After the tragic fatal shooting of a 23-year-old pregnant woman, Renee Davis, her family is moving forward in filing a “wrongful death lawsuit against the county and deputies in King County Superior Court.” The lawsuit stems from the fatal shooting in 2016 that claimed Davis’ life when sheriff deputies, “who had been dispatched to check on her well-being,” opened fire and killed her. But what transpired leading up to the shooting? Why were deputies dispatched to check on her in the first place?
After the tragic fatal shooting of a 23-year-old pregnant woman, Renee Davis, her family is moving forward in filing a “wrongful death lawsuit against the county and deputies in King County Superior Court.” The lawsuit stems from the fatal shooting in 2016 that claimed Davis’ life when sheriff deputies, “who had been dispatched to check on her well-being,” opened fire and killed her. But what transpired leading up to the shooting? Why were deputies dispatched to check on her in the first place?
According to the lawsuit, which was filed by Renee’s sister and member of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, “Davis was suicidal and statements she had made to her boyfriend the night of Oct. 21, 2016 made him concerned enough to seek out a sheriff’s deputy near the tribe’s powwow grounds and ask the deputy to check on her.” Agreeing to the request, deputy Nicholas Pritchett and a backup officer, Deputy Timothy Lewis, visited the home in the “Skopabsh Village neighborhood on the reservation, which contracts for law-enforcement services from King County.”
Upon arriving at the home, the officers allegedly “pounded on the front door before they entered the home and kicked down the door to Davis’ bedroom home while her children, ages 2 and 3, stood waiting in the hallway.” According to the officers, “Davis was lying in bed and pointed a handgun at them.” However, the lawsuit filed by the family “alleges there is no evidence that occurred outside of the deputies self-serving statements.”
Others agree with the family, including statements from other deputies who arrived at the scene after the fatal shooting. In fact, “statements by the deputies and evidence introduced at the inquest last May found that they recovered a handgun but that it was not loaded.” Additionally, the lawsuit states that “when a third officer arrived just after the shooting, he found Pritchett and Lewis just standing around while the woman lay bleeding and making guttural noises on the floor.” He said he “saw a handgun in the woman’s hand, which contradicts statements by Pritchett that the woman dropped the gun on the bed and fell to the floor after the gunfire.”
Because of the statements from the third officer, the lawsuit alleges that either Pritchett or Lewis “placed the pistol in Renee’s hand on the floor” before the third officer arrived.” It also alleges the two “tampered with the crime scene and failed to provide aid to Davis, who bled to death from her wounds.”
But how many shots were fired during the incident? Well, according to the lawsuit, Pritchett and Lewis “fired a total of eight rounds at the woman, who was in her bed, striking her three times in the abdomen, chest, and leg.” She was four months pregnant at the time of the shooting.
Despite the evidence and statements from the third officer, the “six-member inquest jury in May found the deputies had reason to fear for their lives…however, the panel was divided on whether the deputies showed concern for Davis’s welfare when they acted.”
It will be interesting to see how this case plays out, and whether or not the courts will side with the family or deputies.
Sources:
Family of pregnant woman killed by deputies files lawsuit
Family of pregnant woman killed by King County sheriff’s deputies files wrongful-death lawsuit
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