‘Check on him.’ How did a Pierce County welfare call end in a deadly police shooting?
Recently released investigative records shed new light on how a welfare check in Spanaway early last year resulted in a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy shooting a 39-year-old motorist dead after he tried to flee a parking lot and his open door forced a deputy to the ground.
In early descriptions of the shooting, officials said the incident involved a “suspicious subject” and referred to Holman as a suspect. The deputies involved later said through a union attorney that they feared for themselves and others in the parking lot that night.
Investigative documents show a woman leaving the store had reported the “gentleman of color” was “slumped over” in his driver’s seat, and she worried he was intoxicated or having a medical emergency. She wrote in a police statement that an O’Reilly employee seemed frustrated about her request to check on him. A manager called 911 and said he was fearful of trying to open the car door due to recent crime in the area.
“Eyes are closed. Phone is on,” the manager told a South Sound 911 call taker and emergency medical dispatcher, a recording shows. “But there’s absolutely no movement. I can’t tell if he’s breathing or not.”
A dispatcher told the call taker to have sheriff’s deputies respond and report back if medical treatment was needed. A dispatch log shows deputies Jordan Williams, Timothy Tan and Devin Ditsch arrived about three minutes later.
“All you, chief,” said Tan, then 24, giving the go-ahead for Ditsch, a 25-year-old trainee at the time, to approach the minivan.
Holman was leaning against the center console with his cell phone alight in his hand, body-worn camera video shows. The engine oil filter he later told deputies he needed to exchange lay in his lap.
The rookie announced, “Police department,” after rapping on the minivan door, according to his body-worn camera recording. As Holman jolted awake and looked around, Ditsch followed up, “Hey, everything OK?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Holman replied calmly before allowing the deputy to open the car door.
Three minutes later, Holman writhed on the ground screaming in agony with five bullets in his body. He later died at the hospital from wounds to his torso, according to the death investigation.
For reasons which remain unclear, Holman abruptly reversed out of his parking space after a deputy reported over the radio that his car’s license plate and VIN number didn’t match – an indication the car could be stolen. The trainee got caught in the crook of the open minivan door and fell to the ground before rolling out of the car’s path.
As Holman finished the turnabout in his van, deputy Jordan Williams, then 34, shot at him six times. Department policy advises deputies to fire at moving cars only as a last resort due to safety risks. Williams later told his colleagues on body-worn camera video that it was the first time he’d shot someone during four years on the force.
“I don’t know what the process is going to be,” Williams told Ditsch, his trainee. “So we’re not going to chat any more about what’s happened here. We’ll talk to whoever we need to talk to from PCFIT.”
The Pierce County Force Investigation Team, known as PCFIT, is a consortium of local law enforcement tasked with independently investigating one other’s deadly force incidents.
Investigators, led by Lakewood police detective Jeff Martin, LPD forwarded the case to Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett’s office in June. The prosecutor’s office has not yet released an opinion on whether the deadly force was justified. A spokesperson said the case remained under review by a deputy prosecutor as of Friday afternoon.
All three deputies were cleared to return to duty in February 2022, within a few weeks of the shooting, according to Sgt. Darren Moss, a department spokesperson.
Holman remembered by family
Holman grew up in Lakewood and graduated from Lakes High School, according to a Sarah Findley, a former girlfriend and mother of his child. Findley said Holman’s parents were highly involved in his and his brother’s lives. They were devastated by his death and did not want to be interviewed.
“We don’t even feel right to have a service until some sort of justice is done,” Findley told The News Tribune in February. “I can’t even believe it’s been a year.”
Holman’s grade-school-aged son, an admirer of police who dreams of being a firefighter or working on Naval submarines, doesn’t yet know how his father, who is Black and mixed race, died. Findley said she can’t imagine the conversation
“He’s such a good ol’ boy,” she said. “He’s 13 and wishes he was born in the ‘50s.”
When Findley looks at her son, she said she sees Holman.
“He just looks exactly like him,” Findley said about her son, who wears a necklace of his father’s ashes and made candles that smell like his cologne.
Holman and Findley met about 15 years ago while she was tending bar in Lakewood. Holman was tall, handsome and charming.
“And he knew it,” Findley said.
Holman could fix everything he touched, excelled at any sport he tried and seemed to always live in the moment, Findley recalled.
“I always say cooler than a fan,” said Findley.
Findley became pregnant early into their relationship. She was through her first trimester by the time she realized. She said Holman almost passed out from excitement when they heard their son’s heartbeat for the first time.
As birthdays passed and Findley worried about their son growing up too fast, Holman always reassured her, “Don’t be upset about it. Be excited about it.”
Holman’s run-ins with law enforcement before his death were limited to mostly low-level misdemeanors.
In September 2017, he pleaded guilty to taking a motor vehicle without permission, his only felony offense. A judge sentenced him to the three days he’d already served in jail and handed down reduced fines due to financial difficulties.
Court documents showed Tacoma police spotted him at a Walgreen’s parking lot inside a 1992 Honda Accord that had been stolen recently. Holman allegedly had a shaved key in his hand and told police he tried to hide because his license was suspended.
Holman most recently worked in HVAC maintenance and was excited about the future, according to Findley.
“He was doing really good in his life and he’s not a person to give up,” Findley said. “No matter how far down he would go, he’d get back up.”
Findley said she thought emergency medical personnel should have responded to the welfare call rather than law enforcement.
“To think that you could be doing that and not be safe, it’s terrifying,” said Findley. “Were they just scared? If that’s the case, then way more training needs to be implemented.”
Investigative documents detail shooting
Body-worn camera footage shows that while Ditsch, the trainee, casually spoke with Holman on the driver’s side of the minivan, Williams and Tan noted seeing a hammer and a pocket knife while shining their flashlights on the car’s passenger side.
“He’s got some tin foil with some brown stuff on it underneath him,” said Tan, who had two-and-half years of experience. After a pause he added, “I remember when we could pull people out of cars for that.”
Though a subsequent toxicology test showed Holman had methamphetamine and fentanyl in his system, investigative documents do not show deputies reported signs of impairment. Investigators recovered a glass pipe and foil but did not document finding drugs.
“I just fell asleep, yeah,” Holman told Ditsch after giving permission to open his door. “Sorry.”
Holman handed over an ID card shortly thereafter, but it wasn’t a driver’s license, video shows. Holman said his driving privileges had been suspended for a couple of years. The deputy advised him to have someone pick him up so he didn’t get cited for a misdemeanor.
“Just been a long day,” Holman said again about being tired and falling asleep. “I’m sorry about that.”
While Holman answered more questions, Tan illuminated the minivan’s VIN number with his flashlight.
“That’s going to be negative, I have 0019,” Tan said over the radio, according to video footage.
As Tan repeated the license plate number to dispatchers, video shows Holman start up the van and attempt to close his door as he threw it into reverse. Ditsch ran alongside the van struggling with Holman.
After reviewing body-worn camera video, a PCFIT statement stated Holman’s van struck the deputy “with enough force to drag and throw him to the ground a distance of approximately thirty feet.”
“Mr. Holman then executed a high speed u-turn, narrowly missing the downed deputy and subsequently collided with a marked Pierce County Sheriff’s patrol vehicle,” a PCFIT statement said. “He then positioned his vehicle in such a way, that had he accelerated, the deputies were at risk of being struck.”
That’s when Williams opened fire, the PCFIT statement said.
The Sheriff’s Department’s use-of-force policy generally discourages deputies from firing at moving vehicles “unless necessary to protect against an imminent threat of serious bodily injury resulting from the operator’s or a passenger’s use of a deadly weapon.” A vehicle is not considered a deadly weapon unless the driver is using it as one and gunfire is the only reasonable option to avoid harm.
“When feasible, deputies shall attempt to move out of the path of a moving vehicle rather than discharge their weapon at the operator,” the policy states.
Body-worn camera footage shows Ditsch was not dragged; he almost immediately rolled back to his feet and ran behind a curb. Holman’s door bent backward as he swiped the patrol car in reverse.
The minivan continued rolling straight backward as Williams fired at Holman’s torso, video footage shows. No deputies appeared to be directly in the path of the van, which then rolled forward about one car length and came to rest against a patrol SUV.
Martin, the lead detective, concluded William’s body-worn camera footage shows Holman may have been shifting the van into drive as the deputy fired. “The most viable option” for Holman to escape would have been back toward Tan and Ditsch because of the angle of the car at that moment, Martin opined.
After he was shot, Holman fell from the van and deputies surrounded him at gunpoint, screaming to show his hands, video shows. Shifting his legs back and forth as he tried to pull his arm out from under him, Holman moaned back that he couldn’t.
Deputies eventually handcuffed Holman and rendered first aid while firefighters were en route, video shows. Holman was rushed to surgery and died.
A firefighter evaluated Ditsch for injuries at the scene.
“I took a tumble,” Ditsch said on his body-worn camera footage. “I’m sore but I think I’m OK.”
The firefighter prescribed ibuprofen and ice. He was later treated at an emergency room, investigative documents show, after department supervisors at the scene insisted upon further evaluation and documentation. Images included in a PCFIT presentation show a slight red mark on Ditsch’s rear “days” after the incident.
Weeks later, PCFIT investigators hit a dead end tracking down the registered owner of the minivan Holman was driving that night. According to investigative documents, records of a purported sale in September 2021 were not filed with the state and an Olympia police report showed Holman had possession of the car in December 2021.
“At this time I have been unable to determine who had ownership of the vehicle,” wrote Lakewood police detective Richard Barnard. “The vehicle has obviously changed hands multiple times from May 2021 until January 2022.”
Each of the deputies submitted written statements through a union attorney before returning to work. The deputies did not make changes to their statements after viewing their body-worn camera footage. None submitted to a recorded interview.
“When the force stopped rolling me I continued to move in order to avoid being run over and killed,” Ditsch wrote about being hit by Holman’s car door and rolling on the ground. “I was in pain and dizzy. I was afraid for my life and I was afraid that my safety, my partner’s safety, as well as the safety of the people who were in the parking lot were in danger of great bodily injury or death.”
Williams wrote that he first began running toward his car in case a pursuit was authorized to pursue Holman for DUI. He noted seeing a roll of unused foil in Holman’s car and Tan telling him he saw burnt foil in the car, indicating potential drug use. Williams did not describe other evidence of a DUI.
“I saw (Ditsch’s) body rolling on the ground,” Williams wrote. “... I believed (Ditsch) had just been crushed.”
Williams wrote he was afraid for Ditsch’s life and couldn’t see Tan.
As Holman finished a full turnabout, “It appeared to me that he was getting the vehicle set up to come at us again and try and hit us with the car,” Williams wrote. “I was afraid for my life, but more importantly I saw (Ditsch) on the ground and I believed the car was going to hit him.”
Both Williams and Tan wrote they believed Holman was using “deadly force” against them.
Williams wrote, “There was no feasible option to stop the threat.”
“The car stopped moving and I stopped firing.”
