A 31-year old Peshastin native was shot and killed by police on July 27 in Wenatchee. Matthew L. Folden, who was living in Wenatchee, was shot three times and later died at Central Washington Hospital.
According to Wenatchee Police, a 911 call was received by RiverCom shortly after 10 p.m. reporting there was a man screaming with a knife in hand in the Albertson’s parking lot on North Miller Street in Wenatchee. Someone nearby called 911, according to Wenatchee Police Sergeant Edgar Reinfeld.
“It was a citizen who happened to be in the parking lot doing some work. He reported there was male moving around in the parking lot screaming incoherently, waving a knife in the air. He observed this suspect was Mr. Folden,” Reinfeld said. “He headed west toward the Target parking lot and may have looped around the building with Starbucks and the other businesses. Then, came back toward Albertsons. Before the officers arrived, Folden started coming toward the person who called 911. The dispatcher told him to get out of there. Officers arrived shortly thereafter.”
Wenatchee Police Officer Albert Gonzalez arrived on the scene. He had been a Wenatchee Police Officer for two years and has a total of four years of law enforcement experience. When confronted with the allegedly armed emotional Folden, Gonzalez shot him three times.
It all happened very quickly.
“It was a tense and rapidly involving circumstance. We have not released a timetable for the entire event yet. We want to confirm everything. We’re trying to take a conservative approach, not releasing information until we know 100 percent exactly what happened, so we don’t have to backtrack because of an error, because we’ve rushed out with something we did not fully understand,” Reinfeld said.
Gonzalez has been placed on administrative leave as a routine part of an Officer Involved Shooting investigation.
This incident is being investigated by the North Central Washington Special Investigations Unit. This is a multi-jurisdictional team with Chelan County Sheriff’s Office, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, East Wenatchee Police Department, Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office, Wenatchee Police Department, and the Washington State Patrol. As of the time of this press release, the Washington State Patrol Crime Scene Response Team is processing the scene for evidence. Chelan County Sheriff’s Office is the lead agency for this incident.
Reinfeld said the NCW Special Investigations Unit has nearly completed interviews with all identified witnesses. A through identification of all video evidence collected is also underway.
“We seen some stuff posted on social media that we have seen. These were posted by folks shortly after the shooting. Looks like one was pulled down. We don’t know if anyone has a video of the shooting itself or the events leading up to it, but if they do, we want to hear from them, we want to see them. It is evidence. We need that stuff to determine what happened in the end,” Reinfeld said.
The two videos posted to social media have not been helpful, he said, because they don’t start until after the shooting and they don’t show a lot. One of the people shooting a video is upset and yelling.
“He is a subject that is known to us. We’ve had some less than positive run-ins with him over the past couple years. Everybody has their deal and that’s okay. He’s entitled to speak his opinion. The video doesn’t show us anything. It is well after the fact,” Reinfeld said. “The other one that was posted was also from after and also doesn’t show us much of anything. It’s hard to determine how much value there will be long term.”
Reinfeld said they had some contacts with Folden prior to the shooting, but certainly not like the contacts they have with certain people every week. He was not known like that. The officers at the scene had never had contact with him before.
It is not known yet whether the officers on scene gave any verbal commands that Folden did not comply with.
“We have a number of witness statements and we are getting more interviews. Until we’ve interviewed and identified everybody, I don’t think we going to try to come to any conclusions about the totality of what was said or done,” Reinfeld said.
There are still some key issues the police are trying to find out, such as what were Folden’s actions leading up to and during the event. Reinfeld said they want to know if there are other witnesses, some more video. A variety of people have already come forward.
“There was some concern that officers were very aggressive in clearing the area around the scene, telling people to go away or leave. You can see that in the one video. It’s easy in those moments with all that going on to really work very hard and very rapidly to clear an area and preserve evidence,” he said. “You want to say, go over there for a minute, then we’ll come and get your statement. I think there was some miscommunication in the first few seconds. We can see from video, we can see someone and go talk to them.”
“Every search for evidence is a excusatory evidence and exculpatory evidence for everyone involved. We look for evidence they were doing the bad thing we thought they were doing. We also look for evidence they did not do that. They are equally critical for every party involved.”
It is alleged the whole incident started as a verbal argument between Folden and his girlfriend.
“We’ve heard a number of statements that it may have happened not in the store, but in the area. We’re still trying to get that finalized. Some of the parties involved with the events leading up to it have not been interviewed,” Reinfeld said. “They have not exactly wanted to talk. There’s always people who don’t want to talk to us. They don’t have to. They are not compelled in any way, but if they talk to us and give us their side of the story, it helps us get there a lot faster.”
At present, the girlfriend had not given the police a full interview, Reinfeld said.
Anyone with information in this case is requested to call the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at 667-6845 regarding case number 17C08486.
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.
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