Black Hawk County Sheriff discusses weekend chase and fatality | Top stories

BLACK HAWK COUNTY/BREMER COUNTY, Iowa (KWWL) – Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson comments on their part of a high-speed chase Sunday.

After officers handcuffed suspect Willie Washington, he became unresponsive and later died.

It began with a chase in Waterloo that was later called off for safety reasons after Washington’s car crashed into another car during the chase.

After calling off the pursuit, Waterloo police attempted to locate his vehicle. Less than an hour later, a Black Hawk County trooper found the car traveling 20 miles per hour under the speed limit near Cedar Wapsi Road.

“The reality is that we have multiple vehicles that we are on the lookout for at any given time. We have vehicles stolen, we have vehicles that the owner loaned to someone and then they didn’t return them – we have all kinds of people.” and vehicles that we’re constantly looking for,” Sheriff Thompson said, “This one was relatively recent, “But I guarantee you, when my officer approached him, the first thing he thought of wasn’t ‘That’s the vehicle,'” he said thinking, “Why is that car driving so slowly,” and as he got closer, he thought, ” Oh, that’s the same vehicle.” Now it was Attempt to locate thwarted, now that everything makes sense he starts to turn and the hunt continues.”

Sheriff Thompson says pursuits are decided based on an officer’s experience and due diligence.

“We pay close attention to why are we pursuing the right thing? How great is the risk versus benefit? Is the risk to public safety significant? We knew what was happening in the city, we knew that this gentleman was endangering motorists,” he said. He added: “There was hardly any traffic that evening, we were in the middle of a circle, on a small county road and then on a divided four-lane highway, he wasn’t in the oncoming lane, we were driving with traffic.”

Bremer County sheriff’s deputies dropped stop sticks on Highway 63 near the intersection with Highway 3. Washington’s car was stopped, but he became unresponsive when he was handcuffed. Sheriff Thompson says he is proud of his deputies’ quick response and CPR.

“As soon as they handcuff him, he becomes unresponsive. All of a sudden you’re the first responder, you have to start taking life-saving measures, right?” He said, adding: “I think about the George Floyd thing – where you have your knee on your neck and every single one of us watched that – and said, “That just doesn’t look right.” We shouldn’t react like that, right? Luckily, our guys notice he’s not breathing and start CPR, you know? So we’re grateful that we’re teaching and training these people to be unmotivated first responders so they can say, “Okay, this just took a turn.”

Washington’s body was sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office and was scheduled for an autopsy on Tuesday. It may take several months for the full results to be available.

Sheriff Thompson says the case is largely in the hands of DCI – and they will focus on an internal investigation by reviewing their camera footage and statements.

“We are still in the early stages of our own internal affairs investigation. I know the officers involved have spoken to the DCI this morning, this is their first chance, then we’ll get a chance – but as far as we know it’s all just superficial.” “If we look inside, that’s what it looks like “as if all of our policies and procedures were followed,” Sheriff Thompson said.

Still, Thompson says it’s important to him that the department be as transparent as possible with the public about the case.

“This morning we had this long conversation about what can we publish, what can we not publish? What is ours compared to the DCIs at this point? My passion is to always be transparent, my passion is to always be at the forefront.” We assure the public, the media and everyone else: “Hey, we have nothing up our sleeves, we’re not holding anything back. “

“It is unfortunate, our condolences go out to the family and friends. It’s unfortunate that he made the decision he did that night and I don’t know what triggered those decisions. It was certainly not the outcome that we and I expected. “I think that’s evident in the quick response of our officers when they were finally able to make contact with him,” he added.

The Bremer County Sheriff’s Office and the Bremer County Attorney are also participating in the investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.