SEATTLE (AP) - A King County sheriff’s review panel has unanimously concluded that a deputy was justified and within department policy when he fatally shot a 20-year-old man who was holding a pen that was mistaken for a knife near Seattle last year.
The Use of Force Review Board said Wednesday that Deputy Cesar Molina reasonably believed that Tommy Le was armed with a deadly weapon and that he had already attacked someone with a knife.
The board says the man’s actions led Molina to believe that if not stopped, the man posed a serious threat of harm to Molina as well as others nearby.
A formal King County inquest of Le’s death remains pending.
Le’s family has filed a civil-rights lawsuit against King County, Constantine and John Urquhart, the sheriff at the time of the shooting.
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