Kent police ID officers and release statements, video of fatal shooting
Three witnesses and two Kent police officers provided strikingly similar accounts of the night last month 20-year-old Giovonn Joseph-McDade took off during a traffic stop and was fatally shot when he tried to escape out of a residential cul-de-sac, nearly striking an officer with his car, according to newly released documents, videos and audio recordings.
Kent Police Chief Ken Thomas met last week with Joseph-McDade’s family, who issued a list of demands, including release of the names of the officers involved in the pursuit and shooting, all videos of the incident and information about a variety of police policies and procedures.
After learning from members of the Valley Investigative Team (VIT) that the investigation into the fatal officer-involved shooting is mostly complete and will soon be forwarded to King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, Thomas ordered release of the documents and videos requested by Joseph-McDade’s family, says a news release issued by Kent police spokesman Cmdr. Jarod Kasner.
Because of the size of the released files, Kent police also made CDs available to local media this week.
Des Moines police, the agency leading the VIT investigation, had previously released an audio recording of a police radio transmission and a video from a private residence that shows part of the incident.
Des Moines police have also said officers later found close to 5 grams of methamphetamine in Joseph-McDade’s wallet and nearly 70 grams of marijuana in his car.
The files released this week by Kent police include new information and videos that had not been previously publicly released, as well as the officers’ written statements, audio-recorded statements from witnesses and two video-recorded re-enactments. Though some of the details differed — for instance, one witness said three shots were fired instead of two — the bulk of their statements corroborated what the Kent police officers said happened when Joseph-McDade was killed just after midnight on June 24.
At the time, he was driving with a suspended license and recently had been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, records show.
Tim Ford, a Seattle attorney who is representing Joseph-McDade’s family, is out of the country and was not available for comment, according to his law office. Family spokeswoman Victoria Mena did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the release of information by Kent police.
Kent Police Officer Matthew Rausch has been identified as the 26-year-old officer who attempted to pull Joseph-McDade over and initiated the police pursuit; Officer William Davis, a 42-year-old field-training officer and firearms instructor, was identified as the officer who responded to Rausch’s request for backup and twice fired his duty weapon at Joseph-McDade, striking him both times, according to the documents.
“After reviewing the information available, it appears the response of Officers Davis and Rausch were appropriate in light of this quickly evolving and dangerous situation, and I fully support their actions,” Thomas was quoted as saying in Kasner’s news release.
The newly released information outlines why Rausch decided to pull Joseph-McDade over in the first place: The patrol officer pulled into a gas station at 104th Avenue Southeast and Southeast 256th Street and noticed the occupants of a Honda, parked at a gas pump, were behaving strangely and seemed to track the movements of Rausch’s police vehicle. The officer ran a routine check and determined the vehicle’s tabs were expired and its registration was canceled, according to Rausch’s written statement.
Noting the area is a high-crime area, Rausch also suspected he may have seen a “hand to hand narcotics sale” involving another passenger in the vehicle, who walked away before the Honda pulled away from the pump and drove into the parking lot of a nearby Applebee’s restaurant, according to Rausch’s statement and other information provided by police.
Before Rausch, who had activated his lights and siren, could contact the driver, the driver took off, headed north on 104th Avenue Southeast.
The pursuit, which hit speeds up to 60 mph, lasted less than two minutes and ended a mile away where Southeast 244th Street dead-ends into a cul-de-sac on 99th Avenue South. There, Rausch successfully slowed Joseph-McDade’s vehicle by striking the rear bumper with his patrol car, and he and Davis used their vehicles to box the Honda in, according to police. Joseph-McDade reversed onto a grassy area, according to police information, and refused to comply with Davis’ orders to get out of the car:
“The driver had appeared to submit when he saw me with my firearm pointed at him … (but then) he had accelerated directly at me,” Davis wrote in his statement. “The driver was very committed to escaping … I was afraid that I was going to be seriously injured or killed by the vehicle.”
Davis managed to get out of the way and fired twice as Joseph-McDade forced the Honda between the two patrol vehicles; mortally wounded, Joseph-McDade drove off but failed to make a curve and crashed into a curb.
One of the witnesses was a passenger in Joseph-McDade’s 1994 Honda Accord. The 20-year-old told investigators he was a childhood friend and had been living with Joseph-McDade’s family in the weeks before his death, according to the passenger’s video-recorded statement.
He told investigators he didn’t think Joseph-McDade intended to hit the officer with his vehicle, though he was intent on escaping. He also said he knew the tabs on Joseph-McDade’s vehicle had expired.
“So, he’s, he’s gone?” the 20-year-old asked two detectives who interviewed him.
“Yeah,” one of the detectives replied.
“He’s gone. Gone. He’s not coming back. He’s not going to the hospital or none of that?” asked the passenger, who also inquired whether Joseph-McDade’s parents had been told of his death.
Witnesses and video
A second witness is an officer trainee who was hired by Kent police in April but has yet to attend the police academy; she was riding in the front passenger seat of Davis’ police SUV during the incident.
“I do not know how he (Officer Davis) didn’t get hit. I didn’t see him jump out of the way,” she said in her audio-recorded statement. “It was really close … I really thought he was going to get hit.”
The third witness is a 29-year-old man who lives on the cul-de-sac. He saw the shooting from his bedroom window, and a video camera attached to his doorbell captured footage of part of the incident.
Police also released video footage from a second private residence, which is across the street from Canterbury Park on South 244th Street, just south of the cul-de-sac on 99th Avenue South where Davis fired at Joseph-McDade.
That video shows Joseph-McDade’s vehicle speed by, followed by two Kent police vehicles. Joseph-McDade’s car re-enters the camera frame 36 seconds later coming from the opposite direction. The vehicle crashes into a curb and comes to rest and the passenger is then seen leaping out of the car with his hands raised before disappearing behind the vehicle as Rausch and Davis arrive in separate vehicles.
According to statements from the passenger and officers, the passenger laid down on the ground and was held there at gunpoint by Rausch and Davis until additional officers arrived. The video also shows officers pulling Joseph-McDade out through the front passenger door of the Honda, placing him on the ground and beginning CPR.
This story was originally published July 22, 2017 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Kent police ID officers and release statements, video of fatal shooting."