Lakewood sergeant who killed man who’d been shooting at officers is identified
A Lakewood police sergeant who fatally shot a man police say was firing rounds at officers has been identified.
Sgt. Jason Catlett, 44, remains on administrative leave after the Sept. 4 shooting of Spencer Clayborn.
Catlett has been with the department for 15 years.
Officers were called to an apartment complex in the 7300 block of 150th Street Southwest about 8:35 p.m. after several people called 911 to report that someone was firing off rounds inside.
Within three minutes, an officer radioed to dispatchers that a suspect, later identified as Clayborn, was shooting at them.
Details about the officer-involved shooting have not been released. The Pierce County Force Investigation Team is investigating.
Clayborn, 25, was pronounced dead at the scene. He died of a gunshot wound to the neck, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office.
This is the second fatal shooting Catlett has been involved with in the last three years.
He was one of three officers who shot 43-year-old Keith Lawrence Harvey in January 2019 after Harvey walked toward police with a kitchen knife in his outstretched hand.
Harvey refused to drop the knife and followed Catlett as the sergeant tried to back away, records say.
Catlett fired four shots. The other two officers fired a combined 11 shots. Harvey was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Prosecutor’s Office found Catlett and the other two acted justifiably in the shooting.
“(Harvey) discussed ‘suicide by cop’ and stated that he knew the police would kill him if he acted aggressively towards them,” the Prosecutor’s Office wrote in its findings.
This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 10:41 AM.
