A lawsuit says a Longview woman’s suicide death could have been prevented with more police training

The family of a Longview woman shot and killed by Longview police on New Year’s Day filed a wrongful death and federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and three Longview police officers Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Katelynn Rose Smith’s two minor children, as well as her mother and estate representative Danielle Whiting, are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit that seeks to hold the city of Longview and three officers accountable for the killing of the 29-year-old subject of the lawsuit claims he needed help during the crisis mental.

Immediately after the shooting, a local independent investigative team called the Lower Columbia Major Crimes Team reported that Smith pointed a gun at officers as he exited a home in the 2900 block of Columbia Heights Road in Longview, prompting three officers to fire.

The team said first aid was administered, but Smith died from her injuries.

Both the lawsuit and the Lower Columbia Major Crimes Task Force say 911 was called because Smith was suicidal at the time, but the lawsuit alleges that police may have prevented her from accessing the gun.

The complaint says officers ordered Smith to be released by her boyfriend, who was preventing her from getting to his gun and harming herself or others. The document shows that the gun she pointed to police was also unloaded.

Police officers mentioned in

fatal New Year’s Day shooting in Longview

All three officers were assigned to the Longview Patrol Division.

The lawsuit alleges negligence, violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and due process, and failure to properly train the officers.

The officers who were fired – Supervisor Elijah Heston, Senior Officer Dylan Fletcher and Officer Caitlyn Woolcott-Rose – are being sued on an individual, personal and professional basis. The representations of these defendants are not yet entered in the court records.

The attorneys representing the family are Mark Lindquist of Mark Lindquist Law PLLC in Tacoma and Angus Lee of the Angus Lee Law Firm in Longview. They are demanding a jury trial.

Angela Abel, a spokeswoman for Longview, told the Daily News the city cannot comment on an ongoing case.

Cowlitz County Prosecutor Ryan Jurvakainen said the officers did not face criminal charges because they were in grave danger after Smith pointed a gun at them, justifying the use of deadly force. The officers repeatedly shouted at her to drop the weapon, but she did not listen, he added.

Shooting

According to a January news release from the Lower Columbia Major Crimes Team, police were called to a home in Columbia Heights around 5 a.m. on Jan. 1 because Smith was reportedly suicidal and assaulting a man.

The lawsuit says Smith’s boyfriend, Justin Ebert, called 911 after she came to his house looking for a gun and said she wanted to hurt herself.

In a 13-minute, 33-second video of the incident released in January on the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office YouTube channel, Ebert tells a dispatcher that Smith is “literally trying to kill herself” and also “trying to drink chemicals and trying to stick something in her neck.” . The video includes edited body camera footage and audio of the 911 call.

The lawsuit says Ebert also told police that Smith was lying in the road, biting herself and eating the dirt.

Two of the three officers provided written statements during the investigation saying they had heard information that Smith had tried to take her own life and even “put something into her neck,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also says police knew Smith could possibly gain access to the gun. Records show the officer asked the dispatcher if Ebert’s gun was secured, and he responded, “negative, the male stated there were firearms in the home which he was trying to keep away from.”

Police findings show that the suspect also assaulted a man.

Video footage shows Longview police arrived at 1:30 a.m. after the call.

When they arrived, Ebert was on top of Smith, preventing her from reaching the gun, according to the lawsuit.

One officer wrote in his report that Ebert was “lying on top of Ms. Smith” and “she was lying on her back on the floor with Mr. Ebert straddling her,” the complaint says.

According to the lawsuit, the officers ordered him to release the girl.

Heston’s body-worn camera reportedly shows that when officers approached Ebert and Smith, they had their guns drawn and pointed at Ebert.

Fletcher and Heston ordered Ebert to release Smith, and when he complied, Smith disappeared from officers’ sight and went to rooms where they “knew there was a gun” and did not keep it, the document continues.

Shooting

A screenshot from a Longview officer’s body camera footage shows Katelyn Rose Smith, 29, pointing a gun at officers on Jan. 1 in the 2900 block of Columbia Heights in Longview. The lawsuit filed this week says the gun was not loaded.

On the day of the shooting, officers also had less-lethal options available to them, including access to a 40-millimeter launcher equipped with foam batons and a ballistic shield, the lawsuit states.

Instead, officers stood outside the residence with their guns drawn.

The video shows police shooting at Smith as she was leaving her home and pointing the gun at them.

Video footage shows that 23 rounds were fired between the three officers, six of which hit Smith.

The lawsuit says officers struck Smith 11 times, puncturing her liver and head and striking her brain.

Investigators released footage of the Longview shooting and say officers fired a total of 23 shots.

None of the officers involved in the incident were injured. They were all placed on serious incident leave following the incident, the Major Crimes Team said.

This wasn’t the first time Smith tried to hurt herself.

The lawsuit says that about seven months earlier, in June, Ebert also called police. He told the dispatcher that Smith was having a mental health crisis because she had stopped taking her medication and was trying to hurt herself.

The lawsuit says police took her to PeaceHealth St. Medical Center. John after this call to undergo compulsory treatment.

Behavioral Health Unit vs. Police Officers

According to the department, the Longview Police Department’s behavioral health unit was off duty during the New Year’s Eve call because the unit’s budget did not allow for work on the holiday.

In November, voters passed a new sales tax allowing for the hiring of three more patrol officers. The tax — which will add a cent to every $10 purchase in the city — cannot cover members of the behavioral health unit.

Tax revenue is expected to begin in April, with the first new officer hired in June and the remaining two positions in 2026. The city says this is the first increase in police officer numbers since 1980.

As explained in the voter brochure, minimum patrols in Longview have remained at current levels since 1980, while the population has increased by 22.8% and the number of calls to police has increased by 43%.