Police Department

SIIR Team Investigating Officer Involved Shooting

Sgt. Teresa Fuller

Monday, August 10, 2020 at 8:29 a.m.

Update:

The names of the Spokane Police Officers involved in the Officer Involved Shooting (OIS) from August 7, 2020, at the intersection of Crestline Street and Courtland Avenue are being released. Officer Dale Harvey and Officer Christopher Johnson fired their weapons in the OIS. #2020-20136616

Officer Dale Harvey was hired by the Spokane Police Department in November of 2011. Prior to SPD, he worked for the Western Washington University Police Department then the Post Falls Police Department.

During Officer Harvey’s four years with the Post Falls PD, he served on patrol, SWAT, as a firearms instructor and their Special Operations Group. Officer Harvey is currently an SPD Neighborhood Resource Officer based out of the Downtown Precinct and a member of SWAT.

Officer Harvey attended Berkley College of Music and Western Washington University studying Music Education and Sociology.

Officer Christopher Johnson was hired by the Spokane Police Department in 2007. He is currently a member of SWAT. He has received the following awards: Silver Star (2011), Medal of Valor (2017) and Lifesaving Medal (2019).

Prior to SPD, Officer Johnson obtained a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Idaho.

Original Release:

Two Spokane Police officers were involved in an Officer Involved Shooting (OIS) incident. The officers fired their service weapons at an armed robbery suspect. The suspect was injured, transported to an area hospital for treatment, and is expected to survive his injuries.

No officers were injured during this incident.

The incident is being investigated by the Spokane Independent Investigative Response (SIIR) Team.

The following is preliminary information gathered from statements of involved parties and witness officers.

August 7, 2020, just before11:30 pm, Spokane Police personnel from the Patrol Anti-Crime Team (PACT), Special Investigative Unit (SIU), and SWAT team were following up on the recent string of armed robberies at cell phone stores in the area. One of the suspects in those robberies was believed to be in northeast Spokane.  This suspect also had a felony Department of Corrections warrant for Escaping Community Custody on an unrelated, previous 1^st Degree Robbery conviction . With the information they had, the robbery suspect was located in a vehicle with an uninvolved person at the intersection of Crestline and Courtland.

Once officers moved in to detain the robbery suspect, he displayed a firearm. The other person in the vehicle was able to quickly exit the car to safety. Officers attempted to deescalate the situation prior to the shots being fired. The suspect was injured, exited the vehicle, and once safely detained, immediately received medical aid from a SWAT medic on scene. He was transported to an area hospital and is expected to survive his injuries. A firearm was found in the vehicle. Investigators will verify it’s operability after it’s collected as they process the crime scene.

The Officer Involved Protocol was enacted. The SIIR Team is on-scene investigating the incident and processing the scene. The SIIR Team is comprised of multiple agencies in eastern Washington, including the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, the Washington State Patrol and the Spokane Police Department.

• The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office is the managing agency in this incident. All future communications on this incident will be sent via the SIIR Team.
• The Spokane Police Department will release the name of the officers involved in this incident.
• Once the SIIR Team investigation is complete the case will be forwarded to the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office for review.

Related Photos

• Photo 1
• Ofc. Christopher Johnson
• Ofc. Dale Harvey

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