Dad of one of 2 men shot by Olympia officer: Shooting should have never happened

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- One of two stepbrothers shot by an Olympia police officer is back home recovering.

Talking to Q13 FOX News for the first time Monday, Andre Thompson’s father said his son is not ready to talk about the early Thursday morning shooting, but he -- the father -- believes the shooting should have never happened.

Thompson, 24, and his stepbrother, Bryson Chaplin, 21, were shot by an Olympia police officer after he stopped them as suspects in an attempted beer theft from a Safeway store. The officer, Ryan Donald, radioed in that they attacked him with their skateboards before he opened fire.

Near the incident on Cooper Point Road, someone spray painted the words, “No justice no peace.”



“I woke up to a single gunshot; it jarred me awake,” said one neighbor, who didn’t want her face shown on camera because she says the shooting is too controversial.

The brothers are black and the officer is white, and the shooting sparked protests in Olympia Thursday afternoon and Thursday night.

“It’s aggravating because people say you have to be on one side of the fence. I am like,  why?" the neighbor said.

Neighbors say the shooting has polarized their quiet Olympia community.
There is no video of the shooting but detectives say cameras caught the brothers outside a Safeway right before the shooting.

A Safeway employee called 911 saying a man tried to steal a case of beer.

“He stole a beer earlier and he tried to do it again. He threw the beer at me and hit my hand, he threw a case of beer at me, glass beer. He’s at the fuel station right now he’s running but they are both on skateboards,” employee said.

Donald spotted the brothers along Cooper Point Road not far from the Safeway. Donald told dispatch that he tried to stop the brothers but they were aggressive and attacked him with skateboards.

It's unclear how many shots were fired and in what sequence.

Investigators will interview Donald for the first time on Tuesday to get his side of the events.  Investigators said they interviewed Thompson in his hospital bed Thursday, only hours after he had been shot.

Chaplin was critically injured in the shooting and was not immediately interviewed by investigators. He has since been upgraded to serious condition at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center.

Police say they were not expecting more protests Monday night or Tuesday. But they are expecting a lot of people at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.