Lakewood officer who shot man off duty has two shootings in past

The off-duty Lakewood police officer who shot a man Sunday in Kitsap County was involved in two fatal shootings as an officer and was cleared of wrongdoing in both.

Officer Darrell Moore, while driving his patrol car home, encountered Thomas St. Clair, 24, south of Port Orchard and shot him in the arm about 3:50 a.m., according to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating the shooting.

St. Clair later was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and held at the Kitsap County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail, according to court records.

Details of the shooting were murky, but St. Clair told Kitsap deputies he had been carrying a gun and was trying to get rid of it when he was shot. A convicted felon, St. Clair was not supposed to be carrying a gun.

Moore, a 12-year law enforcement veteran, has been with the Lakewood Police Department for more than four years.

He was one of two officers who fired their weapons in the fatal shooting June 18, 2013, of Patrick O’Meara, 28.

O’Meara, wanted on a felony warrant, waved a gun during a confrontation with officers, then lunged at them, according to police. The officers fired at O’Meara three times, killing him.

The gun turned out to be a realistic cap gun, Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said when clearing the two officers of wrongdoing in the shooting in October 2013.

As a Poulsbo police officer, Moore on July 23, 2010, shot and killed Matthew James Netter, 23, during a DUI emphasis patrol, according to The Kitsap Sun.

Prosecutor Russ Hauge said Netter threatened Moore with a pistol.

This story was originally published February 2, 2017 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Lakewood officer who shot man off duty has two shootings in past."