Fatal police shooting of unarmed Black man in Pierce County to get new look

GIG HARBOR, Wash. – A new investigation will be opened into the 2013 death of Leonard Thomas, an unarmed Black man killed by a Lakewood, Washington, police sniper during a response to a domestic-violence dispute, the state’s Office of Independent Investigations announced Monday.

A retired King County Superior Court judge made the decision, determining that the new investigation should be based in part on evidence that came out in the civil trial that led to a $15.1 million jury verdict against the City of Lakewood, former Lakewood Police Chief Mike Zaro – who ordered a SWAT team to assault the rear of the home where Thomas was killed – and two other officers, who were all found liable for his death.

Thomas’ mother, Annalesa, said Monday that she and her husband don’t think opening a new investigation will result in any prosecution of the officers involved. That’s because the decision will be based on the justified-homicide law in place when Thomas was killed, which had a much higher standard for an officers’ actions to be considered criminal compared to current state law.

The Office of Independent Investigations (OII) was created in 2021 out of legislation intended to ensure unbiased investigations into police uses of deadly force. Annalesa Thomas requested the new investigation shortly after it formed. She would still like to see the officers charged.

“I don’t think any of them represent the police force we want to have,” Annalesa Thomas said.

The three officers found liable in Thomas’ death through the civil trial were Zaro, Sgt. Brian Markert and Officer Mike Wiley. Zaro, who was named Lakewood’s police chief in 2015, retired in February 2023. Markert, who fired the fatal shot at Thomas, appears to still be a Lakewood police sergeant – he was honored by Lakewood Municipal Court in April for his support of its veterans-treatment court.

The Lakewood Police Department did not immediately respond to a question about Wiley’s employment. He remained a Lakewood police officer as recently as November . Wiley was investigated for fatally shooting 26-year-old Said Joquin during a traffic stop in 2020. Prosecutors decided not to charge Wiley, but the case also led to a lawsuit settlement of $8 million.

Explaining why the decision to open a new inquiry was made by a retired judge, the OII said in a news release that it had contracted with a mediation and arbitration service to avoid concerns about a conflict of interest, and the service primarily uses retired judges. Thomas’ father, Fred Thomas, is a co-chair of the OII Advisory Board, which gives input on agency policies and certain hiring decisions. The judge who made the decision was not named in the news release.

“Avoiding conflicts of interest, or even the appearance of a conflict of interest, is critical to ensuring that all parties can trust our work to be fair and unbiased,” OII director Roger Rogoff said. “Under the circumstances, OII had a conflict of interest that prevented it from making a decision free from actual or apparent bias, and therefore referring this matter to a neutral third party was the right choice.”

It’s now up to the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office to review material relevant to the case and decide if any additional investigation is required to decide whether to file criminal charges.

Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett and some experienced deputy prosecuting attorneys will conduct the review, said Adam Faber a spokesperson for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. He said they received materials Thursday, and the review had not yet begun Monday. He did not have a timeline for the decision-making process.

Faber confirmed that the charging decision would be based on laws in place when Thomas was killed, including RCW 9A.16.040, which required that a police officer acted with malice for them to be held criminally liable for using deadly force. That requirement for prosecuting police who wrongly use deadly force was removed following the adoption of a new police accountability law in 2019 known as Initiative 940.

Thomas was shot and killed on May 23, 2013, during a four-hour standoff that began after Thomas’ mother called police because she had been unable to pick up her 4-year-old grandson from a house in Fife.

Thomas had been drinking at the time, according to records and trial testimony previously reported by the News Tribune, and he initially refused to come out of the house when police ordered him to. He agreed to turn his son over to the boy’s grandmother and stood on the porch when Zaro ordered the SWAT team to use a flash-bang explosive on the back door.

Wiley led that action with another officer, and as they advanced toward the house shot and killed the family’s dog, Baxter.

When Thomas reached for his son, Markert shot him. The sergeant later testified at the civil trial that Thomas grabbed his son in a stranglehold and was heading back into the house when he fired his rifle from 90 feet away.

The U.S. District Court judge who upheld the jury’s verdict, Barbara Rothstein, later castigated the defendants in a 69-page ruling for escalating the incident, writing that they had escalated the probability that someone would die “at every step.”

The original investigation into Thomas’ death led to no criminal charges, and was conducted by the Cooperative Cities Metro Crime Response Unit, which included investigators from Lakewood, Fife, Bonney Lake, Puyallup, DuPont, and Steilacoom police departments, as well as investigators from the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Annalesa Thomas said none of the officers involved was reprimanded, and three were promoted. She said cities have continued to pay out large settlements when police officers don’t follow the law instead of removing officers who show patterns of misconduct.

“There ought to be some measure of personal accountability in order for our police officers to have a safer working environment and to preserve the rights within our community,” Annalesa Thomas said.

She added that she would hope that Gov. Bob Ferguson would appropriate more funding to the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission to hire more investigators to address a backlog of misconduct cases.

The Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC) maintains police officers’ certifications to work and investigates complaints about misconduct, which can lead to the officer losing their certification. A spokesperson for the CJTC, David Quinlan, confirmed Monday that the commission has a backlog of 1,265 open cases with two teams of investigators, which include two chief investigators and nine investigators.

Annalesa Thomas said resolving those cases would result in safer communities and safer police forces. She also said she believed it would benefit the state’s current budget crisis by cutting down on the number of legal settlements paid out to families harmed by police.

“The backlog needs to be taken care of so then the CJTC can manage incoming cases with more promptness and efficiency,” Annalesa Thomas said. “Now you wait years and years and years to even have your complaint heard.”