A Snohomish County Deputy shot and killed Nikolas Peters last month while he was sitting in the driver’s seat of a pickup truck, according to the man’s girlfriend, Britt Jakobsen. Jakobsen was sitting in the passenger seat next to him when he was killed. Today, she called for murder charges against his alleged killer.
“I believe that the cop should be charged with murder because in my eyes he murdered Nick,” Jakobsen told me in a phone interview.
The Everett Herald reported that Peters fled from police on Oct. 23 and led them on a wild police chase through Snohomish County near I-405, eventually ending when officers pinned the F-150 pickup truck Peters was driving between a cop car and some woods. The deputies then approached the car and instructed Peters and Jakobsen to put their hands in the air, but, according to the search warrants obtained by the Herald, Peters kept his right hand at his side. Deputy Art Wallin then fired two shots into the car hitting Peters, who was later pronounced dead at Harborview Medical Center, according to the Herald.
Jakobsen, who is 22, said Peters had both of his hands in the air when Wallin opened fire.
“The cop hopped up on the hood and gave us two different commands, one to turn the ignition off, Nick complied, and to raise our hands, we both did immediately. And then they were also saying to get out of the vehicle. And you cannot do two things at once, so Nick and I look at each other confused and asked what to do and then seconds later the cop shot Nick through the windshield,” Jakobsen said.
Jakobsen claims the truck’s ignition was off, posing no threat to the cop.
“There was no reason for him to get on the hood and clearly see that both of our hands are up because there are lights shining in on us and then seconds after he raised his hands, that’s when he decided to shoot him,” Jakobsen said. “In my eyes that’s murder, that’s not justice.”
Lt. Todd Swenson, a spokesperson for the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, said the sheriff’s office had no comment on the case at this time.
Police found a loaded .45-caliber pistol in a zippered case “underneath the center console” of the truck after they impounded and searched the vehicle, according to the Herald. Jeff Campiche, a Seattle attorney that is working with the Peters family but has not yet filed a lawsuit, said the presence of a handgun was “immaterial” because police had no knowledge of its presence at that time.
“Nobody saw a weapon in his hand. He had no weapon in his hand and he had no ability to reach a weapon. There was a handgun in a container, in a zipped bag, under the seat in the back,” Campiche said.
Campiche described Wallin as a “cop turned Rambo,” and said the deputy had no justification to kill Peters because Peters did not appear to pose a risk of causing death or serious physical injury.
“Even from the police’s version of the facts there is no evidence that he presented a threat to the officers after they immobilized his car,” Campiche said. “The car was turned off, the pickup was turned off, the ignition was turned off, and Britt Jakobsen, who was sitting next to him at the time, said both he and her raised their hands.”
The Herald story says Peters was driving on a suspended license and had a warrant out for his arrest, as well as several earlier offenses. Officers also found an assortment of drugs in the vehicle after they impounded and searched it.
Campiche said the drugs and earlier warrant should have no bearing on what the officers decided to do when they confronted Peters.
“The police did not know who the person they were pulling over was, they did not know if he had a firearm, but they certainly did not see one because he wasn’t holding it. Nor could he reach it nor did he try to reach it,” Campiche said.
Campiche said the fact that Peters led the officers on a high-speed police chase was not a reason for shooting and killing the 24-year-old.
“It was certainly a lawful stop and they should have arrested him and he should have been prosecuted for attempt to elude a police officer, that’s what the policeman’s job is. It is not the policeman’s responsibility to execute him,” Campiche said.
Jakobsen claims that almost immediately after Wallin opened fire, a cop opened the passenger side door and ripped her out of the car by her hair. She said her boyfriend’s last words were “don’t hurt her” as she was being pulled out of the truck.
“Not only was I pulled out, but I was pulled out by my hair, thrown to the ground from this lifted truck, stomped on my back, and stomped on the side of my face down to the pavement,” Jakobsen said. “Then I hear them saying that they need to get Nick out and I try to look back over at Nick but the officer slams my face down with his foot. And then I asked him, ‘Is he ok?’ and he told me to ‘Shut the fuck up.’”
Jakobsen said many of her family and friends are police officers including her father Ken Jakobsen, who is a retired Seattle Police Officer and was president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild. She said at first she couldn’t believe that her boyfriend had been shot.
“My dad being a police officer, this whole time I thought he [her boyfriend] was okay because I couldn’t imagine police officers using the kind of deadly force that they used that night. That’s not the way he should have handled it,” Jakobsen said.
Jakobsen said she had dated Peters for five years and had lived with him for multiple years.
“I know Nick like the back of my hand, being with him every day for five years, he would never try to threaten a cop,” Jakobsen said.
