Hispanic community leader to request federal probe into Pasco police shooting

A Hispanic community leader in Pasco will ask the U.S. Justice Department to immediately investigate last week’s shooting death of a Mexican national by three police officers.

Felix Vargas wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that the constitutional rights of Antonio Zambrano-Montes were violated.

Zambrano-Montes, 35, was not carrying a gun or knife when he was shot Feb. 10 in front of a bakery near the intersection of Lewis Street and 10th Avenue.

Vargas argues Zambrano-Montes was effectively executed by police when he attempted to stop and raise his hands.

“In all, about 15 rounds were fired in a very congested area during rush hour,” the letter said. “Having mortally wounded him, the police proceeded to handcuff this dying man without rendering aid or even checking his pulse.”

Vargas plans to officially notify federal officials of his complaint when the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division reopens for business Tuesday, he said.

An investigation by the multi-agency Tri-City Special Investigations Unit will have “no credibility whatsoever,” partly because the unit has exonerated officers in three recently completed reviews of police shootings, Vargas said in the letter.

“Why would anyone believe that the local SIU investigation of the Zambrano killing would yield a different result?” he said.

Vargas, while supporting law enforcement in general, also feels local police officers will have a conflict of interest in reviewing the case, although no Pasco officers are involved in the investigation, he said.

A federal investigation could actually complement the police review, he said.

“A police investigative unit, no matter how professional, is really caught in the middle,” Vargas said. “Whenever you have to establish facts related to deeds committed by your brothers in uniform, there is that potential for some conflict. So I think it’s helpful to them, I think it’s helpful to the process that we have, in addition to their investigation, that we have a pair of higher-level eyes on this investigation.”

Kennewick Police Sgt. Ken Lattin, spokesman for the special unit, responded that only police can investigate in such a case.

Federal or state officials will be welcome to review the findings afterward, Lattin said.

“There’s nobody else who investigates homicides, we are the best at that,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with having oversight, but the investigation part is done by us.”

The officers are required to conduct the investigation fairly, Lattin said.

“We’re not going to put our careers on the line for anybody,” he said. “If it’s determined somebody made a mistake, they will be held accountable.”

Vargas’ letter says Zambrano-Montes might have suffered from mental illness and some substance abuse, and he was seen throwing rocks at cars.

The letter goes on to discuss videos that have been posted to YouTube capturing the shooting, and how the incident shocked the community, the United States and other countries.

He also points out that one of the three officers involved, Ryan Flanagan, was accused in 2009 of using excessive force and racially profiling a 30-year-old Hispanic woman. Flanagan and another officer caused second-degree burns by holding the woman’s face to the hot hood of a police car. Pasco settled a lawsuit in the case for $100,000.

Vargas is chairman of Consejo Latino, a group of mostly Hispanic business owners who have been concerned about proposed changes in downtown Pasco.

The city has a chance to set an example for the nation, Vargas said.

“I have every expectation that Pasco will be the one police shooting where people will be held accountable,” he said.

In other developments Monday, a group of 14 people demonstrated outside City Hall. Some plan to be there all day, every day until city officials talk with them about making policy changes, they said.

They plan to have a rally at 5 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall to mark the one-week anniversary of Zambrano-Montes’ death.

The demonstrators were supportive of Vargas’ request for a federal investigation.

“That would be nice to have an outside group come in, who doesn’t work closely with our department,” said Ben Patrick, who watched the shooting from the grocery store parking lot across the street.

This story was originally published February 16, 2015 at 1:10 PM with the headline "Hispanic community leader to request federal probe into Pasco police shooting."