Lakewood officer who fatally shot man during traffic stop has been identified
A Lakewood police officer who shot and killed a man during a traffic stop last week has been identified.
Mike Wiley is an 18-year police veteran who came to work in Lakewood in October 2004.
Investigators say he fatally shot Said Joquin, 26, after pulling over his vehicle Friday in the 6400 block of Steilacoom Boulevard.
Police have not released details about the incident, saying only that Wiley fired his weapon as back-up officers were arriving.
Joquin died at an area hospital.
A passenger inside Joquin’s vehicle was questioned and released. The passenger was not injured.
Wiley is on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure after an officer-involved shooting.
Joquin’s loved ones say he was pulled over for running a stop sign and was cooperating with police when he was shot.
This is at least the second officer-involved shooting Wiley has been involved in.
He led an assault team that blew down the back door of a Fife man’s home during a SWAT standoff in 2013 and killed the family dog.
Although it was a sniper who fatally shot the unarmed man, Leonard Thomas, as he clutched his 4-year-old son, Wiley was named in a lawsuit against the department.
A jury in U.S. District Court found police committed 14 civil rights violations that night, including excessive force.
Wiley’s actions, along with two other others, were singled out for being egregious and leading to Thomas’ unnecessary death.
A jury awarded the Thomas’ family a record $15.1 million, which the city of Lakewood appealed.
In 2018, the city agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle the wrongful death lawsuit.
Wiley has also for years coordinated and instructed the department’s active shooter training, which earned him the police chief’s commendation in December 2018.
The Cooperative Cities Crime Response Unit is investigating Joquin’s death.
Investigators said they hope to release details about the incident next week.
“Words can’t even begin to describe the type of incredible person he was and what a loss it is to no longer have him in our lives,” Joquin’s family wrote on a GoFundMe page.
So far they’ve raised more than $4,700 for a funeral service and to transfer Joquin’s body to his mother in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 2:58 PM.
