Family of Man Shot by Lynnwood Police Settles Federal Suit for $1.75 Million
After trial: Settled at mediation for $1.75 million before any ruling on the merits, so no court decided the excessive-force question. The city's insurance risk pool paid in full in late September 2018, with no admission of wrongdoing.
Won by Budge & Heipt, PLLC.
On January 30, 2017, Lynnwood police officer Zachary Yates fired ten shots at 36-year-old Jeremy Dowell, a Mountlake Terrace man with mental health issues who was carrying a knife on Highway 99, and killed him. Investigators concluded the shooting was within legal standards and prosecutors declined to charge Yates, but twelve witnesses later signed sworn declarations contradicting the official account, ten of them saying Yates kept firing at a stumbling or already fallen Dowell. Dowell's estate and his parents sued Yates individually for excessive force in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in May 2018. The parties settled on August 31, 2018, and Lynnwood's insurance risk pool paid $1.75 million in late September under the city's obligation to defend the officer, with no admission of wrongdoing.
What happened
On the morning of January 30, 2017, Jeremy Dowell, a 36-year-old Mountlake Terrace man who had mental health issues, walked into Western Carpet Center on Highway 99 in Lynnwood at about 9:30 a.m. He accused the owner and an employee of wanting to kill him, and he referred to ISIS before leaving. The owner called 911 and reported that Dowell had been hostile. Lynnwood police officer Zachary Yates heard the call go out over the radio and responded.
Yates saw Dowell run across Highway 99 toward a Costco parking lot and chased him on foot. In a written statement, Yates said he broke off the chase when he saw that Dowell was carrying a large fixed blade knife, that Dowell then turned toward him, and that he opened fire after Dowell ignored commands to drop the weapon. Yates fired ten shots in all. Dowell was killed.
The Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team, known as SMART, investigated and concluded the shooting fell within legal standards, and prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges. Twelve witnesses later signed sworn declarations that contradicted the official account. Six of the people who said they saw the initial confrontation said Dowell never directly threatened Yates. Ten said Yates kept firing at a stumbling, helpless or severely injured Dowell, and five said some rounds were fired while Dowell was on the ground. Several of them said no detective ever followed up after they gave statements at the scene.
On May 14, 2018, Dowell's estate, his mother, Suzette Dowell, and his stepfather, Robert Dowell, filed a federal civil rights suit under Section 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, docketed as The Estate of Jeremy R. Dowell v. Yates, No. 2:18-cv-00689. Seattle attorneys Ed Budge and Erik Heipt filed the case and attached the twelve witness declarations to it. The complaint accused Yates of "outrageous and reprehensible use of deadly force" and alleged that the SMART investigation had been steered toward clearing him. The suit was unusual in one respect: it named Yates individually and did not name the city of Lynnwood or its police department as a defendant.
The parties went to mediation and reached agreement on August 31, 2018, before any trial or ruling on the merits, and the court entered a stipulated dismissal in early September. Lynnwood's insurance risk pool paid the $1.75 million in late September 2018, under the city's obligation to defend the officer, and the city made no admission that Yates had done anything wrong. The money was divided among Dowell's mother, his stepfather, and his estate. Budge called the payment one of the largest in Washington involving excessive force allegations against police, particularly in a case resolved without going to trial.
The criminal review ended differently. Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Roe looked at the shooting a second time after the witness declarations were filed, and in October 2018 he reaffirmed his office's original conclusion that the shooting was justified, defending the SMART investigation as thorough and fair. Because the civil case settled, no court ever decided whether the shooting was excessive force. No appeal followed.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Seattle Times (Steve Miletich, Oct. 3, 2018)·Archived copy
- 2.Seattle Times (Steve Miletich and Mike Carter, May 14, 2018)·Archived copy
- 3.Seattle Times (Steve Miletich, Oct. 16, 2018)·Archived copy
- 4.HeraldNet (Oct. 4, 2018)·Archived copy
- 5.CourtListener/RECAP docket, The Estate of Jeremy R. Dowell v. Yates, No. 2:18-cv-00689 (W.D. Wash.)
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