Tacoma police justified in shooting gunman outside ICE facility in 2019, prosecutor says
Four Tacoma police officers involved in the fatal shooting of an armed man outside of the ICE Processing Center last year acted lawfully and used justified force, according to a decision released Tuesday by Pierce County Prosecutor Mary Robnett.
Willem Van Spronsen, 69, was shot and killed by police on July 13, 2019, after police were called to the federal immigration center in response to reports of a man with a rifle throwing incendiary devices at outbuildings and cars in the center’s parking lot.
According to Robnett’s report, the officers knew “they were walking into a very volatile and dangerous situation.”
“Specifically, he was pointing or aiming a rifle toward the officers who were on foot near the detention facility, one of whom was without cover,” the report stated. “There was imminent danger that Mr. Van Spronsen would kill one or more of the Tacoma Police officers or someone else within rifle range. Any citizen having the means to respond to such a grave and imminent threat would have been permitted to use deadly force to defend themselves and others.”
The prosecutor’s office determined the officers were thereby “justified in the use of deadly force to stop that threat and arrest or detain Mr. Van Spronsen.”
Details of the shooting
On July 12, 2019, a group of people gathered at the detention center located at 1623 E. J St. for a planned protest, according to the prosecutor’s report released Tuesday.
The protest ended about 8 p.m., and all protesters left the area except for Van Spronsen, who arrived at the facility earlier that day in a Volkswagen hatchback.
About 4 a.m. the following morning, three detention facility workers “observed lights flashing and an alarm sounding” on the Volkswagen and saw Van Spronsen breaking windows on a building across the street from the detention center and throwing Molotov cocktails and road flares.
The witnesses also saw Van Spronsen “manipulating a rifle” and called 911.
Sgt. Chris Martin and patrol officers John Correasaw, Wyatt Gustason and Elijah Allman responded to the scene. Upon arrival, Martin witnessed a flare being thrown at a 500-gallon propane tank and “recognized that there could be a ‘mass explosion’ if the tank was ignited,” according to the report.
Martin and Gustason walked toward the Volkswagen, which was engulfed in flames. A propane tank exploded as they neared.
Martin then saw movement near portable toilets in the area and yelled for Van Spronsen to come out.
“When Sgt. Martin first spotted him, Mr. Van Spronsen was holding a rifle in what he described as a low ready position, but Mr. van Spronsen quickly raised the rifle and aimed it directly at Sgt. Martin,” the report said.”Sgt. Martin immediately yelled ‘gun, gun gun’ to warn the other officers, and he fired his duty handgun at Mr. Van Spronsen while backing away so he could get into cover.”
After hearing Martin, the other three officers fired their weapons at Van Spronsen. A total of 39 shell casings from the officers’ guns were recovered at the scene.
Van Spronsen was struck by two bullets, one to the head and one to the left hip, and died of his wounds, according to an autopsy conducted the day of his death by then-Pierce County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Clark. A postmortem toxicology report showed that Van Spronsen had “intoxication levels” of THC in his system at the time of his death.
Van Spronsen was carrying an AR-style semiautomatic rifle, which was fully loaded, and had a magazine pouch attached to his left leg that contained four loaded magazines.
“A later examination of his rifle revealed that it had malfunctioned, which prevented him from actually firing it at the officers,” according to the report. “Video surveillance from the incident clearly showed Mr. Van Spronsen manipulating the rifle in a manner consistent with attempting to clear a jam before the officers arrived, but it appeared as if he was having trouble doing so.”
Van Spronsen’s rifle had no serial number on it, which made it untraceable, according to a Washington State Patrol forensic scientist.
The prosecutor’s report determined that the four officers were acting within their legal duty while faced with an imminent life-threatening situation.
Van Spronsen
In July 2019, police described Van Spronsen as a “known anarchist” who claimed association with Antifa and said he sent a manifesto to several people prior to his death, according to previous reports by The News Tribune.
Van Spronsen, who lived in a converted bus on Vashon Island, was “very disturbed about the whole ICE situation,” according to his neighbor, David Giusti.
Giusti described Spronsen as a gentle soul, friendly, soft-spoken and a deep thinker.
Van Spronsen immigrated to the United States from Holland, where he was born and raised.
He was a skilled carpenter and was mechanically inclined, Giusti said, and has an adult daughter and a younger son.
Court records show Van Spronsen was involved in a contentious and difficult divorce and custody battle for six years, which included a number of domestic violence protection orders granted against him, News Tribune reporter Alexis Krell previously reported. The protection order made it illegal for him to have firearms.
Van Spronsen was arrested outside the detention center in 2018 and accused of wrapping his arms around a police officer who was trying to detain a 17-year-old protester during a disturbance at the facility.
Prosecutors said he had no other criminal history, and he eventually pleaded guilty to obstructing an officer in the 2018 case and was given a deferred sentence.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 3:30 PM.
