A Washington police officer has been charged with murder after fatally shooting a man outside a grocery store in a 67-second encounter
- A police officer in Washington state has been charged with murder and assault after fatally shooting a man outside a grocery store in the torso and head within seconds of trying to arrest him.
- The officer fatally shot 26-year-old Jesse Sarey on May 31, 2019, and prosecutors said they analyzed surveillance video and consulted law-enforcement experts to determine that the shooting was unjustified.
- The entire encounter lasted just 67 seconds, and the officer pulled the trigger just 29 seconds after trying to arrest Sarey.
- Video shows the officer, Jeffrey Nelson, approaching Sarey and attempting to arrest him for disorderly conduct, but the situation immediately devolved into a violent scuffle.
- Prosecutors said Nelson failed to follow his training by not using de-escalation techniques, not waiting for backup, and not using the Taser he was carrying instead.
- A lawyer representing Nelson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, but a statement from Nelson alleged that Sarey had repeatedly tried to grab his gun.
A police officer in Washington state has been charged with murder after fatally shooting a man — once in the torso and once in the forehead — in the state's first prosecution under a new law aiming to hold police accountable for use of force.
The officer, Jeffrey Nelson, has been charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree assault in the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Jesse Sarey, which occurred May 31, 2019.
In the fall of 2018, Washington passed a law giving prosecutors more leniency in charging police officers who used deadly force. Previous law required that the prosecutors prove that officers acted with malice, "which was essentially an impossible standard to meet," according to the King County prosecutor's office.
Nelson can be seen in the videos getting out of his vehicle and approaching Sarey outside the grocery store, saying, "I told you to stop kicking stuff and throwing stuff, right?" and ordering Sarey to put his hands behind his back.
Sarey could be heard arguing with Nelson, who tells him he's under arrest for disorderly conduct.
Nelson then tried to physically arrest Sarey, and the two could be heard scuffling. Though it wasn't visible from the video, prosecutors also alleged that a bystander had leaned down to pick up Nelson's folding knife that had fallen to the ground.
Nelson could then be seen and heard punching Sarey seven times, before firing one shot into his torso, clearing his gun of a jammed round, then firing a second shot into Sarey's forehead.
The bystander who picked up Nelson's folding knife could be heard saying, "Oh my god. Oh my god. Holy s---, he just shot him."
Prosecutors alleged that the officer 'created the very situation that brought about his use of deadly force'
Prosecutors described both of Nelson's shots as "unreasonable," citing experts that included a former police chief in Idaho and a former deputy chief in California.
"Our experts determined that Mr. Nelson did not follow his training in a number of ways, and those failures needlessly provoked the circumstances that led to Mr. Sarey's death," prosecutors said in a statement. "He did not de-escalate the situation. He did not wait for backup. Officer Nelson went hands on with Mr. Sarey in just 38 seconds and Mr. Sarey was fatally shot 29 seconds later.
"Officer Nelson created the very situation that brought about his use of deadly force," prosecutors alleged.
A lawyer representing Nelson, Alan Harvey, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. But Harvey told The New York Times that Nelson had fired the shots in self-defense after Sarey tried to grab his gun.
"When we have the opportunity to get in front of a jury, they will do the right thing and find that my client did not commit any crimes," Harvey told The Times.
In a statement from Nelson obtained by The Auburn Examiner, Nelson said Sarey tried twice during their scuffle to grab his gun, adding that he began punching Sarey to stop him, but that the punches had no effect. He said Sarey then grabbed Nelson's four-inch folding knife and apparently opened it.
Prosecutors have disputed Nelson's defense, saying the closed knife by that time was in the possession of a bystander who had picked it up, and Nelson's gun was fully in Nelson's possession.
Nelson said he withdrew his gun and fired a shot into Sarey's torso because "I had no other reasonable alternative regarding the use of force and that the use of deadly force was appropriate to avoid being killed or seriously injured."
He said he couldn't immediately tell whether the shot had hit Sarey, and that Sarey "appeared to be in a position where he was ready to spring forward and re-engage me," so he fired another shot into Sarey's head.
Prosecutors have also disputed that defense, saying Sarey could be seen falling to the ground after the shot.
According to prosecutors, Nelson was not wearing a body camera during the shooting, but was wearing a Taser he could have deployed. They added that Sarey was not armed.
Nelson faces a sentence of 10 to 18 years if he is convicted on both counts.
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