By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office released the names of the two deputies involved in the fatal shooting on Rainey Creek Road near Glenoma over the weekend; they are Deputy Robert Nelson and Reserve Deputy Mark Anders.
The sheriff’s office has said they both opened fire upon a man who pointed a weapon at them as they attempted to take him into custody for a warrant about 1:15 a.m. on Sunday on a dead end road.
Nelson, 52, has been a deputy with the sheriff’s office for more than 24 years. Reserve Deputy Anders, 63, was sworn in as a reserve deputy three years ago and has been a support volunteer with the office for nine years, according to sheriff’s Chief Deputy Bruce Kimsey.
The shooting is being investigated by a multi-agency team comprised of detectives from four nearby sheriff’s offices plus the Washington State Patrol. Its report will be turned over to Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer who will evaluate to determine if the shootings were justified.
Meyer will be reviewing the incident under the new police use of deadly force law, I-940, passed by voters in November.
Both deputies remain on administrative leave, according to Kimsey. Once Meyer makes his findings, the sheriff’s office will conduct an internal investigation, as per standard protocol.
According to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office initial information, the two law enforcement officers were on patrol when they contacted a man in a “suspicious” parked vehicle, and learned he he had a no-bail warrant out of Pierce County for first-degree child rape and two counts of second-degree child molestation. The man brandished and pointed a weapon at them, according to the sheriff’s office.
Robert D. Richardson, 40, from Graham, died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod.
Prosecutor Meyer said he doesn’t have a timeline as to when he will receive the team’s report.
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For background, read “Coroner: Man shot dead by deputies is from Pierce County” from Wednesday March 6, 2019, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker
The Sheriff department emphasized the “rape of a child” charges against Richardson rather than just say that he was wanted on a no-bail felony warrant to demonize the victim who was “brandishing” a “weapon” (not a gun?) and emphasized that both deputies fired. There is a problem here and they were trying to put the best light on it.
Reserve Deputy Anders is 63 years old and politically connected, having served in the Lewis Country Republican party in various leadership positions including Chair. He is also a Chehalis port commissioner.
So you have a 24 year veteran of the force, who has been out on the road by himself much of that time and has probably never even fired his weapon in the line of duty, paired up on Saturday night with a 63 year old cop wannabee without much experience and they end up shooting someone who may have had something like a “weapon” in his hand, but probably not a gun.
The call these shootings “bunch” shootings where there is more than one officer involved and they tend to have many more body hits and are much more often fatal than single officer shootings.
When one officer shoots the other tends to fire in support even if he didn’t see the initial justification of the first shooter.
I think it’s very possible that this politically connected 63 year old reserve officer with very little actual road experience, didn’t properly assess the situation and perhaps thought whatever this man had in his hand was an immediate life threat to the officers and opened fire. And then, unfortunately, the regular deputy, who would have shown more restraint had to fire in support and is now involved in the first shooting incident in his career which wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t been paired up with this cop wannabee.