Thirty-six-year-old Otto Zehm was standing in a Zip Trip convenience store holding a bottle of soda in March 2006 when Spokane police officer Karl Thompson rushed him from behind and delivered two baton blows to the back of his head. Zehm was knocked to the ground. Even after he was on the ground, Thompson, who was responding to a call from two women who thought Zehm might have stolen money from an ATM, continued to beat Zehm with his baton, shooting him with taser probes and hogtying him on the ground.
Zehm stopped breathing, and he was taken to the hospital, where he died two days later on March 20, 2006. In his report of the incident, contrary to testimony elicited at trial, Thompson denied hitting Zehm in the head with his baton. He was later sentenced to 51 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for civil rights and obstruction of justice violations. His sentencing was attended by 50 other police officers, including former Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl.
“All 50 of them saluted Carl as he walked out of court,” said Jim Leighty, the executive director of civil rights advocacy nonprofit Citizen Nine26. “Even though he attacked a person with a disability who had not committed a crime, who was not a threat, who was trying to protect himself from somebody that was beating him, whose last words were ‘All I wanted was a candy bar.’”…