Crowd in Olympia questions prosecutor about charging decisions in May police shooting

About 30 people gathered at the Thurston County Courthouse on Friday morning to ask Prosecutor Jon Tunheim for an explanation of his charging decisions in a May 21 officer-involved shooting.

Last week, Tunheim announced that Olympia residents Andre Thompson and Bryson Chaplin — the two men shot by Olympia police Officer Ryan Donald — would each face assault charges for allegedly threatening Donald with their skateboards, and that Donald would not be charged.

The decision has sparked outrage from some people in Olympia. On Tuesday morning, about 20 people staged a sit-in at Tunheim’s office, asking for a meeting with the prosecutor. Friday’s meeting was scheduled as a response.

Several people at the meeting accused Tunheim of being racist. As Tunheim left the event, audience members chanted, “Step back, step back. We want freedom, freedom. Racist prosecutors, we don’t need ’em, need ’em.”

Throughout the meeting, some members of the audience laughed at Tunheim’s responses to questions and shouted, “Drop the charges!”

Tunheim defended his decisions, and said they were made based on evidence collected in an investigation conducted by the Thurston County Critical Incident Task Force and led by the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

“I understand the emotion that’s involved in this issue,” Tunheim said. “My job’s to make a decision without emotion. … I believe that a jury could find (Thompson and Chaplin) guilty.”

Candace “Candy” Mercer was the first audience member to take the microphone, and asked about some inconsistencies she perceived in Donald’s testimony: Donald being unable to say exactly how many shots he fired, Donald not mentioning two officers who drove past the scene and Donald not mentioning two witnesses who drove past the scene.

Tunheim said that when he reviewed the testimony, he didn’t see those as inconsistencies. He said that Donald’s testimony was typical for someone who had been involved in a “high intensity” event.

“If he gave too much detail, I’d be suspicious,” Tunheim said.

Another speaker, Lisa Hayes, asked about crime lab evidence that she believed pointed to Chaplin and Thompson’s innocence. She said she read in the report that no gunshot residue was found on either Thompson or Chaplin, and that Chaplin and Thompson’s DNA wasn’t found on Donald’s clothing.

She said the lack of gunshot residue likely means that Chaplin and Thompson weren’t standing as close to Donald as he said. Hayes also said the lack of DNA likely meant that the confrontation between Donald and the two men had been exaggerated.

Tunheim said that’s not the case.

He said that gunshot residue isn’t always indicative of what happened at the scene, and the use of DNA evidence has been exaggerated by television, drama and media. He said that in his 25 years as a prosecuting attorney, DNA evidence has only been useful about five times — and that each of those cases was related to sexual violence.

“Cases come to us in all different forms with different kinds of evidence,” Tunheim said.

Emma Rotolo asked Tunheim what role he believes racism plays in the Olympia Police Department’s interactions with the public. Tunheim said he believed it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to answer the question — and that it would be better answered by the police department.

“I don’t think that it’s my place to judge the overall policing practices of the Olympia Police Department,” Tunheim said.

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 2:03 PM with the headline "Crowd in Olympia questions prosecutor about charging decisions in May police shooting."