimenez attended Olympia High School through 11th grade, court records state.

A phone number for Ramirez-Jimenez's parents listed in court records was disconnected as of Tuesday.

Jeremy Pawloski covers public safety for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5465 or jpawloski@theolympian.com.