State audits of the investigations in two officer involved shooting deaths in Wenatchee reveals the probes were conducted properly and with few recommendations.

The North Central Washington Special Investigation Unit (NCWSIU) investigated the officer's actions in the deaths of Alexander White and Zachary Rutherford. The NCWSIU is comprised of regional law enforcement agencies to investigate an officer's actions in use of force cases.

White was killed May 7th, 2022 when he was shot by police after firing a gun at the front door of Living Hope Church across the street from the Apple Blossom activities in Memorial Park.

Rutherford died a month later on June 7th after he approached officers armed with a knife and refused their commands to drop it.. Officers first tried non-lethal measures but were unsuccessful and as Rutherford advanced towards them, they fired seven shots.  Both men died at the scene of the shootings.

Read the two audit reports into the Alexander White death here and for the Zachary Rutherford probe, click  here

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The state audits recommended that officers should have been more separation of the officers involved at the scene and more weekly reports should have been provided to the public.

All the officers were cleared of wrong doing in 2023 by the Chelan County Prosecutor who declined to file charges.

Stev Groseclose, Commander of the NCWSIU said the officers who were involved wore body cameras that recorded all of their interactions at the scene and the recordings reveal that officer's did not exchange information prior to making statements to the NCWSIU investigators.

Groseclose said a lapse in some of the weekly public reports of the ongoing investigation were caused when the Public Information Officer providing updates  was delegated to work on a major wildfire.  A backup protocol will be put in place

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