Officers investigating fatal shooting of Antonio Zambrano-Montes concede for the first time that three officers involved in shooting opened fire

Police investigating the fatal shooting of Antonio Zambrano-Montes, a Hispanic man shot dead by officers in Pasco, Washington, have declined to reveal how many bullets were fired at the unarmed 35-year-old, despite assuring reporters they have accounted for all the rounds discharged during the fatal incident.

At a press conference on Thursday, Sgt Ken Lattin of Kennewick police, the spokesman for the special investigative unit (SIU) of neighboring forces investigating the incident, conceded for the first time that all three officers involved in the shooting had opened fire. He would not reveal how many rounds were discharged, arguing the medical examiner’s office would disclose the tally at a later date.

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Zambrano-Montes was killed in a volley of fire last week at a busy intersection in Pasco. Police say the Mexican national was throwing rocks at traffic and officers just before the shooting. Video footage depicting the incident appears to show him running away from police and then raising his arms before turning towards the three officers. He is then shot dead. Community members, police reform advocates and the Mexican foreign ministry have argued the use of force against Zambrano-Montes was grossly unjustified.

Lattin also said the FBI were monitoring the police investigation into the incident, marking the potential for a federal intervention in the case.

“If [the FBI] chose to come in and take over, they certainly can. But right now they’re just monitoring,” said Lattin, adding that the Washington State crime lab had begun examining forensics from the case as a “top priority”.

Lattin informed reporters that none of the officers were wearing body cameras, and that none were certified Spanish speakers, although it remains unclear if any of the officers attempted to address Zambrano-Montes is Spanish.

Members of Zambrano-Montes’ family told the Guardian he was a monolingual Spanish speaker, a fact the SIU had yet to establish, Lattin said.

Lattin also said the police had not been able to establish where Zambrano-Montes had been sleeping for the last two weeks of his life, and described his behaviour just before the fatal incident as “not normal”.

“None of you would throw rocks at cars,” Lattin said to reporters.

The Guardian was informed by an anonymous worker at the Tri-City Union Gospel mission, a homeless shelter blocks away from the site of the shooting, that he had stayed there for approximately four days, just “a couple” of days before the shooting.

Franklin County prosecutor Shawn Sant urged further witnesses to the shooting to come forward, assuring any who were not “not here legally”, that they would not be punished as a result.

The Franklin County coroner Dan Blasdel has confirmed a coroner’s inquiry into the shooting will occur after the SIU investigation, which is likely to take a number of months, has concluded.

Blasdel told the Guardian that Zambrano-Montes has died as a result of “multiple shots to the torso” but that no further information on the number of bullets would be released until the case came before a jury.

“I have all the confidence in the world of the SIU investigation,” Blasdel told the Guardian on Thursday. “The reason that I set up the inquest is because there’s a lot of Hispanic people that are pointing and saying this is cops investigating cops and so it’s biased. That’s not fair. So I want to make sure that’s brought out to the public, that investigation is transparent and everyone can see that it’s not bias.”

The coroner’s inquest will see six jurors hear evidence – at least half Hispanic – presented by the county prosecutor. Their decision on the lawfulness of Zambrano-Montes’s killing is not binding.