ARIZONA — A Tucson police officer was fired after fatally shooting a man in a motorized wheelchair who was accused of shoplifting and pulling a knife when confronted outside a Walmart, authorities said Tuesday.
Police announced in a news conference that Officer Ryan Remington was being terminated for excessive use of force in connection with the incident.
Surveillance video of the shooting shows Richard Lee Richards, 61, entering a Lowe’s in a wheelchair before Remington fired his gun nine times at Richards’ back and side.
Remington, a four-year veteran, was on a “special duty assignment, basically a security detail” at the Walmart store in the Midvale Park Shopping Center on Monday night, Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus said.
A loss prevention employee at Walmart reported to the off-duty officer that a man in a motorized wheelchair had stolen a tool box. According to the employee, he caught up with the suspect in the parking lot to ask for a receipt, during the exchange the suspect brandished a knife.
Remington went to the parking lot and asked Richards to surrender his knife but he refused, according to police. Richards then continued through the Walmart parking lot and started to enter the garden center-area of a nearby Lowe’s, during that time another officer arrived at the scene to assist.
Both officers told Richards not to enter the store, however, Richards did not comply. Remington then opened fired and shot Richards nine times, striking him in the back and side.
Richards fell out of his chair onto the ground and was pronounced dead shortly afterward.