Use of deadly force ‘justified’ in shooting of Said Joquin, prosecutor says

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — In a letter sent by email to the Lakewood Police Department, Pierce County Prosecutor Mary Robnett determined that “the use of deadly force was justified” in the shooting of Said Joquin.

The fatal shooting happened in Lakewood during a traffic stop on May 1, 2020. Joquin was in a black 1997 Ford Thunderbird at the time.

Officer Mike Wiley, a veteran with the department, shot Joquin at around 4 p.m. in the 6400 block of Steilacoom Boulevard Southwest and Whitman Avenue.

The shooting was captured on audio.

Prosecutors said Joquin reached for a loaded handgun after he was told repeatedly not to reach for the gun.

It was determined that reaching for the gun during the encounter posed an “imminent threat” to the officers at the scene.

Joquin, 26, was taken to Tacoma General Hospital, where he died.

Joquin’s family told The News Tribune during that time that he ran a stop sign and was cooperating with police when he was shot.

However, the office of the prosecuting attorney stated the officer advised Joquin he had seen the gun and told him to put his hands on his head and that “if he reached for anything he would be shot.”

At 4:04 p.m. on May 1, 2020, Wiley called out “shots fired.”

The officer had fired off four rounds that hit Joquin in the chest, according to the prosecutor.

Video from the other officer’s patrol car at the scene was said to be obstructed due to the position of their vehicle, which was behind Wiley’s patrol car, officials said. However, some of the audio was recorded at the scene.

According to the prosecuting attorney’s office, “Photographs were taken at the scene, prior to the vehicle being moved, in which the grip of a gun can be seen protruding from under the driver’s seat, such that the grip is visible on the floorboard and the remainder of the gun is under the seat.”

Now that Robnett has reviewed an independent investigation by the Metro Crime Response Unit Investigation Team and other relevant materials, it has been determined that the “use of force was justified and lawful,” according to a letter sent to the Lakewood police chief.

Joquin’s mother and sister had filed a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit, which alleged Wiley to be “an unnecessarily aggressive officer with a history of previously improperly and unnecessarily escalating an encounter with a young unarmed African-American man into the unjustified use of deadly force,” according to a report from The News Tribune.

Wiley had also been named in a wrongful death lawsuit back in 2013 in connection to a deadly SWAT standoff in Fife.

That suit ended with a $12.5 million settlement.

Click here to read the full letter sent to Lakewood Police Department Chief Mike Zaro from the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney.