Here’s why investigators say a deputy fatally shot a Tacoma man last month in Parkland
A Pierce County deputy shot a Tacoma man five times last month after he struck another deputy with the door of a minivan while trying to flee from a parking lot where he was sitting in a car, the Pierce County Force Investigation Team said.
The fatal shooting occurred around 5:55 p.m. Jan. 27 in the parking lot of an auto parts shop in Parkland near the border of Spanaway. Three Pierce County Sheriff’s Department deputies were responding to a 911 call reporting a person slumped in a minivan parked in front of a business in the 14900 block of Pacific Avenue South.
Deputies arrived on the scene at 5:51 p.m., and about five minutes later, a deputy fired six gunshots at 39-year-old Jerome Holman, who was struck five times. Deputies said they provided aid to Holman, and he was transported to a hospital, where he later died.
Holman died of a gunshot wound to the torso, the Pierce County medical examiner later determined. His death was ruled a homicide.
The deputy who shot and killed Holman has not been publicly identified.
The Pierce County Force Investigation Team conducts a criminal investigation whenever police use deadly force in the county. On Thursday, it said investigators reviewed six different video perspectives and analyzed witness statements and forensic evidence to determine what led to the shooting.
Deputies made contact with Holman, and within minutes, deputies suspected the van he was in had been stolen. The van’s two license plates did not match vehicle’s identification number.
Investigators later learned that the license plates on the van had been switched, and the plates on it belonged to another vehicle. That other vehicle had not been reported stolen, and investigators are trying to determine the identity of the registered owner.
Holman tried to close the van’s driver door and start the van, according to a PCFIT news release. Deputies believed Holman was going to try to flee, and a deputy attempted to physically stop him from driving away, the release states.
With the driver’s door still open, Holman accelerated in reverse, and the door hit a deputy, dragging him and throwing him to the ground a distance of about 30 feet. Then, investigators said Holman executed a high-speed U-turn, causing the van to collide with a deputy’s patrol vehicle. Holman narrowly avoided hitting the deputy who was thrown to the ground.
“He then positioned his vehicle in such a way that had he accelerated, the deputies were at risk of being struck,” the PCFIT news release states.
That was when a deputy fired his department-issued handgun six times and Holman was struck and killed.
