SPOKANE, Wash – The fiance of a man killed by Spokane Police in 2022 says Spokane Police ambushed and killed him in violation of his civil rights.
Sarah McLaughlin filed a federal lawsuit against the city Thursday, also naming several police officers individually.
Police shot Robert Bradley outside his Hillyard home. Police say they were there to serve an order for him to surrender his firearms and when they approached him, he reached for his gun.
In bodycam footage released earlier this year, you can hear police yell at Bradley to shop reaching for something. An investigation into the use of force says Bradley’s movements prove he was pointing a gun at them when he was shot.
According to the federal lawsuit, Bradley had just returned home from a camping trip when three officers “crept up on [him] as he unloaded his van.” The suit alleges police opened fire before police even knew they were there.
The suit says Bradley “was shot nine times at point blank range and killed in front of his fiance and children.”
McLaughlin contends Bradley didn’t know about the warrant and a protection order that would force him to stay away from his neighbor with whom he was in a property dispute.
“The SPD unreasonably escalated what should have been a standard police matter into one of unjustified, reckless and impulsive aggression,” the suit alleges. “They approached the house as if conducting a military-style stealth raid of the Bradley family home and ambushed Mr. Bradley in his driveway.”
The suit references body camera video, which allegedly shows that the officer waited until he was six feet from the passenger-side door before he announced that he was a police officer and that Bradley should show his hands.
The suit says Bradley didn’t have time to respond and that officers opened fire two seconds after that warning.
Body camera video released to 4 News Now earlier this year shows the officers creeping up on the vehicle. You can hear them immediately tell Bradley to show his hands, then hear the chaos before the shots were fired.
The City of Spokane has not yet responded to the lawsuit in federal court, but the investigation cleared officers of any wrongdoing and prosecutors declined to file charges against them.
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