Death by Cop 2021-2025
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Ivan Zaytsev
Age : 41
Gender : Male
Race : White
Date : 07/02/2024
Location : Dead end of 5th Avenue Court East near 205th Street East
City : Spanaway
County : Pierce
State : Washington
Agency : Washington State Patrol; Pierce County Sheriff’s Department
Officer(s) :Stephen O’Brien; Chad Helligso; Timothy Piland; Sergeant Daren Witt
Cause of Death : Gunshot
Event : Killed by police during pursuit
OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :
On 07/02/2024, at approximately 10:16 a.m., a Washington State Patrol trooper attempted to stop 41-year-old Ivan Zaytsev for an unspecified traffic violation on State Route 512 near Steele Street in the Parkland area of Pierce County. The precise traffic violation has never been publicly identified. The Pierce County Force Investigation Team later acknowledged that its description of this opening encounter differed from information presented during the first police briefing, saying investigators revised the account after obtaining additional information later that evening.
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According to the official police account, Zaytsev continued driving after the trooper activated emergency lights and siren. Police allege that he fired a gun toward the trooper from his vehicle but have to date not released BWC or dashcam footage documenting this while also not closing the investigation more than 2 years after the fatal shooting.
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Police state that the trooper discontinued direct pursuit, notified dispatch, and provided the vehicle’s license plate, description and direction of travel. The identity of this first trooper has not been separated publicly from the four officers later identified as involved in the fatal encounter. No publicly released investigative report has yet clarified whether the initial trooper was Stephen O’Brien or another WSP employee who was named as one of 4 shooters leading to the death of Ivan Zaytsev.
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Some time later, a WSP trooper and a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy located Zaytsev’s vehicle on State Route 7 near the 19000 block. They allege that they began "following it" rather than immediately initiating a high-speed pursuit. Police reported that Zaytsev stopped, fired toward the trooper and deputy, and then continued south on State Route 7 while police pursued. Authorities alleged that additional shots were fired from his vehicle during the pursuit. Available public statements do not disclose the precise duration or distance of the pursuit, vehicle speeds, dispatch recordings, the number of reported shots, or whether officers attempted spike strips, a PIT maneuver or other vehicle-intervention tactics.
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The pursuit continued into a residential neighborhood off State Route 507 and ended at the dead end of 5th Avenue Court East near 205th Street East in Spanaway. Police said Zaytsev stopped his van, got out and continued firing. Multiple officers returned fire. Photographs and early news coverage showed bullet damage to police vehicles, and authorities said at least one nearby residence which turned out to be Zaytsev's family home where he came to a final stop was struck by gunfire. Zaytsev was hit multiple times, detained and treated by officers and responding paramedics before being pronounced dead at the scene.
The officers officially identified as involved were WSP Trooper Stephen O’Brien, Pierce County Deputy Chad Helligso, Deputy Timothy Piland and Sergeant Daren Witt.
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Before Ivan Zaytsev, two of the four officers had already participated in three fatal police shootings. Zaytsev is the fourth identified fatality involving members of this four-officer group.
The three earlier deaths are:
Michael Lee Bourquin — Chad Helligso — 02/01/2014
Justin Christopher Baker — Chad Helligso — 08/30/2016
Dwayne Michael Fields — Stephen O'Brien — 06/25/2021
Ivan Zaytsev — O'Brien/Helligso/Piland/Witt — 07/02/2024
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At the time, O’Brien was 32 and had worked for WSP for six years; Helligso was 47 with 23 years at the sheriff’s department; Piland was 26 with four years; and Witt was 57 with 30 years. Public PCFIT releases have not specified how many of the four fired, how many rounds each fired, whose bullets struck Zaytsev, what firearms were used, whether Zaytsev’s weapon was recovered and tested, or whether gunshot-residue, trajectory and ballistic examinations supported every element of the initial police narrative.
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More than two years after the killing, PCFIT continued to publish virtually identical weekly notices stating only that the case remained an active investigation. Its 07/24/2026 release still reported no substantive update. Consequently, the complete investigation has not been delivered publicly, no prosecutorial decision has been announced, and no body-camera footage, dashboard-camera footage, dispatch audio, autopsy report, scene reconstruction, officer interviews or complete ballistics findings have been released through the investigation’s public-update process.
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The extreme delay appears to be significant. The public record still does not establish which officer fired the fatal rounds, the number and location of Zaytsev’s wounds, the sequence in which officers fired, whether officers fired simultaneously, whether any police rounds entered nearby homes, or whether every recovered projectile could be assigned to a particular weapon. The four officers’ placement under the single label “involved” should therefore not be treated as proof that all four fired or that O’Brien alone fired the fatal shots. Those determinations remain concealed within an investigation that was still officially open as of July 2026, more than 2 years after the investigation began.
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PRIOR FATAL SHOOTING BY TROOPER STEPHEN O’BRIEN :
Stephen O’Brien had previously killed 34-year-old Dwayne Michael Fields in Fife on 06/25/2021. This was approximately three years before Zaytsev’s death, not a matter of months.
Fife police pursued Fields after a commercial yard truck was reported stolen. The truck was large and reportedly incapable of exceeding approximately 35 mph. Officers followed it through an industrial area, deployed spike strips and attempted to contain it with patrol vehicles. When the truck moved backward in a warehouse parking lot, O’Brien stood near the front of his patrol vehicle with a rifle. Another officer fired a Taser, but only one probe made contact. The truck then moved backward in O’Brien’s direction while another officer attempted to pin one of its wheels with a patrol car.
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O’Brien moved away from the truck and fired his rifle nine times into the cab. Fields was struck once in the back of the neck and three times in the upper back. The truck then rolled into a parked vehicle. O’Brien removed Fields from the cab and attempted aid, but Fields was pronounced dead. Investigators recovered nine cartridge cases, O’Brien’s rifle, dash-camera footage, microphone audio, business surveillance footage and four bullets recovered during the autopsy.
O’Brien declined to provide investigators with a statement about killing Fields. Although officers may invoke constitutional and employment protections rather than participate voluntarily in a criminal investigation, his refusal meant that the criminal review proceeded without a complete voluntary account from the person who fired all nine rifle rounds. The Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office ultimately declined to charge him in May 2023.
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A subsequent Washington State Auditor review found serious defects in PCFIT’s investigation of Fields’ death. The team failed to document regular updates to Fields’ family, failed to give the family advance notice of several public releases, did not adequately restrict access to the investigative file, failed to complete all required conflict-of-interest assessments and could not establish that witness officers had been prevented from discussing the shooting before giving statements. Investigators did not interview the witness officers until approximately two and a half weeks after the killing.
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The Fields investigation therefore raises direct concerns about the prolonged PCFIT investigation of Zaytsev’s death. The same regional investigation system that failed multiple independence, communication and case-integrity requirements after O’Brien’s first fatal shooting has now withheld the substantive findings in his second known fatal encounter for more than two years. The available evidence confirms that O’Brien was one of four officers officially connected to the Zaytsev shooting, but the continuing absence of ballistics, video and officer-by-officer firing information prevents a reliable public determination of which officer or officers fired the fatal rounds.
.PRIOR FATAL SHOOTINGS INVOLVING DEPUTY CHAD HELLIGSO :
O'Brien was not the only officer involved in Zaytsev's death who had previously participated in fatal police shootings. Pierce County Deputy Chad Helligso had been involved in two previous fatal shootings before Zaytsev was killed, making Zaytsev the fourth identified fatality involving members of the four-officer group named in the 2024 shooting.
On 02/01/2014, Helligso shot and killed 21-year-old Michael Lee Bourquin during a traffic stop in the Parkland/Spanaway area. Helligso and Deputy Chris Olson stopped a pickup truck in which Bourquin was a passenger. Police knew Bourquin had outstanding felony warrants and wanted to question him in connection with another investigation. According to the official account, Helligso pulled Bourquin from the truck and a physical struggle followed. During the struggle, a fixed-blade knife fell to the ground. Authorities said Bourquin then sprayed Helligso and Olson in the face with bear spray, impairing their vision.
Helligso drew his handgun and fired seven rounds at Bourquin. Bourquin was struck multiple times in the torso and died at the scene. On 06/02/2014, Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist concluded that Helligso's killing of Bourquin constituted justifiable homicide under Washington law.
Bourquin's family subsequently brought a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Helligso and Pierce County, alleging excessive force and seeking approximately $20 million in damages. In 2017, U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton granted summary judgment to Helligso and Pierce County. The court concluded that Helligso's use of deadly force was objectively reasonable under the circumstances and that no reasonable juror could conclude otherwise.
Helligso was involved in another fatal police shooting approximately two and a half years later.
On 08/30/2016, 36-year-old Justin Christopher Baker was shot and killed by Helligso and four other Pierce County deputies: David Sutherland, Brian Coburn, Robert Blumenschine and Roger Fuller. Police responded to Baker's parents' residence after receiving information that Baker was outside with a running chainsaw and had threatened to harm himself and attack responding deputies.
According to the official account, deputies encountered Baker holding and revving the chainsaw. Police ordered him to put it down. One deputy fired a Taser at Baker, but authorities said it did not stop him. Police reported that Baker then advanced toward the deputies with the running chainsaw. Helligso and the four other deputies opened fire.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner documented 27 gunshot wounds to Baker's body and determined that several were potentially fatal. Publicly available records reviewed for this report do not establish how many of those rounds were fired by Helligso individually.
On 01/09/2017, Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist concluded that all five deputies acted lawfully.
Accordingly, before Ivan Zaytsev was killed on 07/02/2024, two of the four officers identified in his fatal encounter had already participated in three fatal police shootings between them: Helligso in the killings of Michael Lee Bourquin in 2014 and Justin Christopher Baker in 2016, and WSP Trooper Stephen O'Brien in the killing of Dwayne Michael Fields in 2021. Zaytsev became the fourth identified fatality involving members of this group.
No verified previous fatal police shooting has presently been identified involving Deputy Timothy Piland or Sergeant Daren Witt. The absence of a publicly identified prior fatality should not be interpreted as a complete assessment of their use-of-force histories, which would require personnel, internal-affairs and firearm-discharge records.
SOURCE LINKS :
https://www.piercecountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/139376/PCFIT-Press-Release-August-9-2024
https://www.piercecountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/139218/PCFIT-Press-Release-August-2-2024
https://www.piercecountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/138866/PCFIT-Press-Release-July-19-2024
https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/suspect-killed-i-5
https://portal.sao.wa.gov/ReportSearch/Home/ViewReportFile?arn=1035784&isFinding=false&sp=false
