Pierce County sheriff reflects on 2022 SWAT operation that left deputy, suspect dead
Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer said that six SWAT team members were following appropriate measures last year when they engaged an assault suspect in a Spanaway trailer park in an operation that turned chaotic and resulted in the deaths of the suspect and a deputy.
“It was properly planned and executed to the same standards that all SWAT teams used at the time,” Troyer said in an interview Thursday with The News Tribune.
The Mobile Arrest Team operation prioritized speed and surprise on March 15, 2022, as deputies sought to apprehend 40-year-old Jeremy Dayton, who had skipped the first day of a trial that could have seen him sentenced to life in prison. Dayton, who had been under surveillance, was inside a parked car and fired nearly instantly at deputies after they pulled up front-bumper to front-bumper in an unmarked van.
The News Tribune obtained often-graphic body camera footage that provides first-person views from the incident.
Four deputies returned fire, ultimately shooting more than 60 times, according to investigative documents. Dayton discharged four rounds with a handgun that had more ammo but had been disabled by a deputy’s return fire. Dayton and 35-year-old deputy Dom Calata were killed.
In the interview, Troyer said that the department would learn from the incident and was constantly trying to improve its operations. In this instance, he said, deputies were confronted with an armed suspect who would have shot at the SWAT team regardless of how they approached.
“We have to engage and, with that, we all know, there’s bad outcomes,” he said. “But everything we can do to alleviate bad outcomes, we’ll do.”
Report submitted after operation
The SWAT team’s leader, then-Sgt. Rich Scaniffe, noted two areas for improvement in an after-action report submitted following the operation. Scaniffe wrote that armored vehicles and additional personnel support would have changed the SWAT team’s tactics and provided more personnel for medical aid and to engage Dayton.
The Specialized Unit Incident Report from Scaniffe, who has since been promoted to lieutenant and suffered a life-threatening injury to his femoral artery during the take-down, was obtained by The News Tribune in a public records request.
“Armored vehicles would have changed our tactics for this operation,” Scaniffe wrote in the report under a section titled, “Improves.” “They have been ordered and some newer tactics based on having those vehicles will be utilized.”
Under the same section, Scaniffe addressed how additional people on scene could have been used.
“Prior to this we have never utilized a secondary support team,” he wrote. “Another, smaller support team with more medical supplies would have provided more personnel to give medical aid or engage the suspect who was shooting at us.”
Troyer confirmed that the department has ordered three armored vehicles, which are currently being built, for use in these types of operations. They’re different from the department’s military-style and easy-to-spot Bearcat fleet and instead are hardened versions of ordinary vans, trucks or cars.
While Troyer didn’t want to speculate on whether the availability last year of such vehicles, or a secondary team to help injured deputies, would’ve aided the operation, he said that “the more equipment and the more we can do to keep our people safe, we’re all into doing that.”
“You can’t train for everything,” he said, adding that if not for the actions of deputies involved in the operation and the response to the shooting, the situation could have been much worse.
The Board of Professional Standards, composed of department members who internally review shootings, has yet to complete its review, according to Troyer. Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett said in December that the deputies’ use of force was justified.
‘We did get a surprise on him’
The SWAT team encountered challenges in addition to immediately taking fire when they exited the van. It was difficult to see into the Cadillac DeVille in which Dayton sat because of dark-tinted windows, and a flash-bang grenade thrown by a deputy malfunctioned.
Due to the operation’s reliance on speed, deputies wore lighter armor and none donned helmets. Calata suffered a fatal gunshot wound to his head.
Dayton, facing a third strike for an alleged assault in the alley of a restaurant in February 2021, was considered a violent offender. A sheriff’s department’s supplemental threat assessment on Dayton, dated the day of the operation, noted he was “likely armed.”
A surveillance team followed Dayton’s movements the morning of the operation and watched him enter the Cadillac, which was facing forward and backed against a 7-foot-tall fence for the old Spanaway Airport. The team had hoped to sneak up on Dayton from the rear, but Scaniffe modified the plan to approach from the front, investigative documents showed.
In body-camera footage from the operation obtained by The News Tribune in a public records request, Lt. Tony Messineo — one of the higher-ups who approved the operation — is seen arriving near the scene as gunshots can be heard in the distance.
Messineo, the incident commander, helps to direct medical transportation and brief others via radio about the unfolding situation. Near the end of the 13-minute recording from his body-cam, he is seen speaking quietly to three deputies away from the scene. It’s difficult to understand what he’s saying.
“He knew that he was being surveilled?” one deputy responds to something Messineo has said.
“Oh, I don’t know that but, you know, what we knew — we’ve got (body) cameras — but what we knew (inaudible) is possible,” Messineo replies.
Troyer told The News Tribune, “not that we know of,” when asked if the department had learned whether Dayton was aware of the surveillance.
“We did get a surprise on him,” the sheriff said.
According to Troyer, there was nothing the deputies could have done differently.
“(Dayton) wasn’t going to quit firing rounds until he couldn’t fire rounds anymore,” he said. “I have a team of people who faced an armed, three-strike felon, watch two of their people get shot, and still engaged and were very brave.”
Nine deputies involved in the operation will be presented with the Law Enforcement Medal of Honor in Olympia on May 5, according to the Sheriff’s Department, including the six SWAT team members and others who hurried to aid the injured while the scene was still active.
Quick action, communication
In his after-action report, Scaniffe noted that the team’s training on life-saving measures had saved his own life and that the team’s tactical response, particularly moving to get an angle on Dayton, ended the confrontation quickly.
The barrage of gunfire lasted 35 seconds, according to body-cam footage reviewed by The News Tribune. Calata and Scaniffe were rushed into patrol SUVs to meet nearby paramedics for transport to a hospital within about six minutes of the shooting. Roughly nine minutes later, Dayton was pulled out of the car unresponsive.
Messineo’s communication to get needed resources quickly to the scene was also highlighted in the report. So, too, were the efforts of responding deputies, Tacoma police officers and Washington State Patrol troopers to block off intersections on the route to the hospital.
“Medics later told me that drive is normally 18 minutes and they were able to make it in 9,” Scaniffe wrote. “Medics believed had that not occurred, I likely would not have survived the trip to the hospital.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
