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Law enforcement expert evaluates how SPD handled chase, shootout

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SEATTLE — Jim Fuda, associate director for law enforcement services with Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound, agreed to take a look at the 3-minute dash cam video Seattle police released late Monday night.

"It's amazing that other people weren't hurt," he said, as he weighed in on how officers handled the chase and shootout Sunday through Northeast Seattle.

Fuda, who spent 33 years as a King County Sheriff's deputy, the last 15 years in special operations, says the officers had just one mission.

"That person had to be stopped," he said.

The officers rammed the 35-year-old suspect's vehicle.  But he wouldn't stop.

And even when he started shooting at them, the officers did not return fire.

"We're taught not to shoot from a moving vehicle," said Fuda. "And if I'm not mistaken, that should be in the pursuit policy.  That's when innocent people can be shot."

All the while, Fuda says, a supervisor, who is likely far from the scene, was determining whether to continue the chase.

"Shots fired," he said, doing his own assessment.  "They didn't know who he was. He was in a stolen car. That wasn't going to help them look for a car, especially if this was the third or fourth car he had hijacked. So at that stage of the game, as supervisor, I would have let this one go on."

Even when cornered, the suspect tried to get away.  Only then did the officers shoot.

“Look at the path that this guy took," said Fuda. "Driving a wrong way down Roosevelt.  And nobody else gets hurt in any part of this.  That's a job well done!"

The suspect was shot dead.

He has been identified as Raymond Azevedo, a man with a long criminal history.

His last known address was in Lakewood in Pierce County.

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