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In an affidavit narrating the incident that was authored by one of the involved officers, Scott Lesser, there's no mention of any threatening statements.

(Lesser asserts in the report that he feared that the suspect, Lucas Ellerman, was reaching for a firearm before the dog was lifted into the car.) However, an addition to Lesser's report filed by another officer states that a witness said that they heard officers shouting "I'm gonna kill you" at Ellerman.

And, so far, none of the seven council members are willing to sign non-disclosure agreements, according to Stuckart: "I talked to every member of council today and nobody is in favor of signing an NDA," he tells the

. "I’d like to just see it and be able to discuss it freely, whether that’s with the public or the press and I’ve never heard of the council ever having to sign an NDA."

is demanding to see a video purportedly depicting a violent arrest made by Spokane police officers. But so far, city officials and the police guild have only agreed to let them view it if they collectively sign non-disclosure agreements — a demand that the council refused to do in a meeting with city officials this afternoon.The footage depicts an arrest from last February where several officers apprehended a suspect inside of a stopped car by using "extremely aggressive" tactics, according to a person who has reviewed the video. (The person requested anonymity since they weren't authorized to discuss the contents of the footage.)The officers purportedly used profanity and made numerous threats to kill the suspect while outside of the vehicle, including making a statement along the lines of "I'm going to put a bullet in your head," according to the source's recollection. They also smashed the windows of the car with a baton and lifted a police dog into the vehicle where the canine harassed and attacked the suspect. The suspect had his hands up and said that he was coming out moments before the dog was deployed, the source recalls. (A second person has confirmed the contents of the footage to the.)

"I don’t understand why the police union is dictating what the City Council can see or not," he adds. "That’s fairly crazy to me. This is about police oversight."



"This needs to be out. The public needs to be talking about it. And everyone should be able to see this," Stuckart went on to say.



"I watched this video today, I’m curious as to exactly why there isn’t an IA potential misconduct case on this," Logue writes in his May 22 email. "It appears there could/should have been a formal IA Internal Investigation initiated in this matter."He also raises the issue of why he, as the police ombudsman, was not notified of the incident directly by SPD staff and, instead, became aware of it through a third-party blogger: "I should have been apprised of this issue much earlier than I was, and certainly should have been apprised by SPD, and not Mr. Breen."Logue goes on to claim that, in his interactions with SPD staff regarding the incident, the significance of the officers' behavior during the February arrest was downplayed."Each person I talked to seemed to downplay the potential significance of this event (that includes you all the way through Chief Meidl)," he writes. "This gives me pause to consider whether or not SPD may have deliberately chose to circumvent the normal complaint process, and therefore, undermine oversight of this matter."Meidl did not respond to therequest for comment.Members of the Spokane City Council quickly got involved as well. After Councilwoman Karen Stratton was contacted independently by Breen, and she and Stuckart communicated with Logue regarding the video, they sent a letter to Meidl last week requesting to view the footage."[Logue] said he had just viewed the footage the night before, was disturbed by it, and that he hoped we were able to see it because we needed to, as elected officials," Stuckart tells theHe adds that what he heard of the video made him "sick to his stomach."SPD spokesman O'Brien confirmed in an email that an Internal Affairs investigation had been opened after Logue filed his complaint. He also cited the active investigation as reason to keep the footage confidential."Once the OPO filed a formal Excessive Force complaint, all processes were stopped," he writes. "After any concern of tainting the Internal Affairs investigation has concluded, SPD will work to release the body camera footage," he writes in an email.Stuckart criticized the fact that the ombudsman and, subsequently, the council didn't get notified of the incident prior to Breen, a private citizen, contacting Logue and Stratton."TCouncilman Breean Beggs says that the fact that Logue wasn't notified of the incident stems from the fact that the ordinance governing the ombudsman's office only requires that the ombudsman be contacted if SPD opens an Internal Affairs investigation. In this case, an Internal Affairs investigation was not opened into the incident, so Logue wasn't contacted about it until Breen reached out to him."From what I’ve heard about the video, it sounds like it’s serious enough that the ombudsman should’ve been informed about it," he says."The good news is that our ombudsman is doing his job," he adds. "If we didn’t have an ombudsman, we would not be here and there would be no investigation."