Jacqueline Salyers’ family sues city over fatal shooting by Tacoma officer
The family of a woman fatally shot by a Tacoma police officer last year has sued the city and the officer over her death.
Officer Scott Campbell killed 32-year-old Jacqueline Salyers as she tried to run him over, according to police.
Her family disputes that account in their lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on behalf of Salyers’ four minor children and her mother, Lisa Earl.
Cindy Flynn, an attorney representing the family, did not return a News Tribune call Tuesday. Police spokeswoman Loretta Cool said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
Salyers was killed Jan. 28, 2016, after Campbell and another officer went looking for Salyers’ boyfriend because there were warrants out for his arrest.
When they found him in the passenger seat of a car parked in the 3300 block of South Sawyer Street, Salyers was behind the wheel.
The officers walked toward the car with their guns, having received information that Wright was armed, and told him to put his hands up. Then Salyers started to drive toward Campbell, police said, and the officer shot her.
“I have no doubt that if I had not shot the driver that the vehicle would have continued to gain speed and run me over,” Campbell told police investigators.
The Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office and Tacoma’s Deadly Force Review Board ruled the shooting justified.
Salyers’ family argues in the lawsuit that neither Campbell nor the other officer was in danger of being hit as Salyers started to drive away. His use of force was excessive, they contend in the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.
Tests showed Salyers had a possibly fatal amount of methamphetamine in her system when she died, as well as morphine.
She was a Puyallup tribal member, and hundreds protested the shooting, including with a march from tribal headquarters to the federal courthouse in Tacoma last year.
Alexis Krell: 253-597-8268, @amkrell
This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Jacqueline Salyers’ family sues city over fatal shooting by Tacoma officer."