Transit officer fought with suspects before fatal shooting

SEATTLE, Wash. — Chopper 7 was overhead as Mario Parra and Carlos Diaz Nicholas were detained following a deadly shooting.

Seattle police said they boarded the light rail train at Sound Transit's Stadium station along with Oscar Perez-Giron.

Perez-Giron didn't pay so three unarmed fare enforcement officers forced them off the train at the SODO station.

According to court documents, when a King County sheriff's deputy arrived for backup, Perez-Giron pulled out a gun.

The officer wrestled with Perez-Giron, managed to pull out his own weapon, and pointed it at the suspect.

That's when, the documents said, Mario Parra grabbed the officer's arm.  The gun fired and Perez-Giron was fatally shot.

The officer broke free, Parra fell to the ground and raised his hands in surrender.

Tuesday night, a group of protesters gathered at the light rail platform, protesting the shooting.

The protesters continued to shout “we’re not gonna pay so get to shooting”  at the same Sodo station where yesterday a King County Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Perez-Girion.

Friends of the man who was shot and killed also showed up for a vigil Tuesday evening.

They were unconvinced Perez-Girion did anything wrong and called what the deputy did “murder.”

Meantime, Parra was a no show at his first court appearance, accused of unlawful possession of a firearm and assaulting a police officer.

He was ordered held on $100,000 bail.

Nicholas was released from police custody.

The deadly shooting put Sound Transit's south line out of service for five long hours, until 9p.m. Monday night.

Given that, KIRO 7 asked if Sound Transit should considering arming its fare enforcement officers.

"No," said Kimberly Reason, Sound Transit spokeswoman.

"Now and then we do have some passengers who behave in such a way as what caused the officer last night to call for backup and he called for armed backup.  We work very closely with Metro King County Sheriff's Department.  So that system has worked very well for us. And it worked very well last night."

But some stranded passengers said the system did not work well for them. And the raised some hard questions about how the transit agency handles passengers during an emergency.

KIRO