The family of a Samoan American man filed a wrongful death lawsuit last week in connection with a fatal police shooting.
The Spokane Review Journal reports the suit names then Seattle Police Officer Jared Keller, the city and another officer involved in the shooting during a traffic stop on December 31, 2018.
According to the Seattle Times, Iosia Faletogo last words were “I’m not reaching,” referring to a nearby handgun. Police shot Faletogo in the head.
The Office of Police Accountability ruled the shooting justified in September 2019.
Keller now works as an officer for the Spokane Police Department, four hours east of Seattle, the Inlander reports.
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KATV reports Faletogo ran from his vehicle with a handgun the fateful day of his death. His cousin who saw body cam footage of the incident says Faletogo was already on the ground and the gun was not in his hand when shot.
“If Officer Keller acted according to policy, then the SPD needs to change policy and training,” Leapai said to KATV.
The lawsuit states its unclear why officers stopped Faletogo vehicle, but quotes an unnamed officer who the suit says described the car as “shady.”
“In lieu of any other explanation about why the car looked ‘shady,’ it stands to reason that the officers’ attention was captured – either explicitly or implicitly – by the fact that Iosia was a Pacific Islander man riding in a car with a Black woman in a predominantly white neighborhood in North Seattle,” the Review Journal reports the lawsuit reads.
The Police Accountability report concluded it was reasonable for officers to assume Faletogo was reaching for the gun which had fallen out of his pocket after being tackled by police.
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Racist!!!! Thats what that is!!!!!!