A Thurston County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) deputy involved in a non-fatal shooting in Yelm earlier this year has been cleared of wrongdoing by the Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
The incident involved a Yelm-area resident accused of charging at Thurston County Sheriff’s Office deputies with a firearm, and getting shot by a deputy in turn, on June 4.
The deputy, identified as Vidal Zamora, was responding to a car fire at 149th Lane Southeast near Yelm just after 9 a.m., alongside other deputies and West Thurston Fire Authority personnel.
After arriving at the scene, Zamora gave commands to a subject, allegedly the property owner, Joseph Kochanowski, 68, to step away from the vehicle fire.
In response, Kochanowski allegedly presented a firearm and charged towards Zamora.
Zamora then shot Kochanowski several times.
TCSO deputies and Yelm Police Department officers removed a second firearm from Kochanowski and issued medical aid.
The vehicle fire was extinguished after aid was rendered to Kochanowski.
Kochanowski was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening wounds, cleared, and booked into jail.
He was charged June 12 with one count of second-degree assault. He was found mentally incompetent to stand trial, and his court case is currently on hold as he undergoes court mandated mental health treatment. A competency review hearing is scheduled for Dec. 14.
The Region 3 Critical Incidents Investigation Team (CIIT) responded to conduct an independent investigation into the officer-involved shooting, and those findings were provided to the Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Part of those findings were body camera footage that was previously released by TCSO.
“In the seven page review, the Prosecutor’s Office noted Deputy Zamora’s efforts to de-escalate, Deputy Zamora’s legal authority to render the scene safe for firefighters who were waiting down the street, and Deputy Zamora’s restraint to only use deadly force as a last resort once his own life was threatened with a firearm,” Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders stated in a social media post on Tuesday, Oct. 27.
The review document itself had not been made public as of Wednesday, Oct. 28.
According to standard protocol, Zamora was placed on administrative leave while the investigation was underway.
The ruling from the Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office allows Zamora to return to work.
Sanders thanked deputies, Yelm officers, fire personnel, detectives, medical personnel and the Region 3 CIIT investigators for their work on the scene and during the investigation.
“The use of deadly force by government agents is a serious matter that deserves to be carefully scrutinized, and Deputy Zamora’s actions and conduct on June 4th surpass such analysis,” Sanders wrote Oct. 27. “I am grateful that no one was killed during this incident, and pleased with the response of backup officers/deputies/detectives, medical personnel, and Region 3 CIIT for preserving all relevant evidence.”
This incident is the second officer-involved shooting that TCSO has been involved in this year.
Three TCSO deputies fatally shot and killed a suspect who was allegedly shooting at them from a backyard in the Olympia area on April 28.
The suspect had been involved in a police pursuit with TCSO earlier that day.
The Office of Independent Investigations (OII) is handling the ongoing investigation into that incident. The three involved deputies have been on administrative leave since the incident occurred, and will remain so until OII’s investigation is completed and reviewed by the Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office.
