KELSO, Wash. (KOIN) — The man who was shot and killed by a Kelso police officer has been identified as Omer Ismail Ali.
Ali was shot after attacking the clerk, a customer and the officer at the Fling K convenience store in Kelso at 8:15 a.m. on August 17. Ali was an immigrant from Sudan and had been living in Spokane, Washington since September 2013. He was known to be a transient.
It was around 8 a.m. that he returned to the Flying K for the third time that morning and attempted to shoplift. Officer John Johnston was called and was reviewing surveillance video in the store office when Ali began assaulting the clerk and a customer with a stick.
Johnston was also attacked with the stick before shooting Ali at 8:15 a.m.
Surveillance video from outside the show shows Ali approaching with the pole, and video from inside shows him hitting a customer before going after Johnston.
The Cowlitz County coroner’s office found that Ali died of gunshot wounds to the chest. He also had gunshot wounds to his jaw and neck.
Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson told KOIN on Wednesday that he was “not sure a Taser or a baton would have been an appropriate response.”
Warning: Graphic Video