by Jamie Swift, King County Journal
AUBURN, Wash. -- Officers reached into a fleeing vehicle driven by a suspected drug dealer before the vehicle ran over one officer’s foot.
That officer immediately fired through the driver’s window -- killing the driver and wounding the passenger.
Trying to prevent a suspect from escaping is ``a natural instinct,’' Auburn police Cmdr. Bob Karnofski said Thursday of how officers had reached into the vehicle.
Just four months ago, a Kent officer reached into the vehicle of a man who refused to stop. The officer was dragged through an East Hill parking lot before another officer fatally shot the driver, Richard L. ``Bear’’ McCartor. An inquest is pending in that police shooting.
The driver in Tuesday’s fatal shooting initially pulled over for uniformed Auburn officers and turned the car off. As officers approached the Chevrolet SUV, the driver restarted the vehicle, according to Karnofski.
Police say the unarmed driver used the vehicle as a deadly weapon, giving the officer the right to fire his gun to ``stop the threat of death or serious injury to the officers or others,’' which is the department’s police.
The vehicle was the subject of narcotics surveillance, Karnofski said. The surveillance was part of an ongoing investigation by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and Auburn narcotics detectives.
Inside the vehicle, which rolled to a stop on 16th Street Southeast near the Auburn Municipal Airport, police found ``suspected narcotics packaged consistent with drugs for sale’’ and ``a large sum of cash,’' Karnofski said.
The identity of the driver, who died at the scene, has not been released. Police said the man is a Mexican citizen who is between 27 and 29 years old. He has eight different aliases and has used five dates of birth. He has an extensive criminal history, including manufacturing, possessing and selling drugs, obstructing justice and vehicular hit-and-run.
The 18-year-old passenger, Veronica Duran of Yakima, remained in satisfactory condition Thursday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with an abdomen wound.
The officer who fired the shots is 31-year-old Doug Faini, the department revealed Thursday. Faini is a 71Ž2-year veteran of the Auburn department who is specially trained to handle the department’s narcotics-detection dog.
Faini once received the Medal of Honor for helping to save a person’s life by administering CPR, making him a member of the department’s Honor Guard.
``He’s an outstanding officer,’' Karnofski said Thursday. Faini, who also had a paint stripe across his chest from being sideswiped by the SUV, is recovering from his foot injury and will remain on paid-administrative leave during the shooting investigation.
The officer also seems to be ``doing well’’ emotionally, Karnofski said. ``No officer wants to go through this. It’s traumatic.’'
The investigation is being handled by the Federal Way Police Department. Federal Way detectives have looked at video captured by cameras mounted in the Auburn police cars that were at the scene. Karnofski was told the video tapes seem to back up the officers’ accounts.
Once Federal Way detectives wrap up their investigation, they will forward their findings to the King County Prosecutor’s Office, which will conduct a formal inquest. After the inquest, the shooting will be examined by the Firearms Review Board of the Auburn Police Department, Karnofski said.