April 4, 2011 in News, City, Legal

Pregnant woman shot by WSP reportedly apologized

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A state trooper who accidentally shot an unarmed pregnant woman during a drug raid in Spokane last fall was emotional in interviews with investigators and was overheard asking why the shot couldn’t have missed.

Sgt. Herbert Lee Slemp recently returned to the Washington State Patrol in an administrative position after prosecutors concluded no criminal charges should be filed against him for the Sept. 24 shooting of Keamia D. Powell, 24.

Slemp had been on paid leave since the shooting, which occurred as he was trying to stop the woman from escaping out a window as she ingested cocaine found in the bedroom.

After Powell was shot, she “reportedly apologized for not listening to the officers and not doing what she had been told,” according to police reports obtained by The Spokesman-Review under the state’s open records laws.

Slemp has said he accidentally fired his gun as he tried to stop Powell from climbing out a bedroom window at the apartment she shared with her mother at 1405 N. Lincoln St. The gun was in his right hand, and he “instinctively” squeezed that hand when reaching for Powell.

Slemp said he didn’t hear the gunshot or feel the gun recoil and didn’t realize Powell had been shot until she rolled over and he saw a gunshot wound on her shoulder.

On the advice of the state Trooper’s Association, Slemp answered only “a limited number of questions during the tactical debriefing” before sitting down for an interview on Sept. 29 while accompanied by his lawyer, Rob Cossey. Slemp declined to allow investigators to record the interview, according to court documents. He also declined to talk to a Spokesman-Review reporter when contacted by cellphone Friday.

WSP is investigating the shooting to determine if Slemp, who was leading the raid as sergeant of the Quad City Drug Task Force, violated department policy.

Reviews of the case by county and city prosecutors eliminated the possibility of assault charges against Slemp because he didn’t intentionally shoot Powell.

Third-degree assault can be filed in cases of criminal negligence, but Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Jack Driscoll said Slemp was not criminally negligent when he didn’t holster his gun.

“It was not a gross deviation from the standard of care, but a reaction to an event,” Driscoll wrote. “He was not in the process of handcuffing, or even initiating the handcuffing procedure with Ms. Powell, but still trying to control the situation.”

Spokane City Prosecutor Mary Muramatsu also declined to charge Slemp with misdemeanor city assault because Slemp did not intentionally shoot Powell.

“Although it is odd that Sgt. Slemp would claim to not have heard his gun discharge, there is no evidence to contradict the veracity of his statement,” Muramatsu wrote.

Muramatsu also declined to pursue reckless endangerment charges because she said there was no evidence that Slemp was handling his weapon in a manner that he knew would create substantial risk.

After Powell was shot, she fell out the window and onto the ground, then looked up at Slemp and told him she “didn’t eat anything,” Slemp told investigators.

“Powell then looked at him with a blank stare,” documents say.

Police say Powell’s wound was not serious, and that while she was “visibly upset and shaken” she was lucid and apologetic.

“She also said she has a drug problem and just can’t stop taking them,” according to court documents. Powell continued to try to ingest cocaine after she was shot and was heard telling police “I’m addicted,” as she lay on the ground bleeding.

Powell delivered her baby at a Spokane hospital the weekend after the shooting and has been charged with four felony drug charges related to the raid. Her mother, Aletha Robinson, also is charged. The child, a boy, was placed in protective state custody.

Other task force members said Slemp was standing in the bedroom “like in a daze” after the shooting.

Colfax police Officer Bryson Aase, who was in the bedroom with Slemp when Powell was shot, said he didn’t see the gun fire but heard the gunshot. He said Powell wasn’t doing anything “particularly alarming” but was not following orders. He said Slemp was standing behind Powell as she tried to climb out the window, leading to the shooting.

When WSP Detective Bryant Blake, a member of the Spokane gang enforcement team, asked him what happened, Slemp replied, “I shot her,” and was escorted outside.

Moscow police Cpl. Rodney Wolverton said “everything got real quiet” after the shot was fired before Robinson asked if someone had shot her dog. Wolverton said “everything seemed to hold tight” for 15 to 20 seconds before someone said, “Let’s get everybody out.”

Wolverton said the only statement Slemp made to him was “Why couldn’t I have … missed?”

13 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  force_vector on April 04 at 6:33 p.m.

  “Slemp said he didn’t hear the gunshot or feel the gun recoil”

  What?

• 

  lowtechmaster on April 04 at 7:23 p.m.

  Disgusting! If he reached for her, his finger should have been off the trigger!!

• 

  oink on April 04 at 7:55 p.m.

  of coarse she apologized… I’d say anything to keep that pig from shooting me again too!!.. She is VERY lucky that they all did not open fire on her.
  I can only hope that trooper Slemp thinks about that shot every time he takes a breath.

  Only If Nobody Knows

• 

  Kivaari on April 04 at 9:09 p.m.

  A negligent discharge just as several of us speculated. It is instinctive to grasp with all fingers and he squeezed the trigger. Oops. Better training required. It is not an uncommon event, but it is an avoidable event. No malice, just careless.

• 

  tedrices on April 04 at 9:27 p.m.

  Unbelievably pitiful comments thus far. You have a police officer doing their job in a dangerous drug bust. A woman in possession of cocaine flees and attempts to climb out of window. The office has no idea she’s pregnant. He attempts to stop her and his gun accidentally discharges. Interesting how there are no comments about why a pregnant woman would be involved in a drug situation, ingesting cocaine to hide it and attempting to climb out of a window. Not what most would do if they were pregnant. Exactly WHO is endangering an unborn child here? NOT the officer. Come on people. She’s clearly a loser and is lucky as far as injuries incurred. She should be charged with endangerment of an unborn child…

• 

  Kivaari on April 04 at 9:34 p.m.

  Not hearing the shot and a warping of time and tunnel vision is common in high stress situations. Three things most commonly reported by officers in a shooting is a slowness, quietness, and tunnel vision. The brain instantly seems to create those sensations. At least the GSW victim admitted that she contributed to her own wounding. She tried downing the drugs and escape. Good thing for her, is the wound was minor, and she delivered her child without problems, she entered treatment and the infant was removed from her care. If she never regains custody of the infant, maybe it will have a chance at a good life.

• 

  mgkazan on April 04 at 9:45 p.m.

  I sympathize very much with the officer primarily because he seems genuinely upset with himself and his instinctual response. He was doing his job, which is to serve and protect Spokane.

  I have a feeling however that if the lady was not pregnant, no one would have cared. The response would have been, a cocaine addicted person trying to get away. The cop shot her, not fatally, and stopped her.

  The fact that her pregnancy makes the story so much different is interesting. This lady is addicted to cocaine while pregnant, and she attempted to jump out of the window! I wonder how the child is doing, I wouldn’t be surprised if the mother’s addiction has given the baby some very serious difficulties.

  The fact that the mother was involved in such heavy drug use that the cops had to raid her house, makes her the true criminal. Had the cop’s shot killed the baby or the mother, I still would not put the blame on him. She could have killed her child with all those drugs (should be tried for attempted murder); put her child in danger (child abuse + negligence).

• 

  bdr on April 04 at 10:10 p.m.

  Im so sorry each and every one of us now has to pay higher TAXES because of this winch and her shooter.

  She walks away Scott free with a healthy born child and a bullet scar ((most gals would be out 20 grand for this service)).

• 

  flutieflakes on April 04 at 10:39 p.m.

  Tennessee v Garner, 1985:
  http://supreme.justia.com/us/471/1/case.html

  “Such (deadly) force may not be used unless necessary to prevent the escape and the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.”

  This lady obviously isn’t on the up-and-up, is likely facing a lengthy prison sentence for distribution/trafficking cocaine, and has no business raising a child at this point… but she’s gonna sue the state, and she’s probably going win. Or maybe they cut a deal that keeps her out of prison and the State out of court. Am I right?

• 

  Scoutster on April 04 at 10:55 p.m.

  Her circumstances, her history, her addictions, her dish soap is of no relevance to the shooting.

  Training issue. Put it to rest and move on.

  (As noted earlier, it is funny to have Sgt. Slemp say “she said she was sorry” after he shoots her. I mean, I would have said ANYTHING, too.)

• 

  bszottlinger on April 05 at 6:48 a.m.

  Scoutster:

  Good call! All the training in the world isn’t going to prevent mistakes and negligence from happening in any profession. What is refreshing in this case is that there is no effort on the part of the officer to come up with any kind of justification that would have covered his negligence. Just the honest without equivocation “I screwed up”. I don’t know what more one could ask.

  The only way this young lady is going to get any kind of a large settlement is if she can prove that the training this officer received was so lacking or egregious that it was a significant factor in the negligence.

  Plea deal, small settlement, if any, and it’s over except for the officer who has to live with it for the rest of his life and the young lady who hopefully will change her life around and each time she looks at her scars will remember the direction her life was once heading.

• 

  eagleproducer on April 05 at 7:29 a.m.

  mgkazan: Another casualty in the failed War on Drugs. Oh, and I feel so much safer with the face masked thugs of the “Quad Cities” drug task force roaming our region.

  What they should call it is the “War on Poor People and Folks of Color.”

• 

  mikeln on April 05 at 7:45 a.m.

  A person should never be shot because of drug use. The war on drugs has not done what it was supposed to do, make us safer, in fact it has made us less safe. If that shot had missed, gone into another persons house and killed a baby, what then? End this expensive, worthless war on the american people and end it before more innocent people die.