Officer testifies in McCord death

SEATTLE — Fugitive Harold McCord Jr. told officers he was going to shoot them and appeared to have a gun in his hand when police entered the Monroe apartment where he was hiding, Monroe Sgt. Eduardo Jany told a King County inquest jury Thursday.

"I kept thinking to myself, ‘One of us is going to die. He’s going to shoot me,’" Jany said. "I didn’t think I was going home that night."

Jany, who led the team of Monroe and Bothell officers who went to arrest McCord on June 24, was the first witness called at an inquest into McCord’s death.

The nine-year police veteran testified for nearly five hours about what led up to the moment when officers fatally shot McCord, who had escaped the day before from the Pierce County Courthouse.

A six-member jury will evaluate his testimony and information provided by other witnesses during the inquest, which is expected to last another six days, and determine the circumstances surrounding McCord’s death.

The inquest jury’s decision is not binding and it will not decide the key issue in the case — whether the officers involved in the raid will face criminal charges.

That’s up to Snohomish County prosecutors, who will determine if McCord’s death was a lawful but unfortunate act or a crime.

Jany, 39, a special operations reservist in the U.S. Marine Corps, is scheduled to leave next month for military service in the Middle East, but returned from training in North Carolina to testify.

What he told the jury Thursday under questioning from a King County deputy prosecutor and his own lawyer was no surprise, outlining in detail how he and other officers prepared and conducted the raid.

For Jany, who appeared relaxed and confident on the witness stand, the inquest serves as another way to put an end to the "second-guessing and Monday morning quarterbacking" about the raid, he noted in a message to fellow officers in November.

He said he’s ready to answer any questions.

"I believe in this process," he said. "It’s just a matter of clarifying things."

Jany told the jury that he believed McCord, who was hiding in the apartment’s bathroom, was a threat, and a dark-colored, pistol-shaped object in the fugitive’s hand was a real firearm. He shot at McCord through the bathroom door, Jany said, believing he was protecting himself and other officers.

After Jany fired one round, he was accidentally shot in the arm and right hand by another Monroe officer. His ring finger had to be amputated, but he was able to return to duty in August.

McCord, who faced life in prison under the state’s three strikes law, did not have a real gun, police later discovered.

McCord’s family has maintained that he wanted to surrender and that officers should have tried to negotiate with him. The family’s lawyer, Bradley Marshall of Seattle, said several family members would testify that McCord had conversations with them before the raid, saying he wanted to turn himself in.

Marshall, who will question Jany today, also blasted the tactics used in the raid and said at a public meeting Monday that he does not think that McCord had any black object in his hand. "I don’t think the evidence supports it," he said.

The jury, which is expected to determine whether officers were in fear for their lives when they shot McCord, includes six members and an alternate.

The inquest is being held in King County at the behest of King County Executive Ron Sims because McCord died at a Seattle hospital.

Reporter Katherine Schiffner: 425-339-3436 or

schiffner@heraldnet.com.

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