West Richland father shot by police was a ‘bright spirit,’ says daughter

Update: Police find gun where West Richland father was shot in Kennewick

A father of six killed late Sunday was “a bright spirit” with a desire to make everyone happy, his daughter says.

If a friend needed help or his mother couldn’t cover a bill, Gordon Whitaker would do anything possible, including work a side job just to come to the aid of a loved one.

“He is the funniest, most genuine man I know. He really knew how to cheer people up with a smile,” an emotional Juliet Whitaker Green, 20, told the Tri-City Herald. “He put others’ needs before him.”

Now, family of the 45-year-old West Richland man are left wondering what happened in the moments before Whitaker was fatally shot by a Kennewick police officer just before midnight Sunday.

Whitaker and another man were contacted by police patrolling near North Fruitland Street and Columbia Park Trail, less than a mile from downtown Kennewick along the Columbia River.

Police say one of the men started to run after being asked for their names.

While officers were in the process of detaining him, Whitaker “allegedly produced what appeared to be a firearm,” Kennewick police said in a news release.

At least one officer then shot Whitaker. He died at the scene.

“We have one suspect down. We’re going to detain a second (suspect),” a Kennewick officer told emergency dispatchers, according to a Broadcastify recording of communications. “We’ll need medics to expedite here.”

Police have released no other details, including the reason for the late-night contact or if a gun was found on Whitaker.

The involved officers were identified by Kennewick police on Tuesday as Becca Henry, Zach Moore and Dylan Markley. They have been placed on administrative leave.

Both police and the Benton County Coroner’s Office would not release Whitaker’s name. His family confirmed his identity.

An autopsy is planned Wednesday.

“The only ones that know what happened are the officers, so we, his family, are in limbo waiting for details,” said Whitaker Green.

The investigation into the officer-involved shooting is being handled by the regional Special Investigations Unit, which includes specially trained detectives from other Tri-City agencies.

A final report on their findings can take months. In the meantime, agencies publicly release different amounts of information before the reports are wrapped up.

Kennewick police said Tuesday the Special Investigations Unit will release other information “based on the status of the investigation and in conjunction with the Benton County Prosecutor’s Office.”

Troubled past

Whitaker Green acknowledged that her father had a criminal record, but said his last felony case was in 2004.

His loved ones — grieving and struggling to come to grips with Whitaker’s sudden death — are asking people to move beyond all of the negative talk, especially on social media.

“At this point my father has paid for every crime that he has ever committed, so I would appreciate if everyone would just let it go and focus on finding out what happened,” said his daughter. “Because everyone bringing up his past, about what he has done before 2004, doesn’t matter. He’s paid for it, he’s done his time. I feel like none of that matters.”

Whitaker’s history, the majority of it in the 1990s, included robbery and burglary. The maximum sentence he ever received was a year in prison. An arrest warrant was issued last summer in the 2004 case for unpaid court fines.

“He’s gone and there’s no reason to further discuss the past,” Whitaker Green added. “The point we want to focus on is finding out what happened that evening and sharing all of the great qualities he had as a friend, father and son.”

Whitaker, a Tri-Cities native, attended Pasco High School, later earning his GED.

In recent years, he lived with and cared for his mother, Kay Storment, who is wheelchair-bound with multiple sclerosis.

He did not have a job but would do under-the-table work. “Honestly, my dad could pick up any tool and know what to do. He was a smart man.”

Whitaker Green said her dad was really good with kids and described him as “a good joke teller.”

His passion was cooking. He knew how to put any meal together, she recalled, but his favorites were ribs, seafood, carne asada and tacos.

“He was just good at it ...,” she said. “Those are some of the things I will miss.”

Whitaker Green said she was asleep early Monday when her grandparents woke her to share “the news that devastated me for life.”

3 officer shootings

A Facebook post on Tuesday by Kennewick police did not say which officer, or if more than one, fired the shots that killed Whitaker.

▪ Officer Henry is a 10-year veteran of the department, is a patrol training officer and currently works in the patrol division.

▪ Officer Moore spent four years with the Washington state Department of Corrections as a sergeant and firearms instructor, before joining the Kennewick force three years ago. He also is a patrol training officer assigned to patrol, and is the department’s use-of-force training instructor.

▪ Officer Markley was hired in July 2019 and recently graduated from the Washington State Basic Law Enforcement Academy. He served in the Army as a medic in the 82nd Airborne Division, then worked for Hanford Patrol. He is in the patrol training officer phase of his training, the department said.

This is the third officer-involved shooting in the Tri-Cities in four months.

In November, a sheriff’s deputy in rural Franklin County approached the driver of a stopped car following a high-speed chase and shot at Dante Redmond Jones several times.

Jones, a former U.S. Marine and Pasco resident, drove off for a little over a half-mile before coming to a stop in a field. He died in an ambulance.

The following month, 18-year-old Alejandro Betancourt-Mendoza was reportedly resisting arrest during a theft investigation when he pulled out a double-edged knife and stabbed two Pasco officers.

One of the wounded officers then fired two gunshots, killing the Pasco teen.

Both incidents are being investigated by the Special Investigations Unit.

This story was originally published February 11, 2020 at 11:55 AM.