74-year-old man shot by officer was on the ground for 48 minutes until SWAT could get close
An elderly Richland man made a simple plea to emergency dispatchers Sunday morning as he sat outside of a church.
“Please, I have a gun. I don’t want to hurt myself,” the 74-year-old told the dispatcher, who alerted police officers shortly after 9 a.m.
Those words started a brief standoff that left Michael H. Miller wounded on the ground for nearly an hour and a Richland police officer on administrative leave.
The Tri-City Herald obtained a recording of the dispatch call through the online service Broadcastify.com.
While it’s not a complete record of what happened, it provides more details about the confrontation that started with Miller’s 911 call.
He told dispatchers he had a shotgun and was outside of The Bridge, a Richland church near the intersection of Berkshire Street and Jadwin Avenue.
It’s still unclear why he was outside the church, though he lives just down the street. But his desperate message was one of the last things he told dispatchers. By the time Richland police arrived, he’d gone silent.
When the first officer arrived, Miller was sitting against the building with the shotgun in his hand. He was dressed in a flannel shirt, black baseball cap and jeans. As officers tried to talk with him, he loaded a round into the chamber.
SWAT vehicle called in
Less than two minutes later Miller fired into the air.
Officers called for help to close off roads as they continued to try to talk the grandfather of four into putting down the gun.
Instead, he pointed the shotgun at police and an officer shot him. Miller was wounded and fell to the ground.
Based on the dispatch recording, he lay there for 48 minutes before officers approached him in an armored SWAT vehicle.
Richland police declined Tuesday to talk about why he wasn’t approached sooner, but the dispatch broadcast said he was moving and his gun was still nearby.
Citing safety concerns, they waited until the Tri-City Regional SWAT team’s vehicle could arrive from Pasco and get near enough to make sure it was safe for officers and medics to give him first aid.
Miller’s family told the media this week he is recovering. “Mental health is a tricky situation to get a hold of, especially at the age of 74,” they said.
The Tri-City Special Investigative Unit is in charge of investigating the shooting. The unit includes police from different agencies looking independently into officer-involved deaths and injuries in Benton and Franklin counties.
Pasco police Sgt. Jamie Raebel is heading up the investigation. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call 509-544-3076 or email raebelj@pasco-wa.gov.
This story was originally published April 9, 2019 at 7:21 PM.