The inquest into Federal Way resident Mitchell Nelson’s 2018 death was completed in August, concluding that Corporal Riggles followed Federal Way Police Department guidelines for use of force on a civilian. For Nelson’s family, it brought more questions than answers.

In an interview with The Mirror, Mitchell Nelson’s surviving sister Macie Nelson shared that conflicting accounts about the treatment of her brother’s body, revelations about the amount of chemicals deployed into the house during the incident in April 2018, and the true circumstances of his final moments remain points of contention.

Many of these questions will remain unanswered because a delayed inquest also delayed the opportunity to find answers in court. Statutes of limitations often only allow a small window of time to take action.

Inquest

The inquest process includes a six person jury who watched days of testimony from over a dozen law enforcement officers, the medical examiner and two civilians. Each witness provided their unique perspective of the events of April 4, 2018, via questions from attorneys.

Inquests into police killings of civilians were stalled for multiple years due to local backlash about an executive order by Dow Constantine to increase transparency into these incidents. Federal Way was among the cities that joined together to fight against this increased transparency in court, but ultimately failed to change it.

In a statement provided by the lawyer for the Federal Way Police, Corporal Riggles and Commander Jones said: “The Valley SWAT team handled this dangerous situation with professionalism and skill. Mr. Nelson burglarized a home, located a loaded semi-automatic handgun inside that home, and fired it in close proximity to police on two separate occasions during the SWAT team’s 11-hour effort to persuade him to surrender peacefully.”

Questions linger

The entire incident lasted around 12 hours from when Mitchell Nelson entered the home of Glen Whitton to when he ultimately passed. The inquest focused on several key points, including the circumstances of his final minutes.

Throughout the entire incident, no clear and direct contact was made with Nelson and for much of that time, and officers were unsure where in the house he was.

Around 10:30 p.m., members of the Valley SWAT team made a covert entry into the house and located Nelson in a crawlspace using a thermal imaging camera referred to as a FLIR.

Multiple officers testified to the low visibility inside the house throughout the events that followed their entry, and the deployment of additional chemical munitions added to the issue.

The chemical haze and darkness inside the house were at the point that a K9 sent inside the crawlspace walked over Mitchell Nelson’s chest without sensing him. The K9 had to be deployed again before he located Nelson.

Officer Hinkle documented that the K9 Kaiser left the crawlspace around 10:44 p.m.

Approximately 1 minute later, Mitchell Nelson was shot.

During inquest proceedings, Corporal Riggles answered “yes” to the question: “At the time the canine entered, you were unable to see inside the crawlspace because of the particulate from the chemical munitions?”

When asked if he saw any change in the amount of particulate matter in the air from when he earlier stated that he could not see into the crawlspace to moment to when he shot Nelson, Corporal Riggles said: “Not that I remember. I just remember him all of a sudden becoming, coming suddenly into view.”

Assistant Chief Betz testified that he did not look at Corporal Riggles at the time of the shooting, but believed that he “was seeing Nelson by using his night vision goggles since I do not recall any visible light being used.”

Earlier in his report during the covert entry, Assistant Chief Betz had stated that “I attempted to use my night vision goggles momentarily to see Nelson so I wouldn’t have the light coming back into my face.” The light he referred to was the screen of the infared device. “I was not able to see anything due to the amount of chemicals in the crawlspace.”

Despite the haze, Corporal Riggles testified that he was able to see Nelson come into view and wave a handgun that he had acquired in the house.

Nelson had fired multiple times throughout the night, including several times while suffering the dog attack. He also fired once after the time officers made a covert entry, and other times when he was presumably in the attic while officers were on the roof shooting chemical munitions through the air vents.

Macie Nelson said she still has many questions, including why officers didn’t try calling her brother Mitchell Nelson at the beginning through the cell number or Facebook messenger options she provided, or how Corporal Riggles was able to see Nelson through the haze.

She also doesn’t understand an incident that she said she was not allowed to share in her testimony, saying that when she asked if they could shoot him in the leg or arm, rather than firing a lethal shot, she told The Mirror she clearly remembers them laughing at her question and saying, “Oh, these guys are trained to kill.”

Homeowner Glen Whitton was similarly frustrated with not being able to provide certain testimony and is still wondering why police did not use the garage door opener or house keys he provided them and instead chose to perform an explosive entry on his front door and tear down several walls of his home.

Although Macie Nelson doesn’t know what comes next, she says she’ll “fight for him to the day I die… I’m not gonna let it consume my life, ‘cause I know my brother wouldn’t want that for me. But any given chance that I do have, I’m coming after them…Something has to change, and I don’t know if I’m going to be that change, but I’m definitely going to try…I want to potentially save someone else’s life.”

Corporal Riggles has since left Federal Way and is now employed with the Spokane Police Department. In 2022, he and several other officers exchanged fire with a robbery suspect who was resisting arrest that ultimately resulted in the death of that civilian, according to Spokane news outlet KYLY.com.