Auburn cops won’t be prosecuted in 2019 fatal shooting called ‘devastatingly sad’
A prosecutor has finished reviewing the fatal Auburn police shooting of a 26-year-old man outside an apartment complex in 2019.
Auburn police officer Kenneth Lyman shot Enosa Strickland, Jr. on May 20, 2019, allegedly after a struggle during which he grabbed the officer’s knife and ignored commands to drop it and just after he’d been having a casual conversation with officers while he waited for a ride from family.
“I have concluded that when applying the facts in this case to law applicable in Washington, there is insufficient evidence to prove a crime was committed,” Snohomish County Prosecutor Adam Cornell wrote in a letter to case detectives Monday. “Broadly, based on the information known to Auburn Police Officer Kenneth Lyman at the time, he had a good faith basis for using deadly force against Mr. Strickland, Jr. and that a similarly situated reasonable officer would have believed the use of deadly force was necessary under the facts and circumstances.”
Cornell’s letter to detectives also said: “I am mindful that the investigative record makes it clear that Enosa Strickland, Jr. was well-loved by his family and friends who knew him to be a kind, respectful, and thoughtful young man. I am also aware that for those who knew and cared deeply about Mr. Strickland, Jr., the circumstances surrounding his death are as confounding as his death is devastatingly sad. And while it is important for all of us to recognize the pain and grief caused by Mr. Strickland, Jr.’s unfortunate passing, my ethical obligation is to only pursue a prosecution that I believe can be proved to a trier of fact beyond a reasonable doubt, and it can neither acquiesce to, nor be influenced by, our sympathies.”
The shooting happened in part of Auburn that is within Pierce County. Pierce County Prosecutor Mary Robnett asked the Snohomish prosecutor to review the shooting after her office mistakenly reviewed protected statements that were included in the case file.
Her office said the then-chief of the Auburn Police Department ordered the involved officers to do an interview with detectives from the Valley Investigative Team.
“Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent (Garrity v. New Jersey), any information that is gleaned from compelled statements cannot be used by prosecutors in a criminal trial, and could even compromise a charging decision,” Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Adam Faber said in a statement Monday.
He said an investigator from the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office told the Valley Investigative Team not to provide the interview information to the Prosecutor’s Office.
“Thereafter at least some compelled statements were sent to our investigator,” Faber said. “Because of this issue, we asked P.A. Cornell to review the case. Two deputy prosecutors from his office first scrubbed the investigative files of any Garrity-tainted information, and Cornell and (his chief Chief Criminal Deputy Matthew Baldock) then reviewed the clean files. Both gentlemen met with the Strickland family earlier today, explained their review and decision, and answered questions.”
Cornell’s letter gave this summary of the shooting:
Lyman and Auburn Officer Derek Morse responded to an apartment complex after Strickland’s ex-girlfriend told police he was at her front door and refusing to leave. She described him as “scary” when she spoke to dispatchers, said she thought he might be drunk and that she heard breaking glass and was concerned he might be damaging her vehicle.
After they arrived, the officers decided Strickland shouldn’t drive and waited with him after he called his family for a ride.
As they waited, the ex-girlfriend “recalled Mr. Strickland, Jr. saying something about how he respected the officers, corroborating the officers’ account that the interaction was casual and non-confrontational up to that point,” the letter said.
After a second phone call to his family, Strickland’s mood allegedly changed, and he “started pacing around in the parking lot near his car, swearing at the officers, making veiled threats toward them,” the letter said.
“At one point, Mr. Strickland, Jr. began making quick and erratic movements toward Officer Lyman, described by the officers as ‘jab-steps’ or ‘shoulder -checking,’” the letter said. “Officer Lyman attempted to de-escalate Mr. Strickland, Jr.’s behavior by, among other things, calmly trying to reason with him by asking what his mother would think of his behavior when she arrived.”
That didn’t work.
Strickland “again quickly approached Officer Lyman — this time coming within an arm’s length and bringing his right hand up toward the officer,” the letter said. “Fearing that he was about to be assaulted, Officer Lyman struck Mr. Strickland, Jr. in the face and then tackled him to the ground.”
As Morse came to help, Strickland allegedly hit him in the side of the head, all three struggled, and Strickland ignored commands to stop fighting.
Lyman said that during the struggle “he felt something sharp pressing into his leg,” the letter said. “Officer Lyman reacted to the pain by looking at Mr. Strickland, Jr. and saw a knife in his right hand.”
It was reportedly a knife that Lyman wore in his chest pocket.
Morse said he also saw the knife and told investigators: “I believed (the knife) was going to stab either Officer Lyman ‘cause he was closer or me and because he continued to resist us and he had already assaulted us and I just thought he would, now he’s got a knife and he’s going to continue to assault us,” according to the letter.
The letter said Lyman wrote in part: “My concern at the time was for my immediate safety or Officer Morse’s due to how close (Mr. Strickland, Jr.) was to us. (Mr. Strickland Jr.) clearly had the ability at the moment to stab either myself and/or Officer Morse. As soon as I saw the knife I immediately began yelling commands to repeatedly ‘drop the knife.’”
Strickland reportedly ignored those commands and kept struggling with officers.
“Out of fear for his immediate safety, Officer Lyman yelled to Officer Morse, ‘Shoot him!’” the letter said. “In the heat of the fight, Officer Morse heard it not as a directive, but as a statement or warning that Officer Lyman was about to respond with deadly force to the risk of serious bodily harm they both faced.”
Lyman reportedly drew his gun and let go of Strickland’s arm, still shouting to Strickland to drop the knife or he would be shot.
Strickland reportedly refused, and Lyman tried to fire, but the gun malfunctioned the first time.
“Officer Lyman quickly cycled the firearm’s slide against his police uniform in an attempt to correct the malfunction,” the letter said. “At no time did Mr. Strickland, Jr. cease being physically combative or respond to warnings to drop the knife or he would be shot, and at all times he presented an immediate threat to the officers.”
Lyman tried to shoot again, and this time the gun fired and Strickland was killed.
The ex-girlfriend said “she heard commands to, ‘drop the knife or I am going to shoot you,’ and she believes she heard Mr. Strickland, Jr. laughingly reply, ‘What knife?’” according to the letter. “She told investigators soon after that she heard something she believed to be metal hitting the ground, after which time — a few seconds by her estimation — she heard a gunshot.”
The Medical Examiner found Strickland’s blood-alcohol level to be 0.24.
“... Officer Lyman had a good faith basis in his deadly use of force formed on everything that a reasonable trier of fact would conclude he knew at the time,” Cornell wrote. “Furthermore, a jury would conclude that a similarly situated reasonable officer would have believed the use of deadly force was necessary under the circumstances of this case to prevent death or serious physical harm to himself and/or Officer Morse. Accordingly, this matter will be declined for prosecution.”
At a protest of police shootings in August in Auburn, the Kent Reporter reported, Strickland’s mother, Kathleen Strickland, said: “The Auburn Police Department started pushing its narrative out to the media just hours after killing E.J. My husband called and (asked) them, ‘Why are you making a statement when the case is an open investigation?’ An officer at the other end of the phone said, ‘We owe it to the public.’ My husband responded, ‘No, you owe the public the truth.’”
The newspaper reported she went on to say: “Me, my husband and some of my family members have always backed the blue. We’re not anti-police, we’re not anti-government, and we’re not anti-American. In fact we’re just the opposite. ... There are bad apples in the police force, and that’s why our country is experiencing such turmoil and distress. There needs to be a change and a shift in the police and attitude of police brutality and police-involved killings. We’ve learned that the police cannot police themselves, and that the change needs to start at the top.”
An obituary for Strickland said he graduated Auburn Senior High School, then studied and was just short of finishing a two-year degree when he returned to find work.
