A Marq resident said Reuter posted this flyer on the building’s front door in May.
King County will lead an inquest into the July 5th standoff on Capitol Hill in which police shot and killed an armed, mentally ill man inside his Capitol Hill condominium.
The fact-finding hearing is “routine” in any police shooting, an announcement of the inquest from King County said.
28-year-old Joel Reuter was shot dead by police after an hours-long standoff in which he reportedly eventually opened fire on officers. No police officers were injured by the gunfire. Reuter’s family is now fighting for changes in mental illness laws.
The Seattle Police Department released the names of the two SWAT officers that shot and killed Reuter in the days following the incident. Officers Chad Zentner, 44, and Jeff Geoghagan, 42, were placed on administrative leave following the shooting at Bellevue and Denny Way. According to SPD, Zetner first shot Reuter inside his apartment after he fired a 9mm handgun. After retreating into his room, Reuter returned waving his gun at police when Geoghagan shot him. Reuter died soon after.
(Image: CHS)
The Seattle Times reports that Geohagan was involved in three prior shooting deaths.
In the hours and days following Reuter’s death, a picture of a man suffering from paranoia and mental illness emerged. Friends and neighbors told CHS that Reuter had long suffered mental and physical illnesses. SPD said they were familiar with Reuter after crisis intervention teams were called to his residence on several occasions.
(Images: CHS)
A resident in the building where the incident occurred, who asked to remain anonymous, told CHS that he and other residents in the building started to raise concerns about Reuter’s erratic behavior in April. The man said Reuter’s anger was never directed at individuals, only vague ideas. The man said Reuter had an obsession with emergency broadcast messages and a disdain for certain politicians. “I know that he had a condition and was not in control,” the Marq resident said. “When things were good, he seemed like a normal, genuine guy.”
According to the announcement of the inquest, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg recommended the investigation after reviewing “investigative materials from the Seattle Police Department.”
UPDATE: This post have been updated to more accurately describe the inquest process, above.
Inquest ordered into fatal police shooting of gunman at Capitol Hill condominium
Fact-finding hearing is routine to determine causes and circumstances of any death involving a member of law enforcement while in performance of dutiesKing County Executive Dow Constantine today ordered an inquest into the fatal shooting of Joel Reuter by Seattle police on July 5, 2013.
Police responding to reports of gunfire in the 100 block of Bellevue Avenue E. found an armed man barricaded inside his condominium and threatening to shoot. After hours of negotiation, police say the gunman fired at SWAT officers covering the building and an officer fired and struck the suspect, who retreated into the unit. Police say the gunman came forward again, still holding the handgun, and was fatally shot by a second SWAT officer.
King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg recommended the inquest after his office reviewed investigative materials from the Seattle Police Department.
Inquests are fact-finding hearings conducted before a six-member jury. Under a standing Executive Order, they are routinely called to determine the causes and circumstances of any death involving a member of any law enforcement agency within King County while in the performance of his or her duties.
Inquests provide transparency into law enforcement actions so the public may have all the facts established in a court of law. The ordering of an inquest should carry no other implication. Inquest jurors answer a series of interrogatories to determine the significant factual issues involved in the case, and it is not their purpose to determine whether any person or agency is civilly or criminally liable.
The order signed by the Executive requests King County District Court Presiding Judge Corinna Harn to assign a judge to set a date and conduct the inquest.
The ordering of inquests is a function vested in the county executive under the King County Code.
What I find shocking is not that Seattle’s police have killed another mentally ill man – that is par for the course – or that they did it in his own home, but the picture of the scene. Is anyone else not alarmed at the militarization of the police? They show up to the house a mentally ill person in what is essentially a tank wearing storm trooper outfits carrying War-grade assault rifles. When did America become a police state?
lol a Tank? It’s an armored van. I think the reason they had so many armored vehicles was more to block roads, keep pedestrians away from any errant bullets.
Were the armored vehicles overkill? maybe. But then again, I think it makes sense to have some armored people around in case the guy decided to go out in a hail of bullets. You don’t seriously think they should have just walked up there without armor do you? It’s not the police’s job to engage perps in fair fights. Priority one should be to protect the public and de-escalate the situation. At the end of the day only one person died. Still tragic, but it could have been worse. I don’t know enough to say whether or not the police response exacerbated the situation.
To me, it seems like a lack of mental health care caused this situation to spin out of control, not the police.
Normally I’d love to rip on the SPD but they handled this situation in the best way they possibly could. Had this crazy person not had a weapon their response would have been overkill. They gave him every chance to stand down. If anything they were too accommodating. If you wave a gun like a crazy person out of your window you deserve whatever happens.
I feel terrible for what happened to Joel. However, as somebody who lives next door to the scene, I think that the SPD made the best of a bad situation. What would you expect them to do? He was shooting out his window in the middle of the densest neighborhood in the state. It was a no-win situation, and they had to make sure that bystanders were protected.
The “militarization of the police” that you’re referring to is a result of the war on drugs escalation that started in the 1970’s.
this is hardly a police state. spare us the dramatics.
the fact that he was mentally ill is secondary to the danger he presented. the police acted appropriately, even though the entire situation is tragic. thanks, spd. no thanks to the judges who refused to commit the man for mental health care.
And also no thanks to a mental health system which is dysfunctional and doesn’t have an effective mechanism for monitoring those who are discharged out into the community and stop taking their medications.
The police acted appropriately, but of course Joel’s death is a tragedy.
[…] A County inquest into the incident will likely follow. Earlier this year, King County officials announced a fact-finding hearing to examine this summer’s fatal shooting of an armed, mentally ill suspect inside a Bellevue […]