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Tag: accidental death
Family Of Washington Man Mistakenly Slain By LA Deputies Prepares Lawsuit

Family Of Washington Man Mistakenly Slain By LA Deputies Prepares Lawsuit

By Sara Jean Green, The Seattle Times

SEATTLE — John Winkler, a 30-year-old Puyallup, Wash., native, packed up and moved to Los Angeles six months ago, determined to land a job as a television writer or producer.

“That was his ultimate dream,” his mother, Lisa Ostergren, of Gig Harbor, said Tuesday. “He said, ‘Mom, I’m going to take whatever job I can get.’ ”

After working in a coffee shop, Winkler finally got his foot in the door, signing on as a production assistant on “Tosh. O,” a popular show on Comedy Central.

Now, his new colleagues are planning a benefit in his name and Winkler’s family is readying a $25 million, wrongful-death lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after deputies fatally shot Winkler on April 7 when they mistook him for an assault suspect in West Hollywood.

Winkler and another man were visiting the apartment of a friend whose roommate is accused of holding them hostage and attacking them with a knife. Both Winkler and the friend he was visiting — whose throat was cut — were shot by police. The friend survived, but Winkler died at a Los Angeles hospital.

On May 1, an event called “Laughing for Winkler” is planned at the Hollywood Improv comedy club. Proceeds will be donated to the Boys & Girls Club of America, an organization Winkler belonged to as a child in Tacoma, his mother said.

The shooting that killed Winkler “was a preventable act that robbed a young man of his dreams,” said Seattle Osborn, who filed a claim Monday on behalf of Winkler’s estate against the Sheriff’s Department. The claim is a legal precursor to a lawsuit, which Osborn plans to file in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Osborn said a future lawsuit is the only means Winkler’s family has of learning the truth of what happened that night and holding deputies accountable for killing an innocent man who was helping an injured friend escape from a knife-wielding assailant.

Osborn said he has already received evidence that calls into question the Sheriff’s Department’s version of events. He said deputies were given a photograph of Alexander McDonald, the 27-year-old stabbing suspect, minutes before they opened fire on Winkler.

McDonald, who has spiky, dark hair, looks nothing like Winkler, he said.

McDonald has been charged with murder in Winkler’s death, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

According to a news release issued by the Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau: Deputies were sent to a West Hollywood apartment complex just before 9:30 p.m. on April 7 on a “man with a knife” call and were directed to an apartment, where they were told two men were inside.

As a team of deputies staged themselves outside the apartment, “the apartment door suddenly opened and a male victim came rushing out. He was covered in blood and bleeding profusely from the neck,” the release says.

Winkler ran out the door, “lunging at the back of the fleeing victim. Both ran directly at the deputies,” according to the release, which says “Winkler was similar to the description of the suspect and was wearing a black shirt.”

Three deputies fired at Winkler, believing he “was the assailant and the assault was ongoing and he would attack the entry team,” the release says. Winkler “was struck by the gunfire and fell to the floor, and the male victim also collapsed; struck once by the gunfire.”

The officers entered the apartment and found McDonald fighting and choking another man on the floor, according to the release. Deputies arrested McDonald and found a large knife nearby, it says.

The shooting remains under investigation.

A call to the Homicide Bureau was not returned Tuesday.

According to Osborn, McDonald was in the midst of some mental crisis and believed he was being followed by the government and helicopters.

On the night Winkler died, McDonald had threatened two women in another apartment, where he retrieved a kitchen knife, then crawled across a lanai into his own apartment, which he shared with a roommate.

The women called 911 and gave officers a photo of McDonald, he said.

Inside the apartment, McDonald allegedly began stabbing one man — a friend visiting from Australia — in the legs and was rushed by his roommate and Winkler, Osborn said.

The roommate’s throat was cut in the struggle and Winkler clasped his hand over the wound as he got his friend out of the apartment, he said.

As they exited the apartment, the roommate was shot once in the thigh, Osborn said. Winkler “jumped over” his friend, and was fatally shot by police, he said.

Photo via Flickr

Elite Mountain Climber Chad Kellogg Dies On Patagonia Peak

Elite Mountain Climber Chad Kellogg Dies On Patagonia Peak

By Lornet Turnbull, The Seattle Times

SEATTLE — In the world of mountain climbing, Chad Kellogg was a legend.

The elite alpinist has climbed some of the world’s highest and most challenging peaks — charging up mountains and breaking records for the fastest ascents.

Kellogg, 42, of Seattle, was killed Friday night as he and climbing partner Jens Holsten, of Leavenworth, Washington, descended Mount Fitz Roy, a prominent peak in the Patagonia region of Argentina.

The two had successfully summited the 11,000-foot mountain and were hanging together from a pre-established anchor when a rock fell, striking Kellogg and killing him instantly.

There will be no attempts to recover his body.

Word of his death shocked those in the Northwest mountaineering community, who describe a humble guy with unflinching dedication and almost unparalleled skills on some of the world’s highest places.

“Chad had unbelievable drive beyond most high-level athletes,” said his friend and fellow climber Gordon Janow, of Alpine Ascents International. “He was dedicated to the sport and lived to be in the mountains.

“The amount of training, persistence and wherewithal it takes to do what Chad does puts him in a class with 0.01 percent of the climbing population.”

Kellogg grew up in the Seattle area, honing his skills on the mountains here. He turned to climbing after his goal of becoming Olympic luge racer ended.

He once held the record for the fastest ascent-descent of Mount Rainier — a climb he had made numerous times — going up and down in just under five hours. The record has since been surpassed.

Over the years, Kellogg had amassed an impressive record, scaling previously unclimbed mountains in remote parts of the world.

In 2003, he entered his first speed-climbing contest, on a mountain in Kazakhstan, where he took home a gold medal.

And Kellogg still holds the record for the fastest round-trip climb at 23 hours and 55 minutes of Denali’s West Buttress route in Alaska.

But Mount Everest continued to elude him.

Three times he set out to break the speed record on the world’s highest mountain — alone and without oxygen, something few climbers attempt. He never summitted the 29,029-foot mountain and planned to try again next year.

Kellogg’s success on the slopes of mountains came up against unimaginable loss in his personal life.

On his 2010 attempt to summit Everest, he had planned to spread the ashes of his wife, Lara Bitenieks Kellogg, who had died three years earlier in a fall from Mount Wake in Alaska’s Denali National Park.

Kellogg had received word of her death in a phone call while climbing an unclimbed peak in remote China. Less than a month after he buried his wife, he was diagnosed with colon cancer.

More recently, he lost his only brother, two uncles, an aunt and grandparents — all while he was on climbing expeditions, according to his uncle Brent Kellogg. In 2010, Chad told Outside magazine he’s lost 17 friends over time.

Brent Kellogg said he last saw his nephew over the Christmas holiday at a family gathering.

“Chad was never content with climbing the conventional way,” including his attempts at Everest, his uncle said. And he said his nephew was conscientious about safety and often worked to make sure other climbers were safe. “He cared immensely about the climbing community.”

Dan Aylward, a close friend who had climbed with Kellogg in the Cascades, said he visited with him in Patagonia in January.

“He was an independent thinker, and a visionary in terms of identifying routes up mountains and perfecting the style of climbing best suited to the route,” Aylward said.

He said his friend, a self-proclaimed Buddhist, used meditation to sharpen his mental focus.

“He always made sure to let those he cared about know it, and always was consciously and deliberately walking the line between maximizing the achievement of his personal objectives and giving back to the community that supported him,” Aylward said.

Robert Page, store manager at Feathered Friends in Seattle, which supplied some of Kellogg’s gear over the past several years, said Kellogg stopped in the Seattle store in January, just before he left for South America.

“He was one of the few people who does what he does, yet maintains a level of humility,” he said. “He took time out to listen to people, regardless of who they were.”

Chad Kellogg is survived by his parents, Ric and Peggy Kellogg, of Edmonds; his partner, Mandy Kraus, of Seattle; and his father-in-law, Robert Bitenieks, of Seattle.

Photo: NomadicEntrepreneur via Flickr