Pasco officer resigns four months after deadly police shooting

One of the three Pasco police officers who shot at Antonio Zambrano-Montes has resigned from the department.

Ryan Flanagan submitted his resignation letter Thursday to the city. It is effective July 2, said Pasco City Manager Dave Zabell.

Flanagan — along with officers Adam Wright and Adrian Alaniz — has been on paid administrative leave since Zambrano-Montes died during the Feb. 10 confrontation.

The 35-year-old Mexican national was acting erratically and threw at least one rock at the officers just before he went down on a Pasco sidewalk. Officers fired a total of 17 shots.

Kennewick attorney Scott Johnson, who represents Flanagan, said Friday that this was a voluntary decision and no one is forcing his client out of the police department.

“He had a job opportunity come up, and he just thought it was probably a good time to make that transition,” Johnson told the Herald.

Flanagan is leaving law enforcement and will work in the local building industry, said Johnson, who declined to give more details about the job.

The status of the other two officers has not changed.

“(Flanagan’s resignation) doesn’t impact the prosecutor’s review of the case and it doesn’t impact the city’s internal investigative process,” Zabell said.

Flanagan has been with the department for nine years. He was passionate about working as a traffic officer and was instrumental in helping the city get a couple of grants, including one to improve pedestrian safety in crosswalks with flashing lights, said Police Chief Bob Metzger.

“It’s unfortunate that an officer felt he had to give up his career for what occurred,” Metzger said Friday. “We’ll certainly miss him as an officer with the department and we wish him well in the future.”

The chief said the department recognizes it has been “a difficult time” for Flanagan since February and that it was very professional of him to give two weeks notice.

“We’ve been in contact with him the last four months and certainly, with everything that occurred, we’ve tried to keep in touch with him and make sure that he is OK and that his family is OK. Certainly we’re concerned about his family,” Metzger said.

Many have called for the officers to be criminally charged, while community members, Tri-City groups and the state American Civil Liberties Union want the Pasco Police Department to be federally investigated.

Zambrano-Montes was throwing rocks at cars about 5 p.m. in a crowded intersection near Fiesta Foods when police were called. He hit two officers with rocks and refused to listen to commands, Metzger said days after the shooting.

Police ordered Zambrano-Montes to surrender and unsuccessfully tried subduing him with a Taser. The officers chased him across the intersection of 10th Avenue and Lewis Street and eventually shot him in front of a cafe on Lewis.

Zambrano-Montes was not carrying a gun or knife. A rock was found near his body.

The shooting was captured by bystanders on smartphone video, which has circulated worldwide. It has drawn outrage from across the country and led to frequent protests in Pasco.

It was the fourth deadly police shooting in Pasco in a six-month period. Pasco officers fired the fatal shots in three of the cases. The fourth involved a Benton County sheriff’s deputy during a SWAT standoff.

The Justice Department announced it will provide training to the police force through its Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Similar training has been offered to cities deemed to be in “crisis” like Ferguson, Mo., Seattle and New Orleans.

Three weeks ago, a massive report from the Tri-City Special Investigations Unit detailing the deadly police shooting was turned over to Franklin County Prosecutor Shawn Sant. The report also was sent to Pasco police, the FBI and possibly the U.S. Department of Justice.

Sant said it could be months before he makes a decision on charges.

In the meantime, Franklin County Coroner Dan Blasdel plans to hold an inquest, in which a six-person jury will be asked to make a recommendation on the cause of death and whether the shooting was justified.

Metzger said Flanagan was interviewed by detectives working with SIU.

The police department is conducting an internal review of the entire incident. Metzger said they waited until the report was complete, and now may try to talk to Flanagan before he officially leaves the department.

Flanagan and another officer were accused in 2009 of racial profiling and excessive force for pressing the face of a 30-year-old Hispanic woman onto the hot hood of a police car as they detained her. The woman suffered second-degree burns.

Her lawyer later said she did not speak English well and had trouble communicating that day with the officers. Pasco settled a lawsuit in the case for $100,000.

This story was originally published June 19, 2015 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Pasco officer resigns four months after deadly police shooting."