Detectives say surveillance video shows brothers trying to steal beer before being shot



OLYMPIA - Detectives say they are confident brothers Andre Thompson and Bryson Chaplin are caught on a surveillance video at an Olympia Safeway before they are shot by an Olympia police officer.

An investigator says one of the brothers takes a watermelon from the front of the grocery store.

The same brother comes back and goes inside the Safeway where detectives say he tries to steal a case of beer. When an employee calls him out the brother throws it at the worker and takes off.

The employee called 911 reporting this.
“He stole a beer earlier he tried to do it again, he threw the beer at me and hit my hand,” employee said.

Safeway’s surveillance video is the only known footage of the brothers before Olympia police officer Ryan Donald comes face to face with them on Cooper Point Road. There is no dashcam video but Donald’s call to dispatch captured the shooting.

“Assaulted me with a skateboard I tried to grab his friend they are pretty aggressive,” Donald said.
Donald requests for backup telling dispatch that both brothers ran into the woods. He couldn’t see them but could hear their movements. Detectives say the brothers emerged from the woods leading to another confrontation then gunshots.

“Shots fired one down,” Donald said.
Q13 FOX News spoke with a man who says one of the bullets pierced his son’s home.
The people inside are ok. But the brother’s mom is far from ok with what happened.

“I am still upset they were shot this doesn’t happen in my family,” mom Crystal Chaplin said.
Chaplin talked to Q13 Fox News shortly after learning her boys were taken to the hospital on Thursday.
“I think it is a case of mistaken identity it just doesn’t make sense,” Chaplin said.
Police say there is no question the brothers are the assault suspects. But the bigger question still remains did the officer use reasonable force.

“The majority of the work is done and they are waiting for things like forensics and to formally interview the officer,” Olympia Police Spokesperson Laura Wohl said.

Detectives will question Donald on Tuesday. They say it’s standard protocol to give an officer at least 72 hours before questioning them after a shooting. Detectives are also hoping to question the brothers in depth after they are recovered from their injuries.