Spokane7
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July 14, 2009 in City
Five officers on leave after man’s fatal shooting
Three were involved; two were witnesses
The fatal shooting of a man armed with a butcher knife Friday in northeast Spokane involved three senior police officers with a combined 35 years of experience in the Spokane Police Department.
Kellee Gately, Jeff McCollough and Jason Curtis are on paid administrative leave after Jason M. Poss, 23, was shot and killed Friday in the 1800 block of East Courtland Avenue.
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office released the officers’ names Monday.
The office is investigating the incident, which is standard when city police officers are involved in a fatal shooting.
Officers Ray Harding and Paul Aspaas, who witnessed the shooting, also are on paid leave, said Dave Chandler, the city’s human resources director.
Family members wrote messages on a memorial for Poss near near the scene of the shooting on East Courtland Avenue. Poss was a 2004 Rogers High School graduate.
“A piece of my heart died with you. I will love you for eternity,” said one, signed “Your Mom.”
Poss was shot after he broke into a woman’s home, beat her with a skateboard and stabbed her pit bull, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Poss left the home and encountered the officers on East Courtland Avenue, where he lunged with a knife at one officer in a patrol car, police said.
Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan would not say which officer was in the car and which two officers shot at Poss.
Gately has been a hostage negotiator for 18 years and joined the department in September 1990.
She’s been a tactical team member for six years and teaches crisis intervention team classes for the department, the Sheriff’s Office said.
McCollough was hired in August 1999 and works as a field training officer.
Curtis joined the department in August 2001 after five years at the Reno Police Department and is a member of the tactical team and chemical agent response team.
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Bob_Knows on July 14 at 8:32 a.m.
That’s the standard policy. Whenever one of their gang of gun thugs in blue kills a citizen he is rewarded with additional paid vacating.
Need a few days off with pay to go fishing? Just gun down another citizen and collect the reward.
Seems to me that a good swing at the end of a short rope would be more appropriate.
lewis8457 on July 14 at 9:01 a.m.
That is why they get away with it every time gives them all time to get together and get their story straight.
yumagene on July 14 at 1:54 p.m.
I think the common sense self-defense move when someone lunges at you with a knife while you are sitting in your car is to roll up the window and move your car/self away from danger.
Yet if you are a cop, you are allowed, statutorily, to ignore common sense and blast away.
ilikecops on July 14 at 3:28 p.m.
Don’t pay any attention to these idiots posting, they’re clueless.
Good job officers.
Bob_Knows on July 14 at 4:22 p.m.
They use their Tasers only to torture motorists. When 30 of them surround a man holding a knife, the Tasers are ignored. Its a chance to kill, and they all want to get into the killing. “Make my Day!” “Shoot him a few more times while he’s face down on the ground. Don’t leave any witnesses alive.”
Mayor Whiner’s gun thugs need to be run out of town on a rail.