Many basic questions remain unanswered in the two weeks since Kevin E. Peterson Jr. was killed by Clark County deputies who shot at him as he ran from an undercover drug sting, including how many times Peterson was hit and where.
The Oct. 29 death of the 21-year-old Black man from Camas led to tense demonstrations in Vancouver decrying the police killing of another Black man, rattling many in the city and raising questions about the circumstances leading up to the shooting.
“The case is still under active investigation so details will be released when they are available,” Detective Sgt. Marc Langlois of the Longview Police Department, a spokesman for the investigation team, said in an email Thursday.
Investigators have said Peterson ran from drug detectives and pointed a gun at deputies who encountered him in a nearby bank parking lot but that Peterson hadn’t fired his gun as initial reports indicated.
The following timeline is drawn from a search warrant filed Nov. 6 in Clark County District Court and two statements — one Oct. 30 and one Nov. 10 — issued by the Southwest Washington Independent Investigative Response Team. Peterson’s partner, Olivia Selto, also answered questions about the night he died.
5:30 p.m. to 5:35 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29: Peterson leaves home, according to Selto.
5:50 p.m.: Peterson arrives at the Quality Inn motel, 7001 Northeast Highway 99, in Hazel Dell, according to the search warrant affidavit. Hazel Dell is an unincorporated Clark County community northwest of Vancouver.
Peterson is driving a dark blue 2012 two-door Mercedes with an Oregon license plate, the warrant says. (Selto said these details provided by police are inaccurate. She said the car is gray and is a 4-door. “Our car seat base for our daughter was in there,” she said.)
Peterson is under investigation for conspiracy to deliver controlled substances, according to the warrant. He had been in contact with a confidential informant to sell 50 Xanax pills at the Quality Inn and provided the informant with a picture of the pills, the warrant says. Xanax is used to treat anxiety.
Members with the Clark County Regional Drug Task Force expect the meeting to happen around 5:30 p.m., according to the warrant.
The Quality Inn is located along a busy commercial road. A short driveway leads from the highway into the parking lot of the motel, a collection of nondescript beige buildings.
Task force detectives identify Peterson from his Snapchat profile, according to the regional investigation team.
They are in unmarked cars and activate emergency lights when they approach the Mercedes in the Quality Inn lot, the investigators say in the statement released Nov. 10. They’re wearing tactical vests “bearing law enforcement identification,” the statement says.
Two task force members — identified in the warrant only by their last names, Fields and Osorio — block Peterson’s car and try to arrest him, according to the warrant.
Peterson flees out the driver’s side door and runs around the north to northeast perimeter of the Quality Inn, the warrant says.
5:55 p.m.: Peterson calls Selto. She reports hearing Peterson running. She said they spoke by Facetime.
“I could physically see his face as he was running when I answered the call,” she said.