The King County Prosecutor’s Office said Officer Noah Zech, 40, was justified in firing a single round from his patrol rifle, striking Shaun Fuhr in the back of the head as Fuhr fled through a construction site in the 4100 block of 37th Avenue South after police responded to a report of domestic violence and child abduction.
The city’s civilian-run Office of Police Accountability previously found Zech’s actions fell within the department’s policies. The office also dismissed complaints of biased policing — Zech is white and Fuhr was Black — and failure to de-escalate the situation before resorting to deadly force.
King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion met with Fuhr’s family and their attorneys before publicly releasing her office’s findings. A federal civil-rights lawsuit from Fuhr’s family is pending against the city and Zech in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
In addition to an internal investigation by OPA, the city in a rare move had asked the King County Sheriff’s Office to investigate the shooting, along with the SPD’s Force Investigation Team and Firearms Review Board.
Zech, a member of SPD’s SWAT team and longtime department veteran, was among a large number of officers who had responded to a frantic 911 call from a woman who said she had been beaten by her boyfriend, who fired a shot at her and had taken their 1-year-old daughter, according to police. The woman reported her boyfriend, Fuhr, had assaulted her throughout the day, and police said she had significant injuries.
The police department released a copy of the woman’s frantic 911 call and a clip of body-camera video from another officer who was pursuing Fuhr.
The lawsuit — filed by Fuhr’s father on behalf of his granddaughter — alleges she wasn’t in danger and that police, when they caught up with Fuhr about a half hour after the initial call, could see he was not armed, was not threatening officers, and was complying with their commands.
The body-camera video shows several officers chasing Fuhr through a small parking lot and down the side of a building, where they confront him. Fuhr was holding the child when he was shot, and another officer ran and picked up the child. Police said the infant wasn’t physically injured.
The department said a handgun was found “nearby.”
“At the time Shaun was shot, he was unarmed and cradling his infant daughter in his arms,” the family’s lawsuit said.