Detective fired after putting community ‘at risk’ in fatal shooting, WA sheriff says

A detective who shot and killed a man in 2019 was fired for violating several policies leading up to the deadly incident, a Washington sheriff said.

King County Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht terminated George Alvarez, effective Friday, not for his use of force, but his decisions before the shooting of a Black Diamond man, according to a news release emailed to McClatchy News.

“Your exercise of bad judgment was not limited to a single decision, but involved a series of bad decisions,” the sheriff wrote in a letter sent to Alvarez. “Your actions demonstrated a disregard for the public, your partner and yourself.”

What happened

According to the sheriff’s letter:

In November 2019, Anthony Chilcott stole a truck with a poodle inside in Cumberland.

An advisory went out to officers “warning that [Chilcott] was hostile to law enforcement, likely to use force against law enforcement and likely to attempt to evade.”

Several days after Chilcott stole the truck, Alvarez, who was driving an unmarked GMC Yukon without sirens or lights, heard a deputy say over the radio that he was “hit” by a suspect being pursued by law enforcement. That deputy later clarified that the suspect “made incidental contact with his push bar while driving around the patrol car to escape being blocked in, likely resulting in no damage.”

Alvarez said he “did not hear all of these communications.”

Alvarez passed the suspect heading in the opposite direction and turned around before discovering “he had pulled over and stopped on the side of the road next to a power station.”

Instead of waiting for backup, Alvarez, who was not wearing clothing identifying him as law enforcement, “made a sudden decision … to pull up next to [him].”

The passenger side of Alvarez’s car, where another detective was sitting, was “very close to Chilcott, in the driver’s seat of a car … described … as a ‘rolling tank.’”

Alvarez said he didn’t wait because of “the potential risk to the people at the bus stop nearby.”

“Yet [Alvarez] took actions that likely increased the risk of harm to nearby civilians,” the sheriff said.

The detective in the passenger seat said over the radio that Chilcott “rammed” them. Alvarez responded by turning into the truck and pushing it across the road.

As Chilcott was trying to escape, Alvarez approached the truck and tried to “break out the driver’s side window using a sledgehammer” he had in his car.

Alvarez was able to break and remove the glass before reaching into the cab and attempting to turn off the truck.

Chilcott fought with Alvarez and at one point was able to grab the detective’s gun and get the upper hand on him by pinning Alvarez’s arm and trapping him inside the cab.

Alvarez and the other detective in the car “discharged [their] duty weapons at close range because [Chilcott’s] actions put [them] at risk.”

Sheriff’s decision

Patti Cole-Tindall, the King County undersheriff, served Alvarez with a notice of Loudermill memo, informing him he would have a chance to “present additional information, or mitigating circumstances” at a hearing after she recommended he be transferred from his team assignments.

The sheriff, feeling “more serious discipline might be warranted,” notified Alvarez that she was considering elevating his punishment.

“To be clear, the termination decision is not based on the use of force/shooting of Chilcott,” the sheriff’s office said in the release. “The sheriff found Alvarez’s decision to initiate contact with Chilcott in an unmarked vehicle and without clothing identifying him as law enforcement put himself, his partner … and perhaps members of the community standing nearby, at risk.”

Alvarez served at the sheriff’s office for about 21 years, according to the letter.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office declined to file criminal charges against either detective, the sheriff’s office said in the release.

This story was originally published April 2, 2021 at 12:59 PM with the headline "Detective fired after putting community ‘at risk’ in fatal shooting, WA sheriff says."