سودانى بأوريغون يهاجم دكان وبوليس بعكاز فيعدمه البوليس رميا بالرصاص-فيديو صادم

Man killed by Kelso officer was shot in chest
Cowlitz County sheriff releases details about shooting at gas station

Officers were stationed outside the West Kelso Flying K gas station after an officer-involved shooting Wednesday Morning in Kelso. (Lauren Kronebusch/The Daily News)
By By Lauren Kronebusch, The (Longview) Daily News
Published: August 19, 2016, 9:00 PM
3


LONGVIEW — The man shot by a Kelso patrolman Wednesday morning at the Flying K gas station in West Kelso was Omer Ismail Ali, a 27-year-old Sudanese immigrant and Spokane student, according to Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson.

On Friday, the Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office ruled his death a homicide by a gunshot wound to the chest. He also had a gunshot wound to the neck and jaw.

Ali had been contacted by several law enforcement agencies at least five times starting Aug. 13, after he’d spent several months in jail in Whatcom County. Nelson didn’t know why Ali had been jailed.

Nelson said Ali appears to have been traveling alone through the state. He also had two misdemeanor warrants out of Spokane and Blaine, a city on the U.S.-Canada border.

Ali’s ID lists him as being a refugee who immigrated in September 2013. Jeffry Finer, a Spokane lawyer who has agreed to help Ali’s family gather information about his death, said Ali was a student at the Spokane College of English Language.

On Aug. 13, someone complained to the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office that Ali was possibly intoxicated at Swift campground, but he left prior to deputies arriving. The same day, he was arrested by a Cowlitz County sheriff’s deputy while driving westbound on Lewis River Road. He was arrested and booked into the Cowlitz County Jail on suspicion of driving with a suspended license. The rental car he was driving was stolen out of Whatcom County.

On Aug. 15, he was released from jail but trespassed by Longview police from a home on the 1600 block of Eighth Avenue.

At 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, he spoke from the jail intercom system outside the jail and talked to the duty sergeant, though it’s unknown what about. Ali left walking towards Allen Street, and arrived at the Flying K about 1:10 a.m.

According to Kelso police Chief Andy Hamilton, Ali had tried to purchase food but his card was declined and he wanted officers to “fix” the problem.

Hamilton said Ali, dressed in all black and sandals, was carrying a wooden plank described 1 inch thick, 5 inches in width and 30 inches in length. Hamilton said the plank wasn’t the same object police say he used to strike a clerk, customer and Kelso police officer during the fatal encounter later Wednesday morning.

Asked whether the officers observed any mental health or drug-related problems, Hamilton said the officers reported that Ali seemed “perturbed.” It will be several weeks at least before toxicology tests on Ali’s blood are completed.

Just after 2 a.m., Ali was contacted again outside the jail by jail personnel and Longview police, Nelson said.

Hamilton said Kelso officers — Sgt. Rich Fletcher and officer Ken Hochhalter — contacted Ali later that morning at 302 N. Fourth Ave. Someone had called police around 5 a.m. to report that Ali was standing in a yard, looking into windows, according to dispatch records. When Fletcher and Hochhalter arrived at the scene, they asked Ali to drop the wooden plank. He did and the officers seized it.

At 8:01 a.m., he returned to the Flying K and attempted to shoplift. When a clerk insisted he pay for the items, he made some threats to the clerks and left walking west. Kelso police were called and officer John Johnston arrived, according to Nelson.

At 8:15 a.m., while Johnston was viewing store videos in the back of the store, Ali assaulted the clerk and a customer with a 4-foot-long, 1.5-inch thick staff. When Johnston tried to intervene, Ali struck the officer in the head, and Johnston shot him, the sheriff said.

Nelson said he hopes to have a report prepared for the prosecutor’s office by the middle of next week. The prosecutor’s office will decide whether Johnston’s use of lethal force was justified.

Finer, the lawyer, said he’s meeting with Ali’s family Monday.

“Faculty of that (Spokane) program, his teachers were just devastated,” Finer said Friday by phone. “Local friends of the deceased were stunned that this happened and had reached out to civil rights organizations to assist the family to put the pieces together.”

Finer said he will encourage the family to open a probate in order to handle Ali’s affairs and get access to autopsy reports and other evidence.

“Anytime someone dies in custody or while law enforcement is trying to take someone into custody, it may be a justifiable or it may not be, but it often takes more than a quick review to figure it out,” Finer said. “We’ll see what we find.”