Local

Tacoma shooting justified; family seeks investigation

The fatal shooting of a woman by a Tacoma police officer has been ruled justifiable homicide. But the woman's family says they want the feds to investigate.
 
According to Pierce County prosecuting attorney Mark Lindquist Tacoma police Officer Scott Campbell shot and killed Jaqueline Salyers on Jan. 28 after she hit the gas, apparently trying to get away.
 
"When Jaqueline drove away she could have driven away from the officer," said Lindquist. "But according to the investigation (she) drove toward the officer which is why he shot his weapon."
 
Salyers, 32, died at the scene after being struck four times.
 
Police say after she was shot, the man Salyers was in the car with grabbed a rifle and ran off.
 
It was Kenneth Wright Jr. police were after that night, not Salyers. He was wanted on charges of first-degree robbery, unlawful weapons possession and unlawful delivery of a controlled substance. Wright was arrested more than a month later.
 
According to the findings toxicology tests revealed Salyers had ingested a drug similar to heroin and had what the Pierce County medical examiner called a potentially fatal level of methamphetamine in her system at the time of her death.
 
Salyers family says they expected Officer Campbell to be cleared because state law requires there be evidence of malice toward the person shot to criminally charge a police officer.
 
"There's no way they're ever going to charge an officer in this state even if he's black and white guilty, without malice in place they're not going to charge him," said Salyers cousin Chester Earl
 
Salyers was a member of the Puyallup tribe. Tribal members and supporters staged a demonstration in March calling for justice.
 
Now family members say they want a federal investigation into the shooting by the Department of Justice.
 
"That's what we're seeking and are going to continue to seek," said Salyers' uncle James Rideout.