Cop Who Shot Man In Wheelchair 9 Times From Behind Was Just Indicted

By Trone Dowd

Former Tucson cop Ryan Remington, 32, is fac­ing a charge of manslaugh­ter after shoot­ing a man sus­pect­ed of shoplifting.

The off-duty Tucson police offi­cer who fatal­ly shot a man in a wheel­chair nine times in the back is fac­ing a manslaugh­ter charge, a grand jury has decided.

Former offi­cer Ryan Remington, 32, is accused of reck­less­ly caus­ing the death of 61-year-old Richard Lee Richards, accord­ing to Pima County Attorney Laura Conover, who said there will be an arraign­ment this week.

“It appears now that this case will go to tri­al and we will do our best to ensure that it is a fair tri­al,” Conover said dur­ing a press con­fer­ence on Thursday. “My office, despite con­sid­er­able pres­sure to rush to judg­ment, took care­ful, cal­cu­lat­ed, and thor­ough steps to come to this deci­sion. We took the time to get it right.”

On Nov. 30, Remington, who was off-duty work­ing Walmart secu­ri­ty, was fol­low­ing Richards after he alleged­ly stole a tool­box. Richards, who was in a motor­ized scoot­er, alleged­ly flashed a knife to Walmart employ­ees who tried to con­front him.

“If you want me to put down the knife, you’re going to have to shoot me,” Richards alleged­ly told Remington as Remington fol­lowed him into the park­ing lot. As on-duty police offi­cers arrived, Richards tried to go into the Lowe’s store near­by. Disturbing body cam­era footage released by police last December shows that Remington shot Richards nine times from behind just as the arriv­ing offi­cers ordered Richards to stop. 

Remington could be seen on secu­ri­ty footage hand­cuff­ing Richards as he slumped out of his chair and bled out. Police tried to ren­der aid, but Richards was declared dead short­ly after the shooting.

Remington was fired from his job with the Tucson Police Department ear­li­er this year after an inter­nal investigation.

Remington’s legal rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Tucson Police Officers Association attor­ney Michael Storie, pre­vi­ous­ly argued that his client had tried numer­ous times to de-esca­late the sit­u­a­tion, leav­ing him no oth­er choice but to use force as Richards entered anoth­er store. He also said that Remington fired as many shots as he did as a result of his training.

Storie did not imme­di­ate­ly respond to requests for com­ment, but he told local NBC affil­i­ate KVOA that the charges against his client are “legal fiction.”

“Manslaughter doesn’t even fit,” Storie told the TV sta­tion. “I’ll be very, very inter­est­ed to read the grand jury tran­script and what went on in that room where I was not present.”