Spokane7
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July 13, 2011 in City
Fatal police shooting outside Shari’s ruled justified
Ethan A. Corporon is seen in this 2009 photo provided by the Washington Department of Corrections.
(Full-size photo)
Police were justified when they shot and killed a 29-year-old man who was running with a shotgun outside a busy Spokane restaurant last fall, the Spokane County prosecutor’s office has ruled.
Ethan A. Corporon fired six shots at a home at 1402 W. Buckeye Ave. on Nov. 12 before fleeing police and abandoning his father’s pickup in the middle of southbound Monroe Street in front of Shari’s restaurant. Witnesses at the time said Corporon appeared to be firing the shotgun while running from officers, though a police investigation determined Corporon never fired but did refuse to drop the weapon.
Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jack Driscoll said Corporon’s refusal to drop the shotgun gave police legitimate concerns for their own safety and the safety of others.
Corporon’s sister, Tracey Corporon, told police her brother had severe mental health problems and feared someone was molesting his daughter. She said he began using large amounts of LSD and other hallucinogens in 2007 and began getting tattoos of aliens and space ships. She said her brother wasn’t taking medications for mental illness and told her a day before he was killed that the president was inside his home watching him.
Corporon received Social Security money for his mental disability and also grew and sold marijuana, friends and family told police.
Police say Corporon had only marijuana in his system when he died.
According to the investigation, which was obtained by The Spokesman-Review under the state’s public records law, several witnesses reported hearing police repeatedly tell Corporon to drop his weapon. One witness said Corporon had a “huge smile on his face” as he exited his pickup and seemed calm “as if being pursued and shot at by officers was no big deal,” according to a report by sheriff’s Detective Tim Hines.
Officer Daniel Cole fired one shot at Corporon after Corporon exited his car and began approaching the front doors of the restaurant with the shotgun. Cole fired three additional shots while chasing Corporon. Officer Bruce Palmer fired a single shot; Cpl. Mike McNab fired two, Officer Bill Hager fired five, Officer Doug Strosahl fired two shots; and Officer Kyle Heuett, who was armed with a .223-caliber AR-15 instead of a .40 Glock pistol, fired 12.
Corporon collapsed and died on the lawn west of a Spokane Tribe of Indians building at North Madison Street and West Indiana Avenue. An autopsy determined he was shot twice – once in the right buttock and once in the right mid- to upper back area.
In a written statement, Cole said he believed the risk of Corporon shooting into traffic outweighed any risk he was taking by firing his gun. Cole said he was disappointed that his first shot had missed because it still allowed Corporon the opportunity to enter the restaurant.
“His entering Shari’s would have been a nightmarish scenario,” Cole wrote. Cole said a news release issued the day of the shooting that described Corporon as “walking” around the restaurant was inaccurate.
“He was a dead run on my first two shots, or I probably would not have missed,” Cole wrote.
Witness Todd Oberst told police he was driving east on Indiana approaching Monroe when he saw Corporon with the shotgun, according to reports.
Oberst said he was initially concerned that he could have been shot by police but that “the officers told him that they never would have shot him, that they are trained for these types of situations,” according to a report by sheriff’s Detective Brad Gilbert.
Oberst later thanked the officers for saving his life.
“(Corporon) was pointing at me as though he was probably going to commandeer my truck,” Oberst said in a phone message to Gilbert. “I think if the police weren’t so quickly to be on his trail, he probably would have … I strongly believe they probably saved my life and probably deserve medals.”
Human trafficking suspects released 
horse_feathers on July 13 at 2:46 p.m.
Hope these officers have spent some well needed time at the range since the shooting as they only hit him 2 out of 26 shots.
detroitdude on July 13 at 3:02 p.m.
Although this sounds like they probably were justified, are we ever going to see the SPD admit to being wrong about anything? Ever?? And 26 shots?? WTF? I’ll also assume that if the flurry of bullets from those officers had hit and killed a pedestrian or someone in the wrong place at the wrong time these porkers would still not be in trouble.
PhiltheBibliophil on July 13 at 3:26 p.m.
“I thought I smelt Bacon!”
Byrdie714 on July 13 at 3:48 p.m.
26 shots divided by 6 police officers doing the shooting equals to 4.33333 bullets on this individual.
The police had a record on this guy as it stated, “Corporon was a convicted felon with a long history of suicide attempts and mental illness, including psychosis and bipolarity.” Why couldn’t they get a psychologist on scene to negotiate with this gentleman?
Oh—that’s right. This is SPD we are talking about……
Jesus! That’s a lot of officers and bullets to take down one individual.
That is way too excessive.
Hcklbery on July 13 at 4:02 p.m.
Shooting at the range can only do so much in this area as the targets do not shot back.
My experience is that you are either cool and settled at such intense moments as a fire fight or you are not.
Simple as that.
I don’t know why, but it is true, some people go to pieces or are fighting within themselves not to fall apart while others seem to shine like they were made for just such a moment as this.
It is kinda weird to see it unfold but it is never more real than at that precise moment when bullets start to flying around or situations that are equally as intense without the bullets but the threat of it being palpable.
That is when you will see the men and the wannabees in stark contrast one from the other.
I’ve seen it happen.
Kivaari on July 13 at 4:24 p.m.
Call a shrink? Seriously? They may have fired 26 shots between 6 officers. From what range? No one else was hurt, were they? There must have been a safe or safer back stop.
No harm no foul, if the bad guy went down and no innocents were hurt.
Pilewort54 on July 13 at 6:21 p.m.
Huckleberry just may have said the most sage thing I’ve ever read on this bombastically reactionary slugfest called “comments.” Nice work,
Time and time again this agency has shown it has no clue which end of the gun projects the bullet. Ozzie’s crew seems to be surgically precise, SPD is Don Knotts and Maxwell Smart.
The all time king of Spokane area marsksmam was the guy who nailed the freak who shot up the Fairchild health clinic. If I recal, some glorious airman took out an assualt rifle whacko at 100 yards with a 45.
Huckleberry, we have found your man. I don’t recall his name.
Spokane_Citizen on July 13 at 6:28 p.m.
This one worked out the way it should have….and anybody who thinks it’s easy to hit a hostile, moving, and armed target with a handgun has never spent time on a handgun range…let alone firing one with adrenaline pumping. Essentially, saturation fire did its sad but necessary job….and if the officers hadn’t utilized overwhelming lethal force, and he managed to hurt some innocent bystanders, the naysayers would all be criticizing the PD for letting this obviously dangerous guy get away.
Kivaari on July 13 at 6:30 p.m.
Pile, It was a M9 Beretta 9mm. I think it was about 75 yards.
reservedparking on July 13 at 7:13 p.m.
Sr. Airman Andy Brown. 4 shots fired, 1 hit its target. Approx. 70 yards. June 20, 1994.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFjBOeSfNLI
D Statler on July 13 at 7:18 p.m.
The safe backstop happened to be homes in the neighborhood and a daycare school that luckily was empty at the exact time of the target practice session. These goofs were extremely lucky nobody was injured besides the crazy. I’m sorry,I have to agree, These keystone cops are dangerous!
crazyivan44 on July 13 at 7:20 p.m.
Once again gotta love the comments from the wannabe peanut gallery that think they are all Wyatt Earp and could have done better. If you can do better go sign up with the department and go through 1000’s hours of training and deal with people’s crap all day while your life is on the line, otherwise shut up.
Thanks to those that dedicate their lives keeping us safe.
oink on July 13 at 8:53 p.m.
Unfortunatley the 1000’s of hours of training is in how to cover yer butt. The guild provides that training, and the mouthpieces to insure that they (the leo’s) get to enjoy thier PAID VACATIONS.
This Shoot em up probably is why the LEO’S aka L (law) E (enforcement) O (officer) ‘S (‘S) have not shot the crap out of a citizen recently.
But if we give the Guild too much poo poo kaka they will instruct the rank and file to lock and load and take the safety off.
Is “Kill at will the motto” of the SPD or is it “stay out of jail at the expence of the taxpayers”
once again Who is paying for Thompson’s legal team….not the guild…… it’s you and me.
Sponsered by vote for Verner inc????
de3 on July 13 at 9:21 p.m.
Does this mean the 8 month paid vacation is over for the six officers?
PlanB on July 13 at 10:49 p.m.
Why is the response always “start shootin’”?
arroyoribera on July 14 at 10:50 p.m.
I remember sitting at a SPARC (Spokane Police Accountability group) meeting in the Spokane Tribal offices shortly after this wild police shooting spree happened. We were discussing that shooting and a member of the Native American community mentioned that a nearby house had also been hit. In addition we were reminded by tribal members that had not the day of the shooting been a state furlough day students would have been sitting in that very room in a class taught by Community Colleges of Spokane faculty. On the day of our SPARC meeting the windows on the north side of the Spokane Tribe office had not yet been repaired. At one point in the meeting I referred to the fact that students could have been killed and turned to look at the window, noting that the bullet holes in the window were exactly where the two of us sitting right in front of the holes — journalist and Center for Justice communications director Tim Connor and me — would have been killed had the shooting occurred just then. (For more on Connor and the Center for Justice, go to http://cforjustice.org/ )
These two 2002 KPBX interviews, running from the 6 min 55 sec mark in the audio file until the 11 min, 26 second mark http://www.kpbx.org/audio/otr02/110otr.ram
— though clearly off the mark, as subsequent events over several years have made clear — suggest the naivete of Spokane, its journalistic community, and its citizenry about the nature of its police and their ways of justifying their cowboy tendencies.
At the time of the two reports in 2002, the SPD was claiming — and the KPBX reporter buying — that police involved shootings were as rare as lightning strikes. Not long after the reports, SPD shootings and killings of citizens began to be much more frequent, such that not long ago the theory surfaced that police involved shootings — rather than being as rare as lightning — come in “clusters”.
So which is it? Rare as lightning or coming in clusters? In either case the trend from rare as lightning to coming in clusters does not bode well for the citizens of Spokane.
David Brookbank