At the memorial service for Otto Zehm, questions arose about the circumstances surrounding the death of the 36-year-old mentally ill man who had a run-in with police officers at a Spokane convenience store.

Those questions resonate beyond family and friends. The community needs a fuller explanation for what happened on that tragic day and why police were still pursuing criminal charges well after Zehm died.

Authorities aren’t releasing video of the incident taken by a security camera tape that captured some of what happened, saying that it might be needed as evidence or that it might taint a potential jury pool. So will it be released if there is no criminal case? In addition, why aren’t police releasing the tape of a 911 call related to the case?

Police got a search warrant for Zehm’s medical records nine days after he died. They obviously weren’t going to charge a dead man, so what was the motivation?

Police say the request was appropriate, because otherwise the judge, Spokane District Court Commissioner Brad Chinn, would not have granted it. Chinn said he wasn’t passing judgment on the police’s request, only agreeing that there was “probable cause.” Probable cause for what? The circular trail leads back to the police.

Independent legal experts interviewed by The Spokesman-Review haven’t criticized the police, but they have acknowledged the novel nature of the search warrant request. When asked whether he had ever been presented with a search warrant request against a dead person, Chinn had no comment.

Was the probing of Zehm’s medical records part of an internal affairs review? That’s possible, but how could medical conditions the officers were unaware of factor into a review of their actions?

Are the police attempting to build a profile of a victim that’s less sympathetic than has been reported thus far? Or, is it something else altogether?

One more puzzler: Authorities have said that Zehm “lunged” at the first responding officer, but the search warrant affidavit makes no mention of that.

At the outset, the Spokane Police Department said the Spokane Sheriff’s Office would be conducting a “shadow” investigation. That is, county deputies would accompany city detectives to ensure the integrity of the probe.

However, only the Police Department was involved in obtaining Zehm’s medical records. In any event, those two agencies operate fairly closely with each other, so it would help the credibility of the investigation if an outside entity provided oversight.

Internal investigations are always delicate balancing acts, but the unusual circumstances surrounding this case raise questions. In the spirit of preserving the public trust, authorities should step forward with answers.