Spokane7
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October 28, 2010 in City
Sheriff’s deputy in shooting named
Officer says man threatened him with knife, yelled ‘shoot me’
Olson
(Full-size photo)
The Spokane County sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a man Sunday night in Spokane Valley was identified Wednesday as Rustin Olson.
Olson, who was involved in a nonfatal police shooting last November, has been with the Sheriff’s Office since March 2006 and began his law enforcement career in August 1998 with the Weber State University Police in Utah.
In an interview with investigators on Tuesday, Olson said he shot Quentin D. Dodd, 50, after Dodd yelled “shoot me, shoot me, shoot me,” then tried to stab Olson and charged at him.
Olson and Deputy Todd Miller had spotted Dodd dressed in black and carrying an obsidian knife on Valleyway Avenue near Progress Road, about a block from the halfway house where Dodd was staying at 507 N. Sommer Road.
Dodd repeatedly yelled at Miller to shoot him and refused the deputy’s commands to drop the knife. Dodd continued walking west and ignored commands made over the police public-address system to drop the knife.
Olson and Miller exited their patrol cars, and Dodd held the weapon over his head and made a stabbing motion toward Olson. Dodd again ignored commands to drop the knife and threatened to stab Olson while repeating “shoot me,” police said.
Dodd ran toward Olson, paused when he was about 10 feet away, “then aggressively charged at Ofc. Olson, who was attempting to retreat,” according to a news release from the Spokane Police Department, which is investigating the incident.
“When Dodd was within 6 to 8 feet of Ofc. Olson, Ofc. Olson fired his duty weapon three times, striking Dodd. Dodd fell to the ground, and while Ofc. Miller provided cover, Ofc. Olson was able to handcuff Dodd,” according to the news release.
Dodd, who was reported to be suicidal in July, was pronounced dead at a hospital. Witnesses told police Dodd had used drugs in the past few days but weren’t certain if he was high on Sunday.
Deputies had responded to the Sommer Road duplex a day earlier, after a roommate complained about Dodd’s music being too loud. Deputies persuaded Dodd to turn down the music without incident, police said Wednesday.
Olson was involved in a shooting on Nov. 28 at an apartment at 8910 E. Broadway Ave. Olson and Deputy Ryan Walter shot Donald Lafavor after Lafavor opened his apartment door with a gun pointed at the deputies.
“Deputy Olson thought Walter was about to be killed,” according to an investigative report, which The Spokesman-Review obtained through a public records request. “He stated his only thought was to draw his gun.”
Walter drew his gun, too, and fired eight shots. Olson fired three.
Three struck Lafavor, who was released from a hospital about three weeks later. He was charged with two counts of second-degree assault for allegedly pointing a gun at the deputies.
Walter later told investigators: “I’m glad we have good training.”
Olson was a police officer in Heber, Utah, and in Ogden, Utah, before joining the Sheriff’s Office. Miller worked for the Moscow (Idaho) Police Department from December 1999 until March 2007, when he joined the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
Human trafficking suspects released 
lewis8457 on October 28 at 7:35 a.m.
The only reason they did not kill the guy in his door way was they must be real bad shots and the other officers gun jammed. Good for Olson he must have been going to the shooting range. he can hit someone at 6 feet, kind of sounds like shoot em at arms length Hirzel.
valleyman on October 28 at 8:13 a.m.
Get some help lewis… you are a sick person…
D Statler on October 28 at 8:39 a.m.
EXCESSIVE FORCE is EXCESSIVE FORCE ! Please step in anytime Federal Marshals !
Ron_the_Cop on October 28 at 8:46 a.m.
There is an early posting of this article with 49 comments:
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/oct/27/deputy-identified-sunday-shooting/
misjustice on October 28 at 9:51 a.m.
http://www.kxly.com/news/25542535/detail.html
Link goes to pic of the “knife”. The pic of the rock, er knife, that SR previously had up has not been included in story updates.
valleyman on October 28 at 11:51 a.m.
misjustice - Have you forgotten that humankind used obsidian knives, arrowheads, and spears for thousands of years to kill animals and each other with great success?
Just because it wasn’t a modern ,shiny knife, doesn’t mean it wasn’t potentially just as deadly…
misjustice on October 28 at 12:27 p.m.
Have you looked at the pic of the hunk of obsidian, I’m sorry, knife? I had a difficult time even seeing where it had been “fashioned” into a knife-like item; could just be the pic…
I have pieces of obsidian in my rock collection that are more dangerous than that hunk of rock. Of course, I’m sure that the officer was terrified. I mean, all he had was a gun. And armed back up.
Thoreau on October 28 at 12:56 p.m.
The police served this man’s request: “shoot me.”
The police protected others in the vicinity.
The police have served and protected. They did their job.
lewis8457 on October 28 at 1:57 p.m.
I have some obsidian in a rock collection too and some of the pieces would cause a nasty scratch. And we all know scratches do get infected. Although the police do have golden health insurance, but then we don’t want a officer getting hurt do we?
Lets see scratch or a mans life? Scratch, life? Come on just shoot him its almost break time. blam, blam, blam.
Ed Byrnes on October 28 at 8:20 p.m.
Since I was not there I have no idea of what the lighting was like but I have an opinion about this case now. If the obsidian “knife” shown in the photograph accompanying the previous article about this matter is the weapon that concerned this deputy, it seems that exercising some more restraint would not have harmed anyone and may have saved a life.
It would seem that a reasonable person could rationally react to this news with increased fear and mistrust toward local law enforcement. I don’t like this situation at all, though I am hoping that as more of us citizens speak up about the widening chasm between us and those who are supposed to protect us we will at least create a climate where our political and civic leaders cannot ignore this growing community problem.
If our political leaders won’t act in our interest then it is upon us citizens to place a local initiative on the ballot that requires direct and public citizen review of any and all local law enforcement use of lethal or potentially lethal force against anyone, and to campaign hard to ensure its passage.
I want us to heal our community and have seen first hand how much transparency facilitates healing. I am not against anyone and I am for peace and justice.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on October 28 at 11:40 p.m.
Wandering and wondering from London… as I read this if a Taser was available and accessible? Might have been an option? Gus
cpd805 on October 29 at 9:27 a.m.
Ed, After looking at the knife….if it was sharpened on the end (and everyone who actually saw it says it was), it is a dangerous, and depending on how it is used, deadly weapon. You, being a Ph.D like you have said in the past, must be a somewhat intelligent person. To look at that knife and then say that “exercising some more restraint would not have harmed anyone” is either ignorant (which I do not think you are) or very, very biased. How can anyone intelligently and responsibly say that it WOULD NOT HAVE HARMED ANYONE.
I have seen in just the past 2 years many people injured and 3 people dead because of knives considerably SMALLER than this one. All it takes is one swoop of the blade to the neck and you are dead. It takes a fraction of a second, and does not take a lot of force. With anyone charging at you with this knife, to try to be the “tough guy” and physically confront them would be an incredibly foolhardy, stupid thing to do….
disgusted on October 31 at 8:58 a.m.
It just doesn’t matter what the circumstances surrounding this shooting was 20ft, 8ft, 4ft, shoot me, shoot me it doesn’t matter it’s just publicity smoke to win public favor of a unjustifiable homicide in hopes to build a biased jury
I don’t think jurors this time are going to be convinced this person could possibly be a threat to anyone with his little killer assault rock
Fact is TWO of the valleys finest officers 200lb each (or about) had to shoot to kill a 100lb 50 year old in poor health with a rock!
Nope this one does not look remotely justifiable at ALL unless
due to budget short falls the sheriff’s department can only afford deputies from Mayberry or the citizen himself had 60 round clips for the rock. If not one of the two then it’s just another lawless execution in Spokane
cpd805 on October 31 at 12:22 p.m.
Sure, Disgusted….as if the MATERIAL the knife was made out of is an issue. Any hard material sharpened into a blade is a knife, whether the material is rock, steel, glass, etc.
If someone, even if they are 120 lbs (everyone likes to downplay the guy’s size and up-play his “sickliness”), is charging at you with the knife, are you supposed to do an Austin Powers judo chop? Maybe a Bruce Lee “Waaaaaaaa” roundhouse kick? I know, the Deputy was supposed to call “time out”, re-holster his gun, unholster his taser, and taze him (which has a high failure rate on moving targets as both probes have to make contact) within the fraction of a second it would take the guy to cover the 6-8 feet. Or better yet, go to the patrol car’s trunk, get the shotgun for beanbag rounds, have 2 officers visually inspect the gun to determine there is no live ammo, both officers then visually inspect the beanbag rounds to ensure that they are, in fact, beanbag rounds, and one officer load the gun with the other witnessing that (this is a standard protocol for using beanbag rounds).
Point is, less lethal options are a good tool…but they are only useful in situations where there is time to plan its use and there are available back up options in the case of failure, which is relatively high. In the case where you contact someone in the middle of the street, and they start charging at you with a knife, the only options are deadly force, or a physical tactics confrontation. A physical confrontation with someone attacking you with a knife is foolhardy and just plain foolish.
People need to realize when they watch police dramas on TV where officers use fancy Hollywood physical tactic to disarm suspects, shoot guns out of people’s hands, etc., it is not reality. Sorry, but if someone is literally charging at me with a knife, I will do what I have to do to go home to my family without any extra holes in me.
disgusted on October 31 at 1:59 p.m.
It just doesn’t matter what the circumstances surrounding this shooting was 20ft, 8ft, 4ft, shoot me, shoot me it doesn’t matter it’s just publicity smoke to win public favor of a unjustifiable homicide in hopes to build a biased jury
I don’t think jurors this time are going to be convinced this person could possibly be a threat to anyone with his little killer assault rock
Fact is TWO of the valleys finest officers 200lb each (or about) had to shoot to kill a 100lb 50 year old in poor health with a rock!
Nope this one does not look remotely justifiable at ALL unless
due to budget short falls the sheriff’s department can only afford deputies from Mayberry or the citizen himself had 60 round clips for the rock. If not one of the two then it’s just another lawless execution in the streets of Spokane
• This is actually a scary situation all our lives depends on weather or not if we are liked by the Spokane Taliban
cpd805 on October 31 at 2:42 p.m.
Yup, you said it all when you wrote: “It just doesn’t matter what the circumstances surrounding this shooting was”
That is the problem, regardless of the circumstances, it is never justified in some (your) eyes. That is OK with me; there is no need to educate or convince anyone with such a narrow, extreme view.
disgusted on November 01 at 12:45 p.m.
cpd805 From the dates of the events in this article (not to mention your picture choice) compared to the date of your first post in this forum this puts you still on susspention pending your investagation results. Better get back to your job to sway the publics opion us taxpayers don’t want you sitting around doing nothing on our dollar and for the record you apear to suck at this too. If it looks like a pig and it smells like a pig then yes it’s a pig
Creach family hires forensic expert - Spokesman.com - Oct. 22, 2010
Oct 22, 2010 … The shooting was investigated by members of the Spokane Police ….. CPD805 is a police officer whose badge number is 805 - my guess. …
www.spokesman.com/stories/…/creach-family-hires-forensic-experts/
The family of Pastor Wayne Scott Creach said Friday that a key piece of evidence in his death has been compromised – the squad car driven by the Spokane County sheriff’s deputy who shot him.
Creach’s son, Alan Creach, said the family asked that all evidence in the Aug. 25 shooting be preserved, but officials allowed Deputy Brian Hirzel’s unmarked patrol car to return to service within 24 hours.
The family hired a forensics expert to perform blood and gunshot residue tests on the inside and outside of the car after officials refused to tell them what tests they had conducted, Alan Creach said.
The results detected gunshot residue on the inside of the car but Creach said it’s too late to indicate whether Hirzel was inside his car when he shot Wayne Creach.
“The community needed to see what we have run up against,” Creach said. “Within just a few hours they had already taken one of the largest key pieces of evidence and begun the process of destroying it”
But Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said the car had already been processed for evidence and was no longer necessary for the investigation when it returned to patrol Aug. 27. Creach’s family didn’t request evidence be preserved until Sept. 26.
“Once it’s processed, there’s really nothing left as evidentiary value for our purposes,” Knezovich said. “If they feel the need for an outside investigator to look at evidence, that’s up to them. But you have some very competent people who have done this investigation.”
The shooting was investigated by members of the Spokane Police Department and Washington State Patrol. The investigation has been sent to Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker, who said he is awaiting additional forensic tests before making a decision on whether to charge Hirzel, who has returned to work for administrative duties.
Hirzel told investigators he was parked in the lot of Creach’s Spokane Valley nursery business, 14208 E. Fourth Ave., when he saw Creach, 74, approach with a gun. Creach was a checking on a suspected prowler, his family said.
Hirzel said he got out of his car and told Creach to get down on the ground, then struck him with a baton on his knee when he refused. Hirzel said he fired when he saw the butt of Creach’s pistol.
Alan Creach said his father was taking a 325 mg daily dose of aspirin to thin his blood, which caused him to bruise easily. But the autopsy showed no mark on Creach’s knee; no fibers from Creach’s pants were found on Hirzel’s baton and no crush marks were found in Creach’s pants to indicate any type of baton strike.
Alan Creach said Thursday that an autopsy shows his father was shot at a downward, 66-degree angle.
“What the officer says differs dramatically from what the evidence at the scene says,” Creach said.
Knezovich said the FBI has been following the case; he disputed Creach’s claim that investigation has been incomplete.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/oct/22/creach-family-hires-forensic-experts/
Elloki on November 01 at 3:54 p.m.
Just imagine, if people would put down your gun or knife when the police tell you to - you’d be home! I feel bad for the officer who has to deal with this for the rest of his life, but that was the decision made by the bad guy. It’s simple folks - drop your weapons when the police tell you, is that so hard? If your going to approach a police officer with a gun in hand or knife, expect him to respond accordingly, you’re an idiot of you don’t.
Ed Byrnes on November 01 at 8:48 p.m.
cpd805: Thank you for your thoughtful message to me on October 29th at 9:27 a.m. I am grateful that our conversation is about evidence as best as either of us knows it.
I agree that I did not physically see the knife and based my assessment on photographic rather than direct evidence. Because of this I do not have any direct evidence to base my conclusion on. I also would not ask anybody to be harmed, law enforcement members and citizens alike, since my faith tells me that we are all brothers and sisters regardless of our roles in society.
Part of the problem that I am beginning to see in these forums is that people on either side of the important issue of the relationship between citizens and law enforcement arrive at judgments based on our own experiences. This could be citizens asserting that law enforcement is always wrong or law enforcement members asserting that citizens don’t ever understand anything. Regrettably this too often, and for me one time is one time too often, regresses into stereotyping each other, which as you and I know, turns what could be dialogue with each other into monologues at each other.
You took a step with me toward meaningful dialogue. I think we could both reasonably acknowledge that there is a serious and growing problem in our community between citizens and law enforcement members. I am hoping that you and I can set an example of open discussion without the necessity of always agreeing on everything immediately. I am open to your ideas about how law enforcement and citizens can bridge this emerging gap between us and heal our community.
Ed
disgusted on November 02 at 10:30 a.m.
Everybody automatically assumes this citizen had a knife the more you read the stories to this encounter the more one starts to realize this is highly unlikely and this is why
I gave some thought to the weapon in question this is what made me think this citizen only had a set of keys instead. The impact of 3ea. 40 caliber bullets would create a tremendous shock wave to the body of this citizen not just once but 3 times
This citizen was gunned down in the middle of a hard surfaced paved road if he had this brittle easy to chip to shape stone how did it possibly it survive this ordeal in tact? It had to be either in his pocket or not on him at all. The thrust from the three shockwaves would have dislodged it from his hand at an accelerated rate nope this is highly improbable
This would explain why it took so long to find the weapon at the time of the shooting they forgot to look through all this dead citizen’s pockets or they just walked around until they found a rock that would closely resemble a weapon to justify this shooting
No this person was not dangling a rock above his head at all how does one dangle a rock in a threatening manor?
You would have to hold it loosely with the tip of both your index finger and the tip of your thumb now ask yourselves does this sound like something anybody would do in an assault type situation highly unlikely.
Not to mention the rock has a very rough surface all the way around this would make it impossible to establish a adequate smooth surface area to even make this dangling action. go outside and locate a partially rounded rock with a rough textured surface and try this yourselves holding it over your head standing in front of a mirror I did this experiment myself my rock wouldn’t pivot correctly at all I had to assist it with my other hand because it kept getting stuck there was no smooth rounded surface area to make this even possible and from the picture of the weapon in question this looks highly unlikely. Still standing in front of the mirror try to make this action look treating pretty funny isn’t it bet you didn’t think you could look that stupid huh and bear in mind while you are doing this it was a 4 min encounter?
Now dangling a set of keys to show he had no knife or rock makes more since everybody dangles keys
Yet another but most obvious point the extreme variations of this story as it was unfolding why if it was a legitimate shoot would both departments keep changing their story?
The answer to this is when a officer gets suspended in both depts. They make these officers embed themselves into the public forums to sway the opinions of the members of that community.
When they see they can not control the outrage of the members they alter the story. This can be easily detected by any member of these communities by just researching the dates the members in question joined and compare this date to the time of the previous story you will quickly find who that suspended officer is. We all have heard the saying for every lie we tell it takes another 10 to get out of it well it looks as though this old wives tale is true and both departments are experiencing this problem. Try experimenting with this yourselves a prime example would be such as this person cpd850 start with his profile first. See how easy it is
These suspended officers new job is to insure that these mentally unstable officers can quickly return to the population as soon as possible as in this case
And finally as I stated before there is the fact that two not just one of the sheriffs finest deputies 200 lbs or better were terrified of a 100lb 50 year old person lucky to walk much less able to charge armed with a rock. This point alone just totally astounds me alone
disgusted on November 02 at 10:37 a.m.
And now I’ve been informed the witnesses are being intimidated and threaten by our loving caring police officers how is that not even obstruction there are people out that have lived through this themselves what are they going to do if all these people should decide to join these forums and speak out are they all wrong highly unlikely and besides these police officers should also be subject to lie detector test themselves conducted by outside sources and not between these closely imbedded departments because they shot this citizen down in what appears to be a highly questionable shooting!
I will try to keep you informed as more details or events take place Thank you
Ed Byrnes on November 02 at 2:11 p.m.
disgusted: As you have read from many of my postings I strongly support law enforcement transparency and accountability so please share more details about this alleged witness intimidation at the hands of police officers. That kind of thing is very serious and should be brought before the public immediately.
You will have observed that cpd805 and I have initiated a dialogue between us, and my commitment to law enforcement transparency and accountability remains the same, and I believe that healing our community requires participation from law enforcement as well as citizens.
The whole reason for transparency is to strengthen trust which will move our community toward healing, so both us citizens and law enforcement members need to be transparent.
cpd805 on November 02 at 3:34 p.m.
Jeez disgusted, nice theory. Completely implausible (there were non-LE witnesses to his possession of the knife), but very creative. By the way, I have already said in these discussions that I am a law enforcement officer (not on suspension either, never shot anyone before, hope I never have to). 805 is NOT my badge number and CPD is NOT an acronym for my employer. I joined the forums in September because of the rediculous things being said regarding police incidents. Some you just can’t let go unchecked. Speaking of which……
I’d love to hear any evidence or corroboration on any witness intimidation that you are accusing officers of doing…..sorry….that has “been brought to” your “attention”. Do you have any evidence of this or you just planting “mud seeds” in hopes that some of the more gullible will pass it along as the truth?
Ed Byrnes on November 02 at 4:38 p.m.
I support cpd805 in requesting evidence for disgusted’s allegations just as I, a fellow citizen, have also requested this.
Here is the thing, each and every one of us has to commit to transparency and accountability with each other whether we are a citizen or a law enforcement officer. Us citizens cannot offer unfounded statements and then criticize law enforcement statements as being unfounded.
The whole idea for healing our community is for us to join together on an equal footing as human beings. This must happen one interaction at a time and viewing each other as human beings, fallible and open to correction in a direct and transparent way, is the starting point I am hoping for.
Perhaps if we begin living the change we want to see in this small corner of the world - SR forums - we can stimulate broader change in our attitudes toward each other.