Thief slipped onto I-5, out of cops' sight
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If it wasn't so potentially deadly, Tuesday's police crash and shootout by cops chasing a stolen patrol car would sound like an overused slapstick-comedy routine:
Two guys throw punches at a third, but he ducks just in time for the flying fists to hit the wrong jaws.
In less than five minutes, 18-year-old Zachary Davis eluded pursuing officers from downtown Seattle to the north end of Capitol Hill. Then he slipped onto the freeway at just the right moment, ditching the two pursuing police cars that then crashed into one another. The officers in the pursuing cars mistook each other for the car thief and began shooting at one another.
Police leaders remain convinced that the officers who crashed and shot at each other shouldn't be blamed for their mistake.
“They'd just seen him blow through the city and the public-safety risk was high,” said police Lt. Steve Brown, whose squad is investigating the case. “They had to make some decisions, and we had good people acting in good faith, with the best interests of the public in mind.”
Officers in Ealy case
Police yesterday identified the officers involved in the shooting as West Precinct patrolmen Richard Traverso, 49, and his partner Thomas McLaughlin, 37, and East Precinct officer Chris Anderson, 30.
Traverso has been on the force since 1987. McLaughlin joined in February 1998. Anderson got his badge in August 1999.
None of the officers had been involved in a shooting before. But this is the second time Traverso and McLaughlin have been involved in a high-profile case.
Last December, a King County jury cleared the officers in a $1 million wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of Michael Ealy, a black man who died after a struggle with police and an ambulance crew in December 1998.
Ealy's family maintained that the officers used excessive force in restraining Ealy, who was high on cocaine and had a heart condition.
A coroner's inquest also cleared the officers in Ealy's death, but his case has been cited by the African-American community as an example of police brutality, especially amid the controversy surrounding the May 31 police shooting of Aaron Roberts in the Central Area.
Suspect in court
Yesterday, a judge set bail at $25,000 for Davis, the son of a slain policeman, while police leaders begin reviewing procedures to be sure what happened early Tuesday won't happen again.
A handcuffed Davis appeared politely before Judge Mike Hurtado as friends watched solemnly and his family wept.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Erin Becker said authorities worry that Davis might flee if freed.
“The fact that he impersonated a police officer, certainly that's a danger to the community,” she said.
But Davis' lawyer, Albert Rinaldi, instead asked the judge that Davis be released on the condition that he get a mental-health evaluation.
“This is an unusual case,” Rinaldi told the court. “This is not a situation where we have someone who broke in and took something.”
But Hurtado said he was particularly concerned that the theft of the patrol car resulted in a situation “where officers were firing shots at each other.”
Prosecutors said they expected to file felony charges today.
Chase led to shootout
Officers Traverso and McLaughlin spotted Davis in the stolen car at 1:32 a.m., police said. Davis led them up Capitol Hill, then north to Harvard Avenue East near Roanoke Street.
Davis turned down Harvard. Traverso and McLaughlin lost sight of his car for a second.
None of the officers knew that Davis had made a quick left onto a freeway onramp and was speeding north on Interstate 5.
Instead, each mistook the other oncoming patrol car for the suspect. They crashed head-on, then fired at least 20 rounds back and forth. No one was hit. It was 1:37 a.m.
Fewer than 25 seconds passed between the time Traverso and McLaughlin lost sight of the stolen car and the officers reported they were shooting at each other, police Chief of Staff Clark Kimerer said.
“When you're involved in a pursuit, with everything extremely active, it's not easy to hear and this can be a difficult thing,” Kimerer said. “It all was happening very quickly.”
Broken trust
Davis had been treated as something of a little brother to several officers in the North Precinct since his father, Ken Davis, was killed in a car crash in 1995.
He was trusted around the station. He probably took the keys to the patrol car from a secure area of the precinct house, police said. And he probably did it at least twice before.
Now police say they may be forced to limit that kind of trust in the future. Even if it means that other youth like Davis can't be taken in the way he was.
“I hate to do something that hardens us,” Kimerer said. “On the other hand, we have a responsibility, and a pretty awesome authority, that needs to be scrupulously and vigorously monitored and controlled. That's the dilemma.”
Ian Ith can be reached at 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com.