SPOKANE – A police officer has pleaded innocent to three charges in the shooting of a man he said had stolen his pickup truck at a time when, according to investigators, both were drunk.
Officer James “Jay” Olsen, 43, a 16-year city police veteran, made no other statement Wednesday as Spokane County Superior Court Judge Michael Price set trial for July 23 on one count of first-degree assault and two of reckless endangerment.
A day earlier, authorities released about 400 pages of documents that shed more light on the investigation in which Olsen gave detectives an account that conflicted in some aspects with the statements by other officers about the shooting of Shonto Pete, 27, a Navaho circle drummer from Montana, in the early morning hours on Feb. 26.
Olsen, who was placed on unpaid leave after the shooting, accused Pete of stealing his pickup and Pete is facing a charge of second-degree motor vehicle theft. Both men were described by investigators as intoxicated.
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