PUYALLUP, Wash. — Newly released bodycam video shows the moment a Pierce County deputy shot and killed a Puyallup man he believed was reaching for a gun.
This deadly encounter happened near Puyallup last January as 22-year-old Moses Portillo sat in the back seat of a car.
The vehicle had been pulled over for a traffic stop at the intersection of Canyon Road and 134th Street.
Dan Kyler, a lawyer hired by the family, is raising questions about why this happened, questions they say still haven’t been answered.
Even now, he insists, he doesn’t know why a traffic stop last January ended in Portillo’s death.
“How’s it going?” asked Pierce County Sheriff’s Deputy Thomas Dolan as he approached.
“Good, what about you?” asked the driver.
“So, I stopped you because your mirror’s smashed and you’re changing lanes without signaling,” Dolan told her.
It began as a routine traffic stop. It was 10 p.m. on a Sunday last January.
The car was heading south along Canyon Road East when Dolan pulled the driver over. As she hands him her driver’s license, Dolan notices someone in the back seat.
“Okay, I’ll take his ID, too,” he said, “Because he’s not wearing a seatbelt. And he’s got an open container.”
In the back seat was Portillo. We hear the driver asking him to hand over his identification.
While she is trying to get it, Dolan asks this.
“Okay, where’s the gun in the car?” he asked.
“The what?” asked the driver.
“The gun,” said Dolan. “Okay, it’s on his lap.”
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Dolan radios in that information.
“Five 17, one at gunpoint, gun on his lap,” said Dolan.
Then he shouts at Portillo, “Hey, show me your f— hands.”
The driver appears confused.
“What are you talking about?” she asked Dolan.
“There’s a f— gun on his lap!” he yelled. “Don’t f— reach for it.”
“It’s pretty shocking,” said Kyler. “Because it is so, oh you’re, you’re watching someone’s life be ended.”
The family hired Kyler to investigate the fatal shooting. He says the video raises lots of questions.
“As I watched it, I’m like, what is he supposed to do at this, the victim?” asked Kyler. “How is this, how does this get resolved, I guess, is what I was thinking as I read it.”
“Hey, put your hands on the ceiling!” shouted Dolan.
In the video, Portillo appears to argue with Dolan, asking, at one point, if he plans to shoot him.
“Put your f— hands on the ceiling!” Dolan shouted.
“Why?” Portillo asked.
“Put your f— hands on the ceiling,” Dolan repeated. “Right now. Right now.”
Then he opens fire.
The Pierce County Sheriff would not talk because this is an active case.
The lawyer for Portillo’s family says they believe he was just moving his shoulder, and that his hands were still held high when he was shot.
Now they are deciding whether to file a lawsuit.
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