Washington police officer accused of murder after killing three individuals in eight years

A police officer from a suburb of Seattle is on trial for killing a 26-year-old man outside a store in 2019. This is the third time in eight years that the officer has killed someone. The process of choosing the people who will decide if the officer is guilty or not started on Monday.

Auburn police officer Jeff Nelson killed Jesse Sarey while trying to arrest him for causing trouble. The whole incident only lasted 67 seconds. Sarey allegedly threw things at cars.

Prosecutors said Nelson fought with Sarey, hit him many times in the head, and shot him two times. They saw this on video from nearby businesses. Sarey was hurt and lying on the ground after getting shot in the stomach. Then Nelson fixed his gun, looked at someone nearby, and then shot Sarey again in the head, according to the prosecutors.

The case is the second one to go to trial after Washington voters changed the law in 2018. Before, prosecutors had to prove that police officers acted with malice, but now they have to show that the level of force used was unreasonable or unnecessary. In December, people voted to say the three Tacoma police officers were not guilty in the death of Manuel Ellis in 2020.

Nelson wrote that he thought Sarey had a knife and was a danger before the first shot. He also said Sarey was on his knees, ready to move before the officer fired again. He said he did not commit the crimes of second-degree murder and first-degree assault.

Nelson, who served in the Iraq war, started working at the department in 2008.

Auburn city gave Sarey’s family $4 million to resolve a civil rights claim and has also paid almost $2 million to settle other legal cases involving Nelson’s actions as a police officer.

The trial in front of Judge Nicole Gaines Phelps at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent is likely to go on for a few weeks. Gaines decided that the jurors will not hear about Nelson’s past use of deadly force or Sarey’s drug use.

In the past, Auburn city said they would give $1. 25 million to the family of a man named Isaiah Obet who Nelson killed.

Obet was trying to break into people’s houses and steal their cars with a knife. Nelson stopped him in 2017. Nelson let his police dog go, and it bit Obet. Then Nelson shot Obet in the chest. Obet was on the ground and still struggling with the police dog. He tried to stand up, but then Nelson shot him in the head, according to the police.

Obet’s family’s lawyers said he wasn’t a threat when he was shot. The Auburn Police Department did not agree.

“If Officer Nelson didn’t act to keep the community safe that day, more people could have been hurt,” said former Police Chief Dan O’Neil in a Facebook post after the family sued.

Nelson killed Brian Scaman, a Vietnam veteran who had mental problems and had committed crimes in the past, in 2011. He shot him after stopping him for having a broken headlight. Scaman got out of his car with a knife and wouldn’t put it down; Nelson shot him in the head. An investigation jury found Nelson did nothing wrong.

In 2018, Nelson drove his police car to hit Joseph Loren Allen, a man thought to have a gun and running from the police. When Nelson hit him, Allen wasn’t armed or doing anything to hurt anyone. This did cause Allen to break both his ankles. His lawyer said he wasn’t a threat to anyone at that time.

The lawyer Mohammad Hamoudi put together a brief report on how Nelson used force and gave it to a court. Between 2012 and 2018, Nelson used his police dog to chase suspects about 36 times. He also made suspects unconscious about 12 times using neck restraint holds.

The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, which makes sure police officers in the state are qualified, wants to punish and maybe take away Nelson’s police badge. They say he has repeatedly shown a lack of care for other people’s rights.