Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

911 recording before deputy shooting referenced knife

Roy Jacobs   Courtesy of the Jacobs family (Courtesy Family / The Spokesman-reivew)
Ten minutes before a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Roy Jacobs Jr. in his brother’s Spokane Valley apartment last Saturday morning, a man in the house said, “Put the knife away.” The command is in the background of a 911 recording released Friday. Investigators said Deputy Jerad Kiehn shot Jacobs because he was threatening him with a knife and that the three responding deputies had been told a domestic dispute may have been in progress. But at the end of the 911 call, Jacobs’ niece emphasized nothing was wrong. “Nobody is in danger or hurt or anything here,” said the woman, who identified herself as Traci Doud. On the recording, when the dispatcher asked if Jacobs was being violent, Doud said no. She said he was arguing with his ex-wife, who was also at the residence. Jacobs had called 911 twice earlier in the night to report he needed to be arrested on an outstanding civil warrant. On the third call, between Doud and a dispatcher who called back after a hang-up call from the apartment, Doud said her uncle was “very, very drunk” and “being stupid.” When the dispatcher asked her to put him on the phone to confirm he was alright, Doud said she didn’t want to because “he’ll tell a bunch of stories.” On an earlier 911 call, when Jacobs called to turn himself in, the dispatcher asked him if he was armed. Jacobs said no. The Spokane Police Department is investigating the shooting. It was the Sheriff’s Office’s first deputy-involved fatal shooting this year. Spokane police have shot two suspects to death this year. . Following the release of the recordings, Seattle attorney Sim Osborn confirmed that he has been retained to represent Jacobs’ family. Osborn is currently working with the family of Spokane Valley pastor Scott Creach, who was shot and killed by Deputy Brian Hirzel on Aug. 25, 2010. The family filed a civil suit in federal court and the trial is scheduled to begin on July 29. In 2011, King County paid $10 million to settle a suit filed by Osborn and attorney Ray Dearie on behalf of the wife of Christopher Harris, who suffered permanent brain damage in 2009 after a sheriff’s deputy shoved his head into a concrete wall.
Reporter Thomas Clouse contributed to this report.