Father: 21-year-old Black man killed by deputies in Washington state

HAZEL DELL, Wash. - A Black man who was fatally shot by authorities in Washington state was a 21-year-old former high school football player with an infant daughter, friends and family said Friday.

Law enforcement remained tight-lipped about the Thursday night shooting in Hazel Dell, an unincorporated area northwest of Vancouver, and took no questions after a news conference Friday that lasted less than five minutes.

In a statement, Clark County Sheriff Chuck Atkins said a joint city-county narcotics task force was conducting an investigation in Hazel Dell just before 6 p.m. Thursday and chased a man into the parking lot of a bank, where he fired a gun at them. A weapon was recovered at the scene, Atkins said.

Authorities have not named the person who was shot, but Kevin E. Peterson Sr. told The Oregonian/OregonLive the person was his son, Kevin E. Peterson Jr. Atkins referenced the Peterson family in his remarks but did not confirm Peterson was the victim.

“I can say that our agency is grieving as is the Peterson family and the community,” Atkins said. “As the community grieves, I call for there to be a respectful and dignified observance of the loss of life in this matter. There is always the potential for misinformation, doubt and confusion – and there may be those who wish to sow seeds of doubt.”

The investigation has been referred to the Southwest Washington Independent Investigation Team, and the Camas Police Department is taking the lead, Atkins said.

The community is a short drive north across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, where racial justice protests have played out nearly every night since George Floyd’s killing in May. Southwest Washington, where the shooting occurred, is also home to the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, which has held rallies for President Donald Trump in Portland in recent months that ended in violence.

Peterson’s family members, including the mother of his infant daughter, grieved on social media and questioned why it took authorities so long to make the shooting public and allow family to identify the body.

“Kevin did everything for me ... doesn’t matter what it was or what time he always came when i asked. I regret every argument please come back,” his girlfriend, Olivia Selto, wrote on Twitter. “I miss him so much already.”

More than a dozen Black Lives Matter protesters lined a busy street in Hazel Dell in front of the US Bank parking lot where Peterson died. They held signs reading, “Honk for Black lives. White silence is violence” and “Scream his name.”

Two small bouquets of flowers were tied to a fence where the shooting happened along the street lined with strip malls and fast-food restaurants. Most drivers honked in support of protesters, but one man screamed expletives and threats at the protesters and revved his engine as he drove past.

A vigil was planned for Friday evening at the location.

Brooklyn Tidwell, 16, said she and other students attended the rally instead of going to school.

“Black lives aren’t treated the same as my life,“ said Tidwell, who is white. “We should be voicing this and we should be protesting this because it needs to change.”

Daniel Thompson, 26, stopped by with a bouquet of pink roses to leave at the scene. Thompson, who is Black, said he did not know Peterson but could identify with the shooting death.

“I walk this street every day. It’s sickening. It could have been any one of us,“ he said.

Bystanders said Peterson’s car was towed but his body remained at the scene for hours.

1. Mac Smiff, an organizer of Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, said he knows Peterson’s sister and spent more than five hours at the scene.

“There was a ton of grief, a ton of grief. He’s 21 and has a baby, an infant,” Smiff said. “They’re not sure what happened, why the encounter took place. Everyone was extremely disheveled and confused.”

The elder Peterson told the newspaper that he arrived at the scene about 6 p.m. Thursday but “did not get a chance to identify my son” until 5:30 a.m. Friday.

Jake Thompson, a high school acquaintance of Peterson, said he took photos at the wedding of Peterson’s parents in Portland in 2018. On Friday, he posted a black-and-white photo of Peterson in a suit and bow tie as he flashed a big grin.

“I didn’t sleep much last night,” he said Friday.

Peterson played football at Union High School in Vancouver, Washington, loved sports of any kind and was a big personality who was known and liked by everyone at school, Thompson said.

Hazel Dell is about 12 miles north of Portland.