This officer was fired for shooting 2 people in Seattle. Now he’s on the Richland force

Some Richland residents are speaking out on social media to criticize their police department’s hiring of a fired Seattle police officer.

Commenters in the “Richland Residents” Facebook group began questioning the decision this week after information starting circulating about Officer Kenneth Martin’s role in a Seattle shooting 3 1/2 years ago that left two people wounded.

Martin and another officer were fired after a review found they violated department policies.

The officers shot a fleeing car 27 times. Police had been called to investigate a report of people using drugs in the area.

And while an Office of Police Accountability review led to Martin’s firing in 2018, he was not found to have committed a crime and was later hired by a small police department in the Yakima Valley and then by the Richland Police Department.

At the time, Martin told investigators that he believed he was defending his own life and the lives of others.

This week, Richland Police Chief John Bruce told the Tri-City Herald that Martin cleared all the department’s rigorous reviews, and he expects him to do well in Richland.

The city posted earlier this week to the closed Facebook group a photo of Chief Bruce swearing in Martin.

“Officer Martin and his family are excited to be back on this side of the state and we are sure glad to have him join our team,” the post said.

Critics were quick to question the chief’s decision.

“RPD isn’t hiring heroes who are escaping the ‘terrible’ west side,” one commenter said. “They’re hiring disgraced officers. We are not Washington’s trash heap. Richland deserves better.”

And Randy Slovic, an outspoken critic of the police department and former Richland council candidate, said it felt like the city was getting another department’s problems.

“It’s not like he’s had a lot of time to have additional training,” she said. “I know all of the people commenting. People are appalled.”

But Chief Bruce told the Herald he’s satisfied with his decision to hire the U.S. veteran with about six years police experience.

“He had an officer-involved shooting at his first agency that was deemed justified by the outside investigative agency and then was later terminated for agency specific policy violations,” he said in a written statement. “The specifics of this investigation were rigorously reviewed by our background investigators, and ultimately by me.”

Bruce later told the Herald in a call that everyone has made mistakes, and officers are often put into situations where they only have seconds to react.

“I’m not going to comment on whether Seattle did the right thing or the wrong thing,” he said. “One group, the guild, said it was within their training.”

Seattle shooting

On Oct. 8, 2017, Martin was one of four officers sent to check out a Seattle alley after someone called 911 to report illegal drug use, the Seattle Times reported in July 2018.

One person was described as holding a handgun, although the caller later told dispatchers it could be a phone. The other person appeared to have a knife or screwdriver in their hand, according to the investigation.

Patrol car dash cams and officer body camera footage released by Seattle police show the officers arriving and then yelling for people to stop. But the suspects jumped into a car and started to pull out of a parking space to drive away.

An officer can be seen running over to block the car from driving off. Shots can be heard as the car continues moving. The officer falls to the side as the car keeps driving, then more shots are fired into the car.

Martin said the second round of bullets came after the car hits a wall, and the reverse lights came on, according to city reports.

In all, Seattle police reported that 27 shots hit the car, according to the Seattle police disciplinary report. The driver was hit twice in the back, and the passenger suffered a shrapnel wound to her leg.

The car drove away, and officers tried pursuing it but it disappeared. The driver and passenger were arrested several days later.

While the report recommended the officers be terminated, it stopped short of saying Martin broke the law.

At the time, Martin said he felt department officials had made up their minds before investigating all the facts.

“You state that while you feel the department abandoned you and treated you unfairly, you are proud to be a police officer and want to continue your career,” according to the discipline report. “You do not want to lose your job over actions which you believe were taken to defend your own life and the lives of others.”

The investigation found that both volleys of gunfire violated department policy. The first came after Martin was no longer in front of the car. The second came after the car was already moving away, the report said.

In both cases, investigators found he put the other two people in the car in as much danger as the driver.

Martin and Officer Tabitha Sexton were fired in 2018 for violating policies regarding the use of force; use of deadly force against a fleeing person; firing weapons at a moving vehicle; and abuse of discretion, according to the Times.

Richland police hiring

Martin was later hired on at the three-person Mabton Police Department where he worked until being hired by Richland.

Chief Bruce, who has been with Richland about two years, said Richland uses a rigorous hiring process, even for officers who come from a different department and already have their credentials from the criminal justice training commission.

“RPD maintains the highest standards for its officers, which is reflected in turn through the high level of service we provide to our community,” he said.

Those initial tests are stringent, including a review of their application, resume and personal history statement with human resources.

Then, they have a second round with an officer in the division he would be working with.

The next round involves a panel of officers, supervisors and a captain.

Then comes a complete background investigation, a suitability assessment, a polygraph, psychological evaluation, a medical test and an interview with the chief.

“It is important to note that at any stage of these processes, applicants can and routinely are washed out in this multi-layered process,” the chief said. “My point in providing this synopsis of our hiring process is to illustrate that Officer Martin had to pass each one of these steps to advance to the next.”

Martin will be on probation for a year and undergo an “involved field-training officer process.” This can be another place in which officers can fail to meet standards, he explained.

“Officer Martin comes to us with high recommendations from his last law enforcement agency, serving the citizens of a small community,” Bruce said, noting there’s no shortage of police officer candidates.

“We fully expect Officer Martin will carry out our values of teamwork, excellence and integrity in his service to the Richland community as is the expectation of each one of our officers.”

This story was originally published August 5, 2021 at 1:38 PM.