Report: Pasco officers say concern for safety led to fatal shooting

The release of documents Wednesday was the first time the statements of three Pasco police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Antonio Zambrano-Montes were made public.

Officers Adrian Alaniz, Adam Wright and Ryan Flanagan all told detectives from the Tri-City Special Investigations Unit that they were concerned for their own lives and those of the public. And they had no other option but to use deadly force.

The three have been on administrative leave since the incident, which sparked protests and added to the nationwide debate about police use of force. Flanagan submitted his resignation two weeks ago and it’s official July 2.

The following are abbreviated accounts of the officers’ statements to special investigators who interviewed them nearly three months after the shooting:

Adrian Alaniz

When Pasco Officer Adrian Alaniz first got the call Feb. 10, he expected to find someone throwing rocks at cars in the 10th Avenue and Lewis Street intersection.

But when the two-year police veteran pulled up, he immediately realized something was wrong with the man.

Antonio Zambrano-Montes was breathing heavily and through his mouth, he was spitting frequently, his eyes appeared wide and completely black, and he had taken a tense and defensive stance toward the officer.

“So he’s telling me (in Spanish), ‘No, kill me, kill me (expletive), (expletive) kill me,’” Alaniz told the Tri-City Special Investigations Unit.

Zambrano-Montes was standing 40 to 50 yards away, just west of the intersection, and appeared to be watching traffic. He had two rocks in his hands, down by his side. Alaniz described them as softball-sized, based on how Zambrano-Montes’ fingers were splayed to hold them.

“From the experiences that I’ve had and from the training I’ve had, I came to the assumption that there was possibly something that was — that was maybe drug-induced,” Alaniz said, adding that he also considered the possibility Zambrano-Montes was suffering from mental instability.

After Zambrano-Montes began shouting at Alaniz in Spanish to kill him, the officer called for immediate assistance.

Alaniz backed up several yards as Zambrano-Montes approached, but eventually Zambrano-Montes stopped and turned back toward the intersection. Afraid Zambrano-Montes would encounter a pedestrian or throw rocks at vehicles, Alaniz yelled at him again to put the rocks down. The suspect again responded in Spanish, and the two yelled back and forth at each other several more times.

Alaniz said he pulled out his Taser, trained it on Zambrano-Montes using the laser sight, and told the suspect he would be hit if he didn’t drop the rocks.

“And it was like when he saw the light it — everything stepped up another level. I don’t know what his perception of the light was but he starts yelling louder,” Alaniz said.

When the probes from Alaniz’s Taser struck Zambrano-Montes, he dropped the rock in his left hand and used his second rock to swipe at the cables. Flanagan, who had arrived at this time, also came up and fired his Taser at Zambrano-Montes but they didn’t affect him, Alaniz said.

Zambrano-Montes picked up another rock and chased Flanagan, throwing it at the officer before turning around and chasing Alaniz and throwing another rock.

When Wright arrived, the suspect hurled one rock each at Flanagan and Alaniz. Alaniz moved back to avoid it but was struck in the upper left thigh.

“I’ve tried using the Taser, verbal commands have not worked. I’m under the impression at this point — this person has told me he wants to die,” Alaniz said, adding that with the threats to the public and the assaults on officers, his firearm is his last option.

He and Flanagan pulled out their weapons and shouted at Zambrano-Montes to drop the rocks or they would shoot. The suspect threw another rock at Flanagan and then walked into the intersection.

Halfway across Lewis, Zambrano-Montes turned and threw another rock at the officers. Alaniz said he heard three to four shots from a gun, but Zambrano-Montes was not affected and continued to cross the street. The three officers followed him west on Lewis toward Vinny’s Bakery.

“He made this motion, starts slowing his steps, he makes this motion, he starts picking up the rock towards the side of his body, and I knew that the position that we were in that there was no way that we were going to be able to try to evade one of those rocks,” Alaniz said.

Alaniz picked up his firearm, aimed it at the suspect and “fired until he dropped to the ground.” In the moment, he didn’t realize Wright and Flanagan also had fired.

He and another officer went up and handcuffed Zambrano-Montes, with Alaniz explaining that it’s necessary to ensure the subject still doesn’t pose a threat. He checked Zambrano-Montes’ pulse and felt a fluttering heartbeat.

Alaniz said he, Wright and Flanagan spoke only briefly to ask each other if they were OK before being taken to police headquarters. They were kept in separate rooms and he held onto his firearm until a Kennewick police officer collected it as part of the special investigation process. The place on his leg where he was struck with a rock never showed any sign of injury.

Alaniz told investigators he never considered trying to use the less-lethal shotgun in his patrol car, nor his pepper spray, to help contain Zambrano-Montes. The logistics of using either, and the lack of a plan in case they didn’t work, made them unfeasible.

Ryan Flanagan

Flanagan told detectives he pulled into the intersection to see two Taser probes already in the back of Zambrano-Montes’ left arm and rocks in his hands.

Alaniz had his hand extended as if trying to keep Zambrano-Montes at a distance, while the suspect brushed off the probes like “they didn’t (faze) him.”

Flanagan — in an hour-long interview on May 7 — said based on his nine years on the force and martial arts training, his initial instinct was to tackle the suspect, who was crouched in a baseball stance while picking up rocks. But when the officer went to charge him, Zambrano-Montes screamed and moved as if he was going to club Flanagan with a rock that was bigger than a softball.

Zambrano-Montes chased Flanagan, who said he took cover behind the traffic light pole on the southwest corner as something was thrown in his direction. The officer deployed his Taser, with one probe striking Zambrano-Montes in the upper chest or head and the other going over his head as he ducked. And again, the suspect removed the probe.

Zambrano-Montes was yelling in Spanish as he ran toward Flanagan. The officer, who didn’t know what was being said, took off in a zigzag manner while trying to protect his head.

The suspect then turned around, picked up another rock so again he had two in his hands, and threw one at Alaniz, hitting that officer in the left thigh. Alaniz could be heard telling Zambrano-Montes, “Stop throwin’ rocks. Stop throwin’ rocks.”

Flanagan said the two officers were in retreat mode at that point because Zambrano-Montes clearly did not “have any care in the world” as he was attacking them.

The officer told dispatchers, “Hey, we’re runnin’ out of options. We’re gonna have to increase our level of force.” He also asked for more officers to respond immediately.

Flanagan and Alaniz then drew their guns. He said they were out of Tasers and, even if they had pepper spray, the officers wouldn’t have been able to get close enough to use it.

“We didn’t have much of a choice other than to use lethal force,” he said, “cause, we’re both … we’re both goin’ home.”

As Wright arrived, Flanagan said he yelled at his fellow officer to watch out. Then, Flanagan said he got less than 20 to 25 feet from the suspect and told him, “If you throw another rock I will shoot you.”

That’s when he realized traffic was backed up around the intersection and there were crowds of people in the grocery store parking lot and at the gas station. “I felt like we probably should have upped our force level and probably should have used our firearms sooner,” he said. “But because of crossfire situations, we just weren’t able to.”

When Alaniz had to duck as another rock was aimed at his head, Wright fired first, followed by Flanagan shooting his .45-caliber Glock. Alaniz then fired once he regained his footing, Flanagan recalled.

Then, once across the street in front of the bakery, Zambrano-Montes brought his right arm up like he was going to throw the rock in his hand. The officers fired several shots and Zambrano-Montes dropped to the ground, he said.

Flanagan said the suspect had committed two felonies when he assaulted the officers with “baseball, softball and cantaloupe-size rocks.” He had damaged cars and was a safety risk to everybody on the street.

“We let him just walk off, what’s gonna happen when he injures or kills somebody else with a rock, or whatever the case may be?” he said. “He’s not free to leave by any means.”

Flanagan said if Zambrano-Montes had let go of the rocks, they would have been able to go hands-on with him. But even though there were three officers to one suspect, they recognized “one rock can kill ya.”

Once other officers arrived after the shooting, Flanagan said the three of them were separated and he was placed in a patrol car. He recalled telling Sgt. Brad Gregory, “Holy (expletive). That guy tried to (expletive) kill us. We shot him. But he tried to kill us.”

Adam Wright

Adam Wright was near the end of his shift when he got the call to respond to 10th Avenue and Lewis Street for a report of a man throwing rocks at passing cars.

As the eight-year Pasco policeman drove towards the scene, updates began to flood across his radio, according to a taped interview Wright gave to investigators. There was a muffled sound indicating a possible struggle, talk of a Taser being fired and finally a frantic call for Code 3 — a sign officers could be in immediate danger.

Wright drove his patrol car into a dirt lot near the intersection, where he encountered Flanagan and Alaniz in a standoff with Zambrano-Montes, who was armed with large rocks, Wright said.

“About that time I remember Officer Flanagan saying, ‘If you throw that rock at me I’m going to shoot you,” Wright said.

Wright kept his eyes glued on Zambrano-Montes as the Pasco man reared back and threw a rock toward Alaniz. Fearing for his life and the lives of his fellow officers, Wright decided he had to take action.

Wright, a firearms instructor, told investigators he believes he fired the first shots, striking Zambrano-Montes twice.

“My first shot that I pressed off he was facing me directly and I am confident I hit him somewhere in the torso,” Wright said. “As I was pressing off my second shot, he started to turn from his left to his right and I feel like I probably hit him somewhere in the lower right torso.”

Wright was shocked Zambrano-Montes didn’t go down, he said. He began to chase the suspect across the street. The suspect was carrying a rock as he crossed over to Lewis Street, spun around and faced the officers, and cocked his arm to throw the rock.

“Once again I felt like he was wielding potentially deadly force if that rock struck us in our head,” said Wright, who admitted to watching videos of the shooting. “I decided I need to act and I shot multiple times. I think I shot four times (and) the subject went down pretty much immediately.”

Wright had an encounter with Zambrano-Montes weeks before the shooting when a fire broke out at Zambrano-Montes’ home in Pasco, reports said. Wright told investigators Zambrano-Montes was “totally drugged out” and the officer helped him get to detox.

The day after the fire, Zambrano-Montes apparently admitted to Wright and fire officials he started the blaze while high on methamphetamine, Wright said in the interview.

“He was either spaced out, intoxicated, deranged (or) mental,” Wright said.

This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 10:44 PM with the headline "Report: Pasco officers say concern for safety led to fatal shooting."