Wheelchair user fatally shot by Tucson officer

Department moves to fire cop after video shows nine shots fired

On Monday evening, Richard Lee Richards rolled his motorized wheelchair toward the entrance of a Lowe’s in Tucson as a police officer trailed behind with his gun drawn.

Moments earlier, an employee at a Walmart that shares a plaza with Lowe’s had alerted the officer that he saw Richards make off with a toolbox without paying, according to police. The employee and the police officer, Ryan Remington, followed Richards through the parking lot toward Lowe’s. At one point, Richards brandished a knife at the employee, police said.

“Do not go into the store, sir,” Remington yelled as Richards moved toward the Lowe’s entrance and another police officer, Stephanie Taylor, arrived at the scene with her gun drawn, according to body-camera footage of the incident.

Then, seemingly without warning, Remington closed in from behind Richards and fired nine shots at the 61-year-old at close range, the video shows.

Richards was struck in the side and back, police said, and was later pronounced dead.

On Tuesday, Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus told reporters that the department had “moved” to terminate Remington. He added that the Pima County Attorney’s Office was reviewing the incident.

“To be clear, I am deeply troubled by Officer Remington’s actions,” Magnus said. “His use of deadly force in this incident is a clear violation of department policy and directly contradicts multiple aspects of our use-offorce training.”

In a statement, Tucson Democratic Mayor Regina Romero called the shooting “unconscionable and indefensible” and said she supports an investigation by the Pima County Attorney’s Office.

“It is moments like this that test our resolve to ensure justice and accountability,” she said.

Mike Storie, a lawyer for Remington, did not return a request for comment from The Washington Post late Tuesday. In a statement to The Associated Press, he said Remington “had no non-lethal options.”

“He did have a (Taser), but in his mind, he couldn’t use it because he didn’t feel he had the proper spread to deploy it, with the wheelchair between him and Richards,” Storie said.

The deadly shooting comes less than two years after Magnus offered to resign when Tucson police officers restrained 27-year-old Carlos Ingram Lopez facedown for 12 minutes until he went into cardiac arrest and died. Ingram-Lopez’s death was not immediately communicated to the public, and the Police Department’s leadership did not initially review footage of the incident — moves that Magnus called “serious missteps,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.