Man arrested for kicking dead body in Olympia during investigation, police say
A 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of multiple crimes last week, including allegedly kicking a dead man in the head, a spokesman for the Olympia Police Department said Tuesday.
About 2:30 a.m. Jan. 12, police were dispatched to the 200 block of Fifth Avenue Southeast after a report of an unconscious man in the area. Olympia Fire Department medics attempted to revive the man, but he died at the scene, Lt. Paul Lower said.
As police investigated the death, the 27-year-old man was walking in the direction of their investigation. Police asked him to go around it, but he did not stop, Lower said.
“He was failing to respond to directions, was gritting his teeth and panting, as well as holding arms down with fists clenched,” court records read. “He then wound up as if he was going to kick the deceased. He feigned the full kick, but as he walked past the deceased, he still made contact with the deceased’s head and neck area.”
Police told him to stop, but he allegedly spit on an officer and ran away. Police took him into custody nearby and he spit on an officer again, according to the court records.
Thurston County Superior Court later found probable cause for the crimes of third-degree assault and the unlawful removal or concealment of a body, which state law describes as “any person, not authorized or directed by the coroner or medical examiner or their deputies, who removes the body of a deceased person not claimed by a relative or friend, or moves, disturbs, molests, or interferes with the human remains coming within the jurisdiction of the coroner or medical examiner.”
Bail was set at $10,000. The 27-year-old man pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Jan. 16. He was still in jail as of Tuesday, the jail roster shows.
The man who died has been identified as Matthew R. Shields, 35, who had been living at an adult family home in Lacey, Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock said Tuesday.
His cause of death has not been determined because Warnock’s office is still awaiting toxicology results, he said.
Foul play is not suspected, Lower said.
