(The Center Square) – A Washington State University campus police officer was justified in using deadly force when he fatally shot a gun-wielding man barricaded inside a Pullman apartment last December, according to a prosecutor’s review of the incident.
Authorities said Brent Kopacka had threatened to shoot a roommate and claimed he was going to start killing people before firing a handgun out a window during a prolonged overnight standoff with police that began on Dec. 14, 2022 at the Coffee House Apartments in 1000 block of SE Latah Street.
Despite officers’ repeated requests for him to surrender peacefully, even after their deployment of OC pepper gas into the apartment, the 36-year-old Kopacka refused to exit the building. He then began shooting toward police officers and an occupied student dormitory. At that point, Kopacka was fatally shot by Sgt. Brett Boyd, a WSU police officer and sniper with the regional SWAT unit.
“… when Mr. Kopacka was shot, there did not appear to be any reasonable alternative,” Whitman County prosecutor Denis Tracy wrote in his review of the incident. “Under all the circumstances known to Sgt. Boyd, he had a good faith belief that the use of deadly force was necessary to prevent death or serious physical harm to other officers and civilians.”
“Sgt. Boyd’s actions were lawful and appropriate under (state law) … In short, Sgt. Boyd clearly did the right thing for the right reasons,” stated Tracy, concluding, “there will not be any criminal prosecution.”
The prosecutor issued his determination in a Nov. 29 letter to WSU police chief Gary Jenkins and Lt. Scott Davis of the Washington State Patrol, which conducted an independent investigation into the incident and delivered its findings to Tracy for review in early October.
Tracy said he spoke to Kopacka’s mother about the case and she informed him of her son’s mental health problems after suffering a traumatic brain injury from an explosion while serving “with valor and distinction” with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan.
In the following years, Kopacka suffered post-traumatic stress disorder in varying degrees that possibly contributed to his actions on the night he died, said the prosecutor, adding, “In my view, this compounds tragedy upon tragedy.”
“But it does not change the analysis of whether Sgt. Boyd acted legally and appropriately. Without question, he did,” Tracy stated.
Washington state law requires independent investigations to be conducted in the same manner as criminal cases when a police officer uses force that results in death or substantial bodily harm to another person.
Boyd, 38, joined the WSU police department in 2008, has been a member of the regional SWAT unit since 2012, and was promoted to sergeant in 2022. Per standard procedure, he was placed on paid administrative leave during the initial investigation, but returned to regular duty two weeks later, WSU police chief Gary Jenkins said by phone Thursday.
While there have been no indications of impropriety or misconduct, and with the prosecutor’s review now completed, Jenkins said an internal review board will be convened in mid-January to see if any department policies or procedures had been violated. A determination is expected by the end of the month, he said.
