Otto Zehm’s family and broad circle of friends say he was a gentle man, a peacemaker.

According to Spokane police, though, he was a raging tiger – at least on the Saturday night in March when he encountered seven officers at a North Side convenience store.

The contradictory descriptions don’t mean anyone is lying, only that the circumstances leading up to Zehm’s death are complicated and unclear. The public, which wants to have confidence in its law enforcement agencies while maintaining empathy for its most fragile citizens, deserves more clarity than it’s getting from officials.

Zehm, 35, was a member of a longtime Fairfield family. He had a janitorial job at Fairchild Air Force Base. He was developmentally impaired.

Late on Saturday, March 18, he was the subject of a police response to a Zip Trip store where he had stopped to pick up a soft drink and something for dinner. Whether he struck a passer-by as suspicious in the vicinity of a nearby ATM or he was thought to be intent on robbing the place – both explanations have been given – officers were dispatched. They say Zehm wouldn’t comply with the first officer’s commands, and a scuffle ensued. Backup was called. More backup was called. Eventually, they say, it took seven officers (plus a couple of Taser blasts and a baton whack to the head) to get Zehm cuffed and hobbled.

Within minutes, he developed medical problems. He died two days later of what a medical examiner’s report now says was a result of heart failure while being restrained on his stomach.

Police officials quickly stated that officers acted appropriately and were not to blame for Zehm’s death. They urged no patience in waiting for findings of formal investigations; they declared a clean bill of health for their agency right away.

Law enforcement professionals will remind the rest of us, justifiably, that officers reacting to dangerous and volatile incidents must make on-the-spot decisions to restore order and preserve public safety. And that Zehm, who functioned well in society despite his impairment, had the same duty as any other citizen to recognize lawful authority.

It’s easy to second-guess cops when you don’t have to do their job in real life.

So, why not help the public understand what happened the night of March 18 by releasing the security video that captured it all?

In the immediate aftermath, police said they were still trying to track down eyewitnesses and didn’t want their accounts to be tainted because they’d seen the tape. More than two months later, that excuse has expired. At various points, in fact, police have said they would release it; then Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Tucker said no.

On Tuesday, after the medical examiner issued her report, acting Police Chief Jim Nicks held a press conference to reiterate that police were not at fault. Almost concurrently, however, Assistant City Attorney Rocky Treppiedi was filing an order that released the tape to Zehm’s family but prevented them from doing what Nicks had just done – talk about the contents of the tape or other evidence.

The Zehm case bears close public scrutiny, but that can’t happen without the broadest possible access to all relevant facts, not just one-sided pronouncements by police.

Law enforcement has much to gain by demonstrating a commitment to the truth that merits public confidence. The public has even more.