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An outside agency is conducting an administrative investigation on behalf of the Centralia Police Department into complaints alleging that a Centralia police commander responded to a domestic assault at the King Oscar Motel on Oct. 11 while under the influence of alcohol and made notable tactical mistakes that potentially put the safety of officers and a bystander at risk.

The investigation, which is being conducted by the Aberdeen Police Department, was still ongoing as of Wednesday, Nov. 20, The Chronicle confirmed.

The incident itself occurred after 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11, when officers with the Centralia Police Department responded to a report from a woman that Antwaun James, 27, had physically assaulted her and threatened to kill her, according to previous Chronicle reporting.

James has a criminal history of domestic violence against the same woman involved in the Oct. 11 incident, according to court records.

James was allegedly in a room at the King Oscar Motel when the woman called 911 from her vehicle outside.

“While the incident was unfolding, there were significant issues that began with faulty communication equipment and reception quality, lack of information sharing and communication, and the incident ended with bad decision-making that caused serious tactical errors,” Officer K. Stockdale, a member of the Centralia Critical Response Unit (CRU) who responded to the incident, wrote in a memo to supervisors dated Oct. 12.

In a news release published shortly after the incident, the Centralia Police Department stated, “Officers responded to the hotel room where the assault had occurred and where James was currently staying. Attempts were made to get James to come outside to the officers but he refused and stated that the officers would have to come and get him and that he would fight them. A criminal history search for James revealed that he had an extensive history of violent acts to include domestic violence assaults, assaults on officers and unlawful possession of firearms.”

Noting the nature of the most recent incident, James’ history and his refusal to cooperate with officers, the CRU was called to assist in the arrest, according to police.

According to a complaint submitted Oct. 13 by Sgt. Carl Buster, who was the patrol supervisor on the scene, five CRU members responded to the scene from home, including Interim Commander David Clary. A negotiator and Interim Chief Andy Caldwell also responded.

“During the incident, I had a few personal interactions with CRU members to include Interim Commander Clary and while we spoke, I detected an obvious odor of alcohol coming from him. Several of the other officers on scene (and) fire personnel commented to me later that they too smelled the obvious odor of alcoholic beverages emanating from Commander Clary,” Buster stated.

While the Centralia Police Department obtained a warrant to enter James’ hotel room and the CRU was ready to “force him to exit the room and be taken into custody,” the negotiator “was able to make phone contact with James and convince him to surrender,” according to the news release.

James was booked into the Lewis County Jail at 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 11 and was charged Monday, Oct. 14, in Lewis County Superior Court with one count each of felony harassment and fourth-degree assault, according to previous Chronicle reporting.

Amended charging information filed Oct. 22 added 15 gross misdemeanor protection order violations to his case after James allegedly attempted to call the victim 23 times from the Lewis County Jail between Oct. 14 and Oct. 19.

James has pleaded not guilty to all charges and trial is scheduled to begin Dec. 9.

“While the incident itself came to an ultimately peaceful conclusion, there were tactical decisions made throughout that had me questioning whether or not Clary’s obvious consumption of alcohol was clouding his judgment,” Buster states in the complaint.

Commander’s report

In his own report submitted just after 11 p.m. on Oct. 14, Clary stated that he was off duty at home when he was contacted by a sergeant at 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 11 about deploying the CRU.

“I advised that this arrest met our criteria for employment and asked that he advise James that gas would likely be used if he did not give up peacefully,” Clary wrote. The sergeant told Clary “a short time later that this did not cause James to give up and so I activated CRU,” Clary wrote.

According to Clary’s report, some CRU members responded directly to the scene while others, including Clary himself, responded to the Centralia Police Department’s Mellen Street facility to obtain equipment.

Clary reportedly contacted a sergeant while en route from his residence to ask her to respond as a negotiator.

Clary reportedly arrived at the Mellen Street facility and assisted staff there with a malfunctioning vehicle, according to his report. When the vehicle wouldn’t start, Clary and two other officers transferred needed equipment to another vehicle, which another officer drove to the scene while Clary followed in his department-issued vehicle.

During the negotiations, James reportedly indicated that “he would come out after he smoked a cigarette but that he didn’t have a lighter,” according to Clary’s report.

James reportedly came outside for a lighter offered by Centralia police though Stockdale noted that James “appeared to have something in his side pockets of his pants and he had a T-shirt that covered the radius of his waistband of his pants, making it impossible to know if he was armed or not.”

Footage from Clary’s bodycam timestamped 10:55 p.m. on Oct. 11 shows James exit a room on the second floor of the King Oscar Motel with a cigarette in one hand, close the door behind him, and place his free hand into his pocket. He began walking down the stairs and moved to stand on the sidewalk in front of the hotel reception office as Clary and other officers approached.

The footage shows Clary grab a weapon from a supply crate before approaching James.

The footage shows James ignoring commands to put his cigarette in his mouth and put his hands behind his back.

“Hey Antwuan, just come over here. We’re not going to hurt you. We’re going to let you smoke your cigarette,” Clary said, gesturing for James to approach the officers.

At that time, Stockwell reportedly noted that a hotel receptionist was still sitting at her desk inside an office behind James.

“Her desk appeared to be almost directly behind the suspect, which put her in immediate danger should the contact team have to utilize their firearms,” Stockdale wrote in a complaint he filed on Oct. 14.

Clary’s report states that Stockdale informed him that the clerk was in her office, “prompting the team to shift “to the left to place our field of fire away from the clerk.”

In his body cam footage, Clary is heard responding “I know” to an officer’s comment that the backdrop was compromised and telling the team to shift left.

Stockdale stated that he was the one to tell the contact team that “the suspect needed to be moved immediately due to the receptionist being behind him, but he was not moved and would not follow the clear instructions” being given by the CRU assistant team leader, Stockdale wrote. “This caused me to make the decision to move over to my left side, taking up an ‘L’ position which gave me the best backdrop for gunfire that we were going to get in this particular situation.”

In his report, Stockdale noted that he had tell the contact team not to fire lethal rounds “due to their backdrop of the suspect containing an innocent bystander” and that he ultimately had to place himself with a shield between James and the receptionist “in case there was gunfire and to block him from being able to retreat into the office.”

In his complaint, Stockdale added that “Shortly after this CRU Team Leader Interim-Commander Clary walked right in front of me, which caused a crossfire situation between the two of us, and also took away my ability to safely use lethal force if necessary. This was confusing to me because my movement to this new position had just been acknowledged by the contact team.”

Clary’s bodycam footage did not show whether he stepped in front of another officer when he crossed to James.

“We’re going to let you smoke your cigarette, we’re just concerned about the lady that’s inside, okay?” Clary said in the video. The footage then shows Clary approach James from the left and ask him to sit on the curb, which he does.

Clary stated in his report that he told James to sit on the curb and allowed him to finish smoking his cigarette before he was arrested, which is corroborated by his bodycam footage of the incident.

“You can smoke it. We’re not going to put handcuffs on you or anything,” Clary states.

After James said, “You look like you’re about to strong arm me right now,” Clary and another officer, who approached on James’ right, were heard saying “No.”

Footage then shows Clary talk with James for a few seconds before turning away to stretch — a weapon visible in his right hand — and turning back to James to ask him if he has any weapons on him. James replied that he did not and allowed officers to pat him down while he was seated.

Clary and James talked for approximately two minutes before Clary had him stand up and another officer handcuffed him.

Clary then went into the hotel, asked the receptionist for the key to James’ room, and went up to James’ room to retrieve James’ phone charger. He then retrieved James’ phone and wallet.

“I advised him that he could finish his cigarette and then CRU operators and I moved in on him and stood by while he finished his cigarette,” Clary wrote. “(Another officer) and I patted James down for weapons and once his cigarette was finished we stood him up and secured him in handcuffs.”

According to Stockdale, “At this time, the suspect was still standing in front of the office while Interim-Commander Clary walked up while talking to the suspect, telling him we weren’t going to put him in handcuffs.”

Clary’s statement directly contradicted commands given by the CRU assistant team leader, who was the officer assigned to give the suspect commands, according to Stockdale.

Centralia Police Department protocol states that only one officer is to give commands to a suspect to avoid confusion and that suspects are to be placed in handcuffs as quickly as possible.

In a draft of the complaint sent to another officer on Oct. 12, Buster stated that he observed Clary “standing next to the suspect while holding an unslung 40 mm less lethal launcher in his right hand within grasp of the suspect” and called the situation a “tactical blunder.”

Stockdale corroborated Buster’s observation in his own complaint, stating that Clary’s “weapon was within inches of the suspect’s hand and could have easily been grabbed onto.”

Stockdale stated that Clary was “joking with the suspect” and that “significant time went by before the suspect was even patted down, let alone handcuffs, which is a complete failure of basic tactics in this situation.”

Other personnel on the scene, including the the CRU assistant team leader, reportedly “appeared confused by Interim-Commander Clary’s poor choice to stand and talk to the suspect, instead of securing him and making the scene safe as we have trained to do in this situation,” Stockdale wrote, adding, “I regret not putting down the shield and handcuffing him myself, however I was shocked and confused with what was going on, waiting for the ‘hands team’ to do their primary job in this stage of tactical suspect contact, which is securing the suspect.”

The suspect was eventually secured in handcuffs after several minutes, according to Stockdale’s and other officers’ reports.

Debrief

Once the incident was resolved, the CRU and negotiator had “a quick debrief where most officers voiced at least some concern with the tactics and decision-making at the point of suspect conduct,” Stockdale wrote.

During the debrief, Clary allegedly said “that he wanted to ‘keep it low-key’” and that he and another officer “had made their decisions in a manner that placed the suspect’s life above all else, along with the ‘promise’” — letting James smoke a cigarette if he came out — “they felt they needed to keep with the suspect,” according to Stockdale’s complaint.

Stockdale wrote, “The fact that both leaders of the CRU were attempting to defend this and not take any responsibility for their mistakes was completely baffling to me, especially with other officers also noting their concerns … This was a clear tactical failure that had the full capacity to end up with serious injury or loss of life.”

Buster wrote that, after the incident, he “decided to call Commander Clary and ask him myself if he had been drinking alcohol prior to being called out.” Clary allegedly “admitted that he had been drinking and stated he only had one beer and that he had notified Interim Chief Caldwell who was okay with it,” according to the complaint.

“Commander Clary asked me if I thought his consumption of alcohol inhibited his ability to make sound judgements and I told him of what I observed when I walked up to where the team was supposed to be taking the suspect into custody but had not,” the complaint reads. “Commander Clary told me he thought he was fine. I informed Commander Clary that I was not the only one who smelled alcohol on him.”

The patrol supervisor added that “Commander Clary’s decision to respond to a tactical situation after consuming any amount of alcohol, compounded by the fact that Interim Chief Caldwell was aware he had been drinking and told him he could still respond, are both irresponsible and reckless. For me to possess first-hand knowledge of it and say nothing would be equally as irresponsible.”

When told after the fact that others had smelled alcohol on Clary and that he had allegedly admitted to drinking a beer earlier that evening, Stockdale stated, “I was reluctantly forced to be suspicious that the cause of the bad decision making and tactics was influenced by Interim-Commander Clary’s alcohol consumption.”

Policy

The CRU policy manual states that CRU officers are not to respond to duty if they have consumed drugs or alcohol.

“If there was no alcohol issue and more self-accountability for tactical mistakes, I would not be writing this letter and I would be hopeful that the CRU could work it out internally,” Stockdale stated, adding that he was considering resignation from the unit and that he had “no confidence in Interim-Commander Clary’s ability to lead the unit.”

When forwarding Stockdale’s complaint up the chain of command via email on Oct. 14, Officer Aaron Miller stated, “I have concerns about decisions made both before and during the call out,” according to an email obtained by The Chronicle.

Miller provided feedback on the call out to other CRU members via email on Oct. 12, stating, “We ultimately were successful, but I feel we need to take an honest look at our tactics and how we responded. My goal is not to be negative but there are numerous things I observed and think we should address to make us more successful in the future.”

Feedback and recommendations centered around addressing communication issues, including the need to replace outdated gear and to disseminate information with the full team about plans, and reviewing the errors made upon contact with James.

Those errors included the fact that the team “inverted the priorities of life” in dealing with James, who had a known violent history; that James was not made to follow directions or come to officers, which meant that “he controlled the scene;” that the scene was deemed secure before James was in handcuffs; that “Antwuan was talked to like a friend and we got too close, exposing weapons and placing them easily within his grasp;” and the delay in handcuffing James.

“I was expecting Antwuan to jump up and fight. We had no control over him. We have all secured nonviolent people faster than we did Antwuan, who was known to be violent, and had just assaulted his girlfriend,” Miller stated.

Miller addressed the concerns officers made at the scene about the delay in handcuffing James, stating, “It was a valid point about the time delay in the handcuffing of Antwuan. It should have been accepted as the valid point that it was and acknowledge that it … needs to be addressed. I don’t think there should have been a continuing conversation.”

In an Oct. 17 email to a Chronicle reporter responding to a request for comment about the investigation, Caldwell stated, “I am proud of our agency and the way we address allegations made against our officers at every level. The integrity of our profession and the high value I place on public trust necessitate requesting an administrative investigation by an outside agency. As this process begins, I must only make further comments once the investigation into all the allegations is complete.”

Clary declined to comment on the complaint due to the ongoing investigation.

In an Oct. 21 email sent by Caldwell to potential witness officers being interviewed as part of the investigation, Caldwell confirmed that an outside agency was conducting the administrative investigation and advised that the officers “should only talk about the details of this complaint with the investigator until the investigation is complete.”