Nathancat7
Jedi Master
Here are links to two articles covering a shooting death of an armed pastor investigating a prowler on his own property which turned out to be a Valley Policeman in an unmarked patrol car. The subject is delicate because it can inflame Palin-like passions, and the Spokesman was only to quick to identify him as as a pastor, however, it is very much a story worth telling.
What I believe happened that night is that the pastor refused to drop his unloaded weapon and the hysterical deputy trained under pathological procedure, shot him. Simply put, the insensitive handling of this case is is indicative of of a ponerized police force.
The links:
www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/sept/01/son offers insight into pastor's fatal encounter
Written by Thomas Clouse, The Spokesman Review
www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/sept/03/deputy-saw-pastor-approaching-gun
"Deputy Saw Pastor Approaching with Gun," by Thomas Clouse
Deputy says he saw pastor approaching with gun
Thomas Clouse The Spokesman-Review
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Tags: Deputy Brian Hirzel Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Spokane Police The Plant Farm Wayne Scott Creach
Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Hirzel told investigators Friday that he saw Pastor Wayne Scott Creach approaching his unmarked patrol car from a distance of about 30 feet with a gun in his hand before they had a verbal confrontation.
Hirzel said in a videotaped interview that he fired one shot that killed Creach on Aug. 25, according to a news release sent Friday by Spokane Police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer DeRuwe.
“According to Officer Hirzel’s statement and evidence collected at the scene, ultimately there was a close encounter between the officer and Mr. Creach near the officer’s car,” the release said. “Officer Hirzel stated there was a verbal exchange between himself and Mr. Creach prior to the single gunshot being fired. Officer Hirzel’s statement and the evidence confirms only one shot was fired.”
The news release offered no explanation of what was said or by whom, or why Hirzel felt the need to pull the trigger, killing the 74-year-old pastor in the parking lot of his nursery business at 14208 E. 4th Ave. in Spokane Valley.
Creach’s daughter, Serena Creach Leonard, said she read the statement released Friday and it left the family with many unanswered questions.
“We have no more answers from that press release really than we had the day after,” Leonard said. “We still feel badly for Deputy Hirzel, but we need the sheriff’s department to communicate to us as a family to let us know what happened that night. Whatever it is, we want the truth.”
The interview Friday came after law enforcement officials allowed Hirzel to travel to Montana and Las Vegas for a vacation prior to giving the voluntary statement. Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said Thursday that he didn’t cancel that time off for fear it could taint the investigation by making it appear that he forced Hirzel to give the statement.
DeRuwe said Hirzel, who works for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office but was assigned to work for the Spokane Valley Police Department, told investigators that he drove to the Plant Farm based on a request made earlier in the day by a neighbor who wanted a prowl check.
“Hirzel stated he chose the large parking lot of the Plant Farm because it allowed him to conduct the prowl check safely, and also for its proximity to the address where the prowl check was first requested,” the release said. “Hirzel also stated that he saw Mr. Creach approaching his vehicle from a distance of approximately 30 (feet) and that Mr. Creach had a firearm in his hand.”
But Leonard said the family questions what DeRuwe described as a “verbal exchange” between Scott Creach and Hirzel.
“Based on the information we have been given, which is virtually none, my mother heard one voice. It was surprise and fear and it was my Dad,” Leonard said. “It wasn’t an interaction.”
DeRuwe, in the news release, said the investigation will continue. The Spokane Police department and the Washington State Patrol are investigating the incident under previously agreed-to protocols covering officer-involved shootings. She said investigators, supervisors and prosecutors will meet on Tuesday to decide whether more information can be released that “will not jeopardize the investigation. Prior to release of information to the public, the family of Mr. Creach will be briefed by investigators.”
Leonard said the family would welcome more information but they have concerns about the “credibility” of information coming from the sheriff’s office.
“We have a great concern about a misdirection of facts regarding Deputy Hirzel,” she said.
Investigators initially told the family, for example, that Hirzel would be interviewed after 48 hours, she said. They were then told the interview would take place after 72 hours. Eventually, the family learned that Hirzel had been allowed to go on vacation. By next Tuesday, it will have been 13 days since her father was shot on his own property, Leonard said.
“The credibility of anything the sheriff’s department has to say to us at this point is in question,” Leonard said. “We are not only grief-stricken but distraught over the treatment we have received at the hands of the sheriff’s department.”
First article:Son offers insight into pastor’s fatal encounter
Thomas Clouse The Spokesman-Review
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Tags: Alan Creach burglaries Creach Greenhouse Greenacres Baptist Church jennifer deruwe Lori Rice Plant Farm prowlers Rick Van Leuven Scott Creach Spokane Valley Police Department W. Scott Creach
Wayne Scott Creach
(Full-size photo)
Related story: Deputy in pastor shooting reportedly on vacation
Spokane Valley pastor Wayne Scott Creach and his wife had a prearranged system for when the business owner encountered trespassers on the couple’s sprawling nursery and greenhouse complex in Spokane Valley. He’d go outside and shout if there was a problem, at which point she was to call 911, Creach’s son, Alan Creach, said in an interview Tuesday.
Imogene Creach followed that script Aug. 25, calling 911 when she heard what she thought were three shots fired. Alan Creach said his mother could see other patrol cars arriving before she hung up the phone.
“She went around the back door, in front of the greenhouse, and could see my dad lying there on the parking lot,” Alan Creach said. “There was nobody around him and his left knee was raised in the air. She was about 20 feet away, and she was intercepted by a sheriff’s deputy.
“He prevented her from having any contact or hearing any final words that he might have to say. After (she and the deputy) talked for a moment, she started to understand the gravity of the moment. At that point, she called us and we showed up as quickly as we could,” he said.
Alan Creach said his family is still mystified over many details of the fatal incident, which took only moments to unfold and remains largely unexplained nearly a week later.
The deputy who shot Scott Creach is scheduled to talk to investigators Thursday. Spokane Police Department spokeswoman Officer Jennifer DeRuwe declined to comment Tuesday on details of the incident provided by Alan Creach. Spokane police are investigating as part of a previous agreement covering officer-involved shootings.
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich didn’t return a call seeking comment but said Monday that investigators won’t know why Deputy Brian Hirzel shot the 74-year-old pastor until Hirzel is interviewed later this week.
Alan Creach said his mother called him moments after the incident; when he got to the house, at 14208 E. Fourth Ave., he said he looked out his father’s bathroom window and could see only the front end of a dark car, which turned out to be Hirzel’s unmarked patrol vehicle backed into the private parking lot at the Plant Farm, his father’s business.
He said his father apparently noticed the car, put on his pants and slippers, grabbed his .45-caliber pistol and went outside to investigate what he thought was a prowler, Alan Creach said.
“He didn’t take the time to put on his shirt,” Creach said. “My mom heard him leave the bedroom. He thought enough to take his gun, but not enough to get her out of bed.”
Imogene Creach then heard what she later described as a loud voice. “Her best description was a shout of fear and great surprise,” Alan Creach said. “She couldn’t define exactly what was said and immediately following that she heard ‘pop, pop, pop.’ ”
Witnesses to the west reported hearing the three pops, but those on the north heard only one. Alan Creach said the evidence suggests that only one shot was fired but that witnesses may have heard the sound of the one shot echoing among the many greenhouses.
He said after his mother ended the call to 911, she put on some clothes and walked the same path that Scott Creach did as he approached Hirzel’s car. She saw him lying in the gravel parking lot about 5 feet from the car just as Spokane Valley Fire Department paramedics were arriving.
Alan Creach, who lives a mile and a half away, said when he arrived his father was in the parking lot covered with a blanket. He said detectives later told the family that they saw evidence that medical aid had been provided.
“When was that medical attention applied? What happened between the time he was shot and paramedics arrived?” Creach asked. “We really don’t know other than what she saw when she came around the corner. She said no one was providing aid and his left leg was in the air.”
Creach said he also learned from detectives that his father’s .45-caliber pistol did not have a round in the chamber, meaning he could not have immediately fired the weapon. He said his father had three or four instances a year where he would hear something going on in his nursery.
“He would always respond with his weapon. Mom would stay in the bedroom and if she heard something, she would call 911,” Creach said. “He behaved like he would normally behave. In all the years we had these events, Dad apprehended several individuals. But he never shot anybody.”
Creach said his father did not call deputies every time he had an encounter. In one case, Scott Creach found a senior citizen who got lost in the greenhouse complexes. “He never harmed anyone and in many cases he helped people,” Alan Creach said.
Lori Rice, who works at the Plant Farm, said Tuesday that Scott Creach told her of an incident two weeks before the shooting where a man in a Corvette parked at night in the same private lot where the shooting took place.
“Scott told me the guy said he was just making a phone call. Scott said he told the man it was private property and he suggested he move along. That’s about as confrontational as he got,” Rice said. “It’s a horrible, horrible thing.”
Answers haven’t come fast enough for the family. Investigators have said that Hirzel, a 41-year-old deputy assigned to the Spokane Valley Police Department, responded to the area at 11 p.m. based on an earlier prowl call. Alan Creach said that call was made by a woman three houses down from the nursery at 4 p.m. on Aug. 25, the day of the shooting.
Creach also was critical of the decision to wait until Thursday to interview Hirzel. Creach said Spokane police detectives interviewed his mother immediately after the shooting.
“Within 20 to 30 minutes, all the witnesses were interviewed, but the prime witness has been left for a week and a day to sit back and find out which way the wind is blowing,” Creach said.
He added that the Spokane Police Department detectives were very respectful of Imogene Creach as they asked their questions on the night of the shooting.
“The issue is not the humanity. The issue I’m having is with the protocols they set out, which are basically protocols set up to cover themselves and the department,” he said. “When I was a kid, my dad expected me to tell the truth and tell it immediately. If there was any hesitation, then generally the truth was going to have to be explained. The same kind of standard that was applied to my mother should have been given to that officer, as well.”
Rice, the employee, said Scott Creach would take 20 minutes every Saturday morning to have coffee with his employees at the nursery.
“It’s hard for the customers because he was such a well-loved man,” Rice said. “Hopefully we’ll get some answers. But we’ll never know the whole story because the other side can’t be told.”
What I believe happened that night is that the pastor refused to drop his unloaded weapon and the hysterical deputy trained under pathological procedure, shot him. Simply put, the insensitive handling of this case is is indicative of of a ponerized police force.
The links:
www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/sept/01/son offers insight into pastor's fatal encounter
Written by Thomas Clouse, The Spokesman Review
www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/sept/03/deputy-saw-pastor-approaching-gun
"Deputy Saw Pastor Approaching with Gun," by Thomas Clouse
Deputy says he saw pastor approaching with gun
Thomas Clouse The Spokesman-Review
retweet4
Share
8
Tags: Deputy Brian Hirzel Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Spokane Police The Plant Farm Wayne Scott Creach
Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Hirzel told investigators Friday that he saw Pastor Wayne Scott Creach approaching his unmarked patrol car from a distance of about 30 feet with a gun in his hand before they had a verbal confrontation.
Hirzel said in a videotaped interview that he fired one shot that killed Creach on Aug. 25, according to a news release sent Friday by Spokane Police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer DeRuwe.
“According to Officer Hirzel’s statement and evidence collected at the scene, ultimately there was a close encounter between the officer and Mr. Creach near the officer’s car,” the release said. “Officer Hirzel stated there was a verbal exchange between himself and Mr. Creach prior to the single gunshot being fired. Officer Hirzel’s statement and the evidence confirms only one shot was fired.”
The news release offered no explanation of what was said or by whom, or why Hirzel felt the need to pull the trigger, killing the 74-year-old pastor in the parking lot of his nursery business at 14208 E. 4th Ave. in Spokane Valley.
Creach’s daughter, Serena Creach Leonard, said she read the statement released Friday and it left the family with many unanswered questions.
“We have no more answers from that press release really than we had the day after,” Leonard said. “We still feel badly for Deputy Hirzel, but we need the sheriff’s department to communicate to us as a family to let us know what happened that night. Whatever it is, we want the truth.”
The interview Friday came after law enforcement officials allowed Hirzel to travel to Montana and Las Vegas for a vacation prior to giving the voluntary statement. Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said Thursday that he didn’t cancel that time off for fear it could taint the investigation by making it appear that he forced Hirzel to give the statement.
DeRuwe said Hirzel, who works for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office but was assigned to work for the Spokane Valley Police Department, told investigators that he drove to the Plant Farm based on a request made earlier in the day by a neighbor who wanted a prowl check.
“Hirzel stated he chose the large parking lot of the Plant Farm because it allowed him to conduct the prowl check safely, and also for its proximity to the address where the prowl check was first requested,” the release said. “Hirzel also stated that he saw Mr. Creach approaching his vehicle from a distance of approximately 30 (feet) and that Mr. Creach had a firearm in his hand.”
But Leonard said the family questions what DeRuwe described as a “verbal exchange” between Scott Creach and Hirzel.
“Based on the information we have been given, which is virtually none, my mother heard one voice. It was surprise and fear and it was my Dad,” Leonard said. “It wasn’t an interaction.”
DeRuwe, in the news release, said the investigation will continue. The Spokane Police department and the Washington State Patrol are investigating the incident under previously agreed-to protocols covering officer-involved shootings. She said investigators, supervisors and prosecutors will meet on Tuesday to decide whether more information can be released that “will not jeopardize the investigation. Prior to release of information to the public, the family of Mr. Creach will be briefed by investigators.”
Leonard said the family would welcome more information but they have concerns about the “credibility” of information coming from the sheriff’s office.
“We have a great concern about a misdirection of facts regarding Deputy Hirzel,” she said.
Investigators initially told the family, for example, that Hirzel would be interviewed after 48 hours, she said. They were then told the interview would take place after 72 hours. Eventually, the family learned that Hirzel had been allowed to go on vacation. By next Tuesday, it will have been 13 days since her father was shot on his own property, Leonard said.
“The credibility of anything the sheriff’s department has to say to us at this point is in question,” Leonard said. “We are not only grief-stricken but distraught over the treatment we have received at the hands of the sheriff’s department.”
First article:Son offers insight into pastor’s fatal encounter
Thomas Clouse The Spokesman-Review
retweet2
Share
44
Tags: Alan Creach burglaries Creach Greenhouse Greenacres Baptist Church jennifer deruwe Lori Rice Plant Farm prowlers Rick Van Leuven Scott Creach Spokane Valley Police Department W. Scott Creach
Wayne Scott Creach
(Full-size photo)
Related story: Deputy in pastor shooting reportedly on vacation
Spokane Valley pastor Wayne Scott Creach and his wife had a prearranged system for when the business owner encountered trespassers on the couple’s sprawling nursery and greenhouse complex in Spokane Valley. He’d go outside and shout if there was a problem, at which point she was to call 911, Creach’s son, Alan Creach, said in an interview Tuesday.
Imogene Creach followed that script Aug. 25, calling 911 when she heard what she thought were three shots fired. Alan Creach said his mother could see other patrol cars arriving before she hung up the phone.
“She went around the back door, in front of the greenhouse, and could see my dad lying there on the parking lot,” Alan Creach said. “There was nobody around him and his left knee was raised in the air. She was about 20 feet away, and she was intercepted by a sheriff’s deputy.
“He prevented her from having any contact or hearing any final words that he might have to say. After (she and the deputy) talked for a moment, she started to understand the gravity of the moment. At that point, she called us and we showed up as quickly as we could,” he said.
Alan Creach said his family is still mystified over many details of the fatal incident, which took only moments to unfold and remains largely unexplained nearly a week later.
The deputy who shot Scott Creach is scheduled to talk to investigators Thursday. Spokane Police Department spokeswoman Officer Jennifer DeRuwe declined to comment Tuesday on details of the incident provided by Alan Creach. Spokane police are investigating as part of a previous agreement covering officer-involved shootings.
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich didn’t return a call seeking comment but said Monday that investigators won’t know why Deputy Brian Hirzel shot the 74-year-old pastor until Hirzel is interviewed later this week.
Alan Creach said his mother called him moments after the incident; when he got to the house, at 14208 E. Fourth Ave., he said he looked out his father’s bathroom window and could see only the front end of a dark car, which turned out to be Hirzel’s unmarked patrol vehicle backed into the private parking lot at the Plant Farm, his father’s business.
He said his father apparently noticed the car, put on his pants and slippers, grabbed his .45-caliber pistol and went outside to investigate what he thought was a prowler, Alan Creach said.
“He didn’t take the time to put on his shirt,” Creach said. “My mom heard him leave the bedroom. He thought enough to take his gun, but not enough to get her out of bed.”
Imogene Creach then heard what she later described as a loud voice. “Her best description was a shout of fear and great surprise,” Alan Creach said. “She couldn’t define exactly what was said and immediately following that she heard ‘pop, pop, pop.’ ”
Witnesses to the west reported hearing the three pops, but those on the north heard only one. Alan Creach said the evidence suggests that only one shot was fired but that witnesses may have heard the sound of the one shot echoing among the many greenhouses.
He said after his mother ended the call to 911, she put on some clothes and walked the same path that Scott Creach did as he approached Hirzel’s car. She saw him lying in the gravel parking lot about 5 feet from the car just as Spokane Valley Fire Department paramedics were arriving.
Alan Creach, who lives a mile and a half away, said when he arrived his father was in the parking lot covered with a blanket. He said detectives later told the family that they saw evidence that medical aid had been provided.
“When was that medical attention applied? What happened between the time he was shot and paramedics arrived?” Creach asked. “We really don’t know other than what she saw when she came around the corner. She said no one was providing aid and his left leg was in the air.”
Creach said he also learned from detectives that his father’s .45-caliber pistol did not have a round in the chamber, meaning he could not have immediately fired the weapon. He said his father had three or four instances a year where he would hear something going on in his nursery.
“He would always respond with his weapon. Mom would stay in the bedroom and if she heard something, she would call 911,” Creach said. “He behaved like he would normally behave. In all the years we had these events, Dad apprehended several individuals. But he never shot anybody.”
Creach said his father did not call deputies every time he had an encounter. In one case, Scott Creach found a senior citizen who got lost in the greenhouse complexes. “He never harmed anyone and in many cases he helped people,” Alan Creach said.
Lori Rice, who works at the Plant Farm, said Tuesday that Scott Creach told her of an incident two weeks before the shooting where a man in a Corvette parked at night in the same private lot where the shooting took place.
“Scott told me the guy said he was just making a phone call. Scott said he told the man it was private property and he suggested he move along. That’s about as confrontational as he got,” Rice said. “It’s a horrible, horrible thing.”
Answers haven’t come fast enough for the family. Investigators have said that Hirzel, a 41-year-old deputy assigned to the Spokane Valley Police Department, responded to the area at 11 p.m. based on an earlier prowl call. Alan Creach said that call was made by a woman three houses down from the nursery at 4 p.m. on Aug. 25, the day of the shooting.
Creach also was critical of the decision to wait until Thursday to interview Hirzel. Creach said Spokane police detectives interviewed his mother immediately after the shooting.
“Within 20 to 30 minutes, all the witnesses were interviewed, but the prime witness has been left for a week and a day to sit back and find out which way the wind is blowing,” Creach said.
He added that the Spokane Police Department detectives were very respectful of Imogene Creach as they asked their questions on the night of the shooting.
“The issue is not the humanity. The issue I’m having is with the protocols they set out, which are basically protocols set up to cover themselves and the department,” he said. “When I was a kid, my dad expected me to tell the truth and tell it immediately. If there was any hesitation, then generally the truth was going to have to be explained. The same kind of standard that was applied to my mother should have been given to that officer, as well.”
Rice, the employee, said Scott Creach would take 20 minutes every Saturday morning to have coffee with his employees at the nursery.
“It’s hard for the customers because he was such a well-loved man,” Rice said. “Hopefully we’ll get some answers. But we’ll never know the whole story because the other side can’t be told.”
