EVERETT — Everett police officer Steve Klocker was kneeling over a dying man, trying to keep his heart beating, when Troy Meade hunched down beside him.
Meade said he’d shot the man because he thought their lives were in danger.
That was the last time the police officers spoke to each another, Klocker told a Snohomish County jury Friday during his second day of testimony. Meade has been charged with murder for the line-of-duty shooting.
Klocker spent most of the morning answering questions fired at him by Meade’s attorney David Allen. Allen accused Klocker of embellishing his statements, retreating in the face of danger and minimizing the threat he and Meade faced June 10 outside the Chuckwagon Inn.
Klocker has been a police officer for three decades. Snohomish County deputy prosecutor John Adcock asked him if he had some sort of grudge that would prompt him to speak out against a fellow officer.
Absolutely not, Klocker said.
“Would it have been easier to keep your mouth shut?” Adcock asked.
“Absolutely,” the officer said.
Prosecutors must prove that Meade, an 11-year veteran, wasn’t legally justified when he shot and killed Niles Meservey while the drunken Stanwood man sat behind the wheel of his car. They must convince jurors that nobody, including Meade, was in imminent danger.
Meade is expected to testify that he was in fear for his life. If he takes the stand, it will be the first time the officer publicly speaks about the killing.
Klocker on Friday walked jurors through what he saw and heard, repeating many of the details he’d recounted a day earlier.
He saw Meade standing next to the driver’s side door of the Corvette. He told jurors that he heard Meade yelling obscenities at Meservey. He was concerned that Meade’s use of profanity reflected poorly on the department.
Allen said Klocker’s biggest concern should have been helping a fellow officer get a drunken man out of a car.
“My concern didn’t distract me from doing my job, sir,” Klocker said.
Meade twice used his stun gun to try to subdue Meservey. The stun gun worked, Meservey stiffened up. But he recovered and continued to refuse to get out of his vehicle. Then Meservey started up his car and drove forward about three feet into a chain link fence.
Klocker had run to Meade’s patrol car, parked about 15 feet behind the Corvette.
He intended to move it so the vehicle’s push bar was up against Meservey’s bumper. When Meservey drove into the fence, he abandoned that idea. He told jurors he intended to go back to his original plan: breaking out the passenger side window and using his Taser or pepper spray. Before he could, Klocker said he saw Meade take one or two steps back from the Corvette, turn to him and say something like “enough is enough; time to end this.”
Meade turned back around and began firing, taking one or two steps toward the Corvette, Klocker said.
Meade then walked to his patrol car and reported to dispatchers that shots had been fired. Klocker said he remembered Meade putting his hands behind his head, pacing and cursing, clearly upset.
Klocker said he and another officer pulled Meservey from the car and began CPR.
That’s when Meade approached and in a low voice said that he shot because the officers were in danger.
As he had testified earlier, Klocker again told jurors that he didn’t believe there was any danger.
Allen didn’t accept that answer. Intoxicated people are unpredictable, and being a police officer is dangerous, the lawyer said. He reminded jurors how four
Lakewood police officers were shot to death late last year while inside a coffee shop.
Allen questioned whether Klocker was being fair in criticizing Meade. He wasn’t in the other officer’s position that night.
Klocker conceded it was true that Meservey could have tried to quickly back up and hit them. He also acknowledged that the back up lights may have come on the Corvette, but he couldn’t be sure.
But Klocker also said the only danger of being hit was stand directly behind or in front of the car, not to the side where Meade was, Klocker said.
Even if the car had come his way, Klocker said his first thought would have been to get out of the way, not shoot.
Allen later asked Klocker if he was a pacifist. Klocker said he was fully capable of using deadly force if the situation warranted such extreme measures.
“In your mind would it have been a better choice for Troy to be run over and killed?
Would that have been a better outcome than a driver being killed?” Allen asked.
“No sir,” Klocker answered. It would have been better if Meade moved, he said.
After testifying, Klocker left a packed courtroom Friday afternoon, accompanied by his brother and investigators.
Jurors on Friday also heard from master patrol officer Maryjane Hacker. She arrived at the scene immediately after the shots were fired. She helped Klocker pull Meservey out of the car and attempted to revive him.
The jury also watched video footage taken of the scene.
Jurors saw Meservey’s body lying just behind his Corvette. The back window was shattered. There were bullet casings on the ground. Meservey was covered by a blanket, the yellow fabric contrasting against the large pool of blood staining the pavement.
Court is expected to resume Monday. Meade is charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. Prosecutors allege that he wasn’t legally justified in shooting Meservey. If convicted of murder, Meade could face up to 18 years in prison.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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