SPOKANE, Wash.- The Spokane County Medical Examiner has identified the man shot and killed by Spokane Police Department (SPD) officers as Oscar Venegas.
Venegas was shot by SPD officers after they say he attempted to pick up a knife that he had been ordered to drop. He had brandished the knife at pedestrians and threatened to kill himself and those around him before dropping the weapon.
Venegas’ sister states that he was experiencing a mental health crisis and that he could have been engaged in a non-lethal manner by police.
There were two separate lethal police shootings in Spokane on Feb. 12, resulting in two deaths. Both deaths have been ruled homicides as a result of gunshot wounds.
