Meetings to precede inquest

The family of Harold McCord Jr. will hold two community meetings before an inquest into his death starts next week.

McCord was fatally shot in a June 24 police raid at a Monroe apartment a day after he escaped from the Pierce County Courthouse.

An official review of his death is scheduled to start April 29 in King County Superior Court. King County is holding the inquest because McCord died at a Seattle hospital.

Inquests are court-supervised inquiries that ask jurors to determine the circumstances surrounding a death.

The community meetings were planned to provide more information about the inquest process, said McCord family attorney Bradley Marshall of Seattle. "We want to open the door for the public to come and ask questions and suggest questions we should be asking the officers," he said.

The first meeting will be 7-9 p.m. Monday at the Rainier Community Center in Seattle. S. The second meeting will be 7-9 p.m. Tuesday at Seattle’s St. John the Baptist Church.

Question-and-answer sessions also will be held daily following inquest testimony, Marshall said.

McCord, who faced life in prison under the state’s three-strikes law, escaped from the courthouse by flashing a fake gun. The phony gun was later found by investigators.

Snohomish County prosecutors are still reviewing the findings of an investigation into the shooting to determine whether McCord’s death was a lawful but unfortunate act, or a crime.

Mark Roe, the county’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor, previously has said that, in keeping with the law, his decision will be influenced by what was going on in the minds of police at the time they were preparing to apprehend McCord.

All of the officers who fired their weapons have provided statements to detectives saying they believed McCord, 36, was a threat and that a dark-colored, pistol-shaped object in his hand was a real firearm, according to records released this month.

McCord’s family has maintained he wanted to surrender but wasn’t given a chance.