PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION

FROM RONDI THORP ATTORNEY FOR THE NOVAK

FAMILY

RE: DAVID NOVAK

POLICE SHOOTING
JANUARY 7, 2019

The family has learned the Spokane Police and the City of
Spokane are holding another press conference tomorrow
morning. The last press conference by Prosecutor Larry Haskell
contained inaccuracies. The City is holding this press conference
again without notifying the family of their findings or what action
they are taking.
The Spokane Police and the City of Spokane are acting in a
damaging manner to this family, further exacerbating their injury.
We are releasing the only police body camera videos that we have
been able to obtain. We have asked for this footage and for all the
body cameras for months now and our requests have been
ignored.
The video is disturbing. The video is only 58 seconds long. You
see an officer arrive on scene and from the moment we hear the
officer yell what appears to be “Spokane Police get down on the
ground, drop the bat, drop it now, they give David Novak six
seconds to comply with this order. We hear the officer fire the
fatal shot on the video at 44 seconds. The command to drop the
bat ends at 38 seconds. How could any human being process what
is happening and comply with this command within 6 seconds?
The officer who appeared to do the shooting appears to shoot from
two houses away on Wall Street. How can the Spokane Police
Department tell the community this is reasonable? David Novak
was in his own yard, he was unarmed. They never even gave him
a chance to comply. How is a bat a threat to an officer that is two
houses away on another side street?
Was the officer questioned immediately after the shooting or was
he allowed days to think about his response to the investigation?
Were the officers separated so each could give their own
accounts? These are basic investigative techniques any
investigation would employ. Were they used here?
Prosecutor Larry Haskell either did not have all the facts when he
made the decision that the shooting was justified or is willfully
ignoring the facts. How reasonable is it for the police to argue at
the last press conference that they can see his breath, they can see
what he is wearing, but they cannot see that he is holding a bat
when they are yelling at him what appears to be “drop the bat”?
The police continued to maintain that they thought he had a gun
even though their own body cameras prove that was not true.
The police are also now stating that they do not have all the body
cameras from all the officers on the scene that evening. This is
highly concerning. Why are the policies not being followed? Why
is some body camera footage missing?
David Novak did not violate the law that evening. He was
murdered in his own yard on his own property and we look
forward to placing each of these officers on the stand to testify
about what really happened that night. Spokane citizens should
not be killed by Spokane police on their own land, when they are
doing nothing to deserve being shot and killed.

Rondi Thorp