Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Response Team leads the investigation into the Feb. 10 shooting against two Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office deputies.
The suspect – a 60-year-old Maple Falls, Wash. resident – faces 11 total charges. The charges include six counts of reckless endangerment, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault while armed with a firearm, second-degree assault while armed with a firearm and felony harassment.
The suspect will be represented in court by Starck M. Follis from the Whatcom County Public Defender Office. The suspect’s’ next hearing is scheduled for March 16 at the Whatcom County District Court, with the trial to begin April 11.
Lieutenant Claudia Murphy, Bellingham Police Department’s Public Information Officer, said all the subsequent charges are a result of the criminal investigation into the shooting.
“We have to analyze all the evidence we get and see if there are further charges which will arise,” Murphy said.
The team heading the investigation, LEMART, was created to investigate officer-involved shootings involving local law enforcement. WCSO can’t publicly comment on cases involving deputies from their department. This is to provide transparency to the community for the agency involved in the shooting.
“LEMART is a team of investigators comprised of detectives from multiple agencies around Whatcom County,” Murphy said. “The reason we are the lead agency in this one is that the WCSO is the involved agency, so they are not investigating their own incident.”
In 2021, Washington State law around investigations into officer-involved shootings changed and the independent investigations team was created. Specifically, the IIT is called in to investigate officer-involved shootings that results in serious injury or death to the aggressor. LEMART is handling the recent shooting instead of IIT because the deputies were injured and not the suspect who was the aggressor.
Murphy said Whatcom County has had a level of independent investigation with LEMART long before the law was changed to create the IIT.
The deputies involved in the shooting, Jay Thompson and Ryan Rathbun, both sustained injuries to the head by the suspect while responding to a domestic dispute 911 call. As of Feb. 14, both deputies have been released from the hospital and continue to recover from the incident.
Steven Harris of the Whatcom County Sheriff's Guild said a shooting against deputies is rare in Whatcom County. And fortunately, the recent shooting was the first time a deputy had been shot in Whatcom County since 1921.
“We are lucky to live here in Whatcom County as we receive a tremendous amount of public support,” Harris said. “The easiest thing the public can do is to just give a friendly wave and smile when they see us out working.”
The two injured deputies have received support from the Blue Hero Project, a Washington State nonprofit dedicated to supporting local law enforcement communities. Also, a representative from The Wounded Blue, a nonprofit organization that provides support for wounded law enforcement officers, was able to meet with both deputies on Feb. 25.
Kieran Bresnahan is a city news reporter studying visual journalism at WWU. He enjoys writing about education and local businesses and taking photos of local events.
