The Aberdeen Police officer-related shooting that took place Sept. 9 and resulted in the death of Kristopher Fitzpatrick was a “justifiable use of deadly force,” according to a letter released Friday by Grays Harbor County Prosecutor Katie Svoboda.

Svoboda wrote that while the actions of the officer who fired the shots, identified as Jesus Martinez-Lopez, “led to the death of Fitzpatrick, they were lawful. It is my conclusion that this is a justifiable use of deadly force and the State could not prove otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt.”

This is the first of two Aberdeen Police officer-related shootings in the past two months. Another took place Oct. 24. The suspect in that case survived and made his first court-appearance Oct. 30 in Superior Court; see page 4 for details.

Svoboda made her conclusion on the Sept. 9 shooting based on reports from the Region 3 Critical Incident Investigation Team. Included were accounts from police and civilian witnesses and video and audio evidence. Svoboda herself was on the scene shortly after the shooting and observed a walk-through by Aberdeen Police Sgt. Ross Lampky, and she was present for an Aberdeen Police briefing on the incident Sept. 19.

“I was familiar with a great deal of this information and I’m glad it’s finally all coming out,” said Aberdeen Police Chief Steve Shumate.

Fitzpatrick was approached by Lampky Sept. 9 to serve a felony arrest warrant for attempting to elude and possession of methamphetamine, which stemmed from an incident in the Aberdeen Safeway parking lot Aug. 16.

According to the reports, Fitzpatrick would not comply with Lampky’s commands as Lampky attempted to make the arrest. Martinez-Lopez, employed by the Aberdeen Police Department for about a year, and Officer Taylor Wright were nearby on an unrelated call and when they heard Lampky was in a confrontation with Fitzpatrick they started to travel toward Lampky’s location at the corner of Broadway and Heron.

Svoboda’s letter states that Fitzpatrick fled, “digging in his pocket.” Martinez-Lopez pursued Fitzpatrick on foot and was able to identify a handgun in Fitzpatrick’s hand from a distance of 10-15 feet as Fitzpatrick directed the weapon at the officer. Rather than fire, Martinez-Lopez took cover behind a vehicle, repeatedly ordering Fitzpatrick to drop the weapon.

“Officer Martinez-Lopez, putting himself in mortal peril, chose to take cover rather than deploying justified lethal force at this point,” wrote Svoboda.

Video posted to social media shortly after the shooting showed a police vehicle pull in close to Fitzpatrick. According to Svoboda’s letter, that vehicle was driven by Lampky and stopped between Fitzpatrick and Martinez-Lopez. During the encounter, Martinez-Lopez can be heard ordering Fitzpatrick to drop the weapon, and Fitzpatrick responding with “shoot me now.”

In subsequent interviews, Martinez-Lopez said he believed at that time Fitzpatrick was going to shoot him. Lampky said as he saw the gun in Fitzpatrick’s right hand as Fitzpatrick approached his patrol vehicle, he ducked below the plane of his window “as he believed Fitzpatrick was going to shoot him” and drew his own weapon.

“Fitzpatrick, still armed with a firearm, approached Sergeant Lampky in his vehicle while raising the gun,” wrote Svoboda. “Seeing that his Sergeant was vulnerable and in extreme, imminent danger, Officer Martinez-Lopez acted in defense of Sergeant Lampky.”

A Jennings Firearms .22 caliber pistol was recovered at the scene. After Fitzpatrick was shot, Lampky located the gun underneath Fitzpatrick and moved it out of Fitzpatrick’s reach.

Cosmopolis Deputy Chief Heath Layman arrived at the scene and in his in-car video “the gun is clearly visible on the sidewalk” about two minutes after the shots-fired call went out, said Svoboda. “Ultimately you can see officers placing a cone over the firearm to protect its location.”

The social media video of the shooting that surfaced shortly after the shooting did not clearly show a gun in Fitzpatrick’s hand, prompting an outcry from the social media audience. That prompted investigators to release a still from a portion of the video not published on social media, showing what appeared to be a silver handgun in Fitzpatrick’s right hand.

“We certainly don’t have the desire to cause harm to people,” said Shumate. “Our desire is they don’t break the law and follow our commands when we ask them to do certain things.”

Svoboda’s letter includes statements from seven civilian witnesses. “Multiple additional witness statements were taken as part of this investigation. I find the statements to be materially consistent with each other and the physical evidence in this case,” she wrote.