Shot man denies taking truck

Two days after an off-duty Spokane police officer shot a man he claimed was stealing his truck, the man’s attorney is saying his client only asked the officer for a ride.

Officer James “Jay” Olsen will be interviewed this morning for the first time since the shooting, officials said. Detectives’ attempts to interview Olsen on Tuesday were not successful.

The 27-year-old man who was shot in the head was released from a hospital on Tuesday, said Spokane County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan. No charges have been filed against the man in connection with the truck theft, Reagan said, because the investigation has not been completed.

The shooting occurred after Olsen left Dempsey’s Brass Rail, a downtown bar. Olsen claimed he saw a man stealing his truck and chased after him in a friend’s car.

But the shooting victim, through his attorney, David Partovi, told a much different story than Olsen about the events leading up to the shooting.

The shooting victim, who still has not been identified, told his attorney he was dropped off downtown by a friend who couldn’t take him all the way home early Monday.

The man was walking past a truck, which was running, and peeked in the window, said Partovi, who is with Maxey Law Offices and was hired Monday by the shooting victim.

When the truck’s driver acknowledged the man, the man asked if he could have a ride home. The driver told him to go away.

The shooting victim could not recall what street he was on when he came upon the truck, Partovi said. Dempsey’s two outside cameras facing east and west were reviewed by bar management who said Olsen’s truck could not be seen.

After the man was told to go away, the truck’s driver followed the man in a “harassing manner,” Partovi said, and when the man reached an embankment along Riverside Avenue, he went down it thinking the truck would be unable to follow.

But the truck’s driver jumped out and chased after him. When Partovi’s client reached the bottom of the hill, in the Peaceful Valley neighborhood, he turned around and threw his hands up, and that’s when five bullets were fired from a gun, Partovi said.

The man ran to a house on the corner of Cedar and Clarke, but no one answered. The residents in the second home he went to called 911 at 3:43 a.m.

The blood trail marked by investigators on Monday backed the man’s story about his path to seek help. Partovi said his client had a bullet in his skull, but surgeons were able to pull it out.

Said Partovi, “I am trying keep him from getting accused of a crime he didn’t commit.”

Searchers found multiple shell casings on the embankment between Riverside and Main avenues, sheriff’s spokesman Reagan confirmed Tuesday. Investigators also searched Olsen’s truck.

The shooting victim was interviewed briefly after the shooting, Reagan said.

“I don’t know to what extent the detectives have interviewed the man who was shot,” Reagan said. “We have asked the victim to call us again, which he hasn’t.”

Olsen is on paid administrative leave. He will likely remain on leave until criminal and police internal investigations are complete, said Spokane police Officer Jennifer DeRuwe.