Jeffrey Nelson (photos left and below), while working as a police officer in Auburn, Washington, killed 3 people in 8 years. All 3 were shot in the forehead.
A jury convicted Nelson of murder and assault for the last of those shootings, which occurred in 2019, on June 27, 2024. Jurors weren’t told about the other two killings to keep those episodes from influencing their verdict.
In all 3 cases, the city was sued, and paid out a total of $6 million in settlements to the families of Nelson’s victims. But this was the first time Nelson was prosecuted, which was made possible by a change in state law making it easier to charge trigger-happy cops.
The first killing occurred in 2011, when Nelson pulled over a driver for a burned-out headlight. That man was a Vietnam veteran with a felony record and history of mental illness. He got out of the car with a knife, and refused to drop it. Nelson blew his brains out.
Six years later, in 2017, Nelson confronted a carjacker armed with a knife who’d been trying to break into houses. Nelson released a police dog, which bit the man, and then shot him in the torso. With the man on the ground, fighting off the dog and trying to get up, Nelson put another bullet in him — another head shot.
In the final shooting that is sending Nelson to prison, he responded to the scene of a 26-year-old homeless drug user “throwing things at cars and creating a disturbance, though not threatening anyone,” and during a physical struggle, shot him in the abdomen, cleared a gun jam, then shot him again in the forehead.
Nelson claimed he thought that victim had a knife. But the knife fell out of Nelson’s pocket, and was picked up by a witness. The jury also heard that Nelson didn’t follow department training in how he handled the situation. (Read details here.)
A jury of peers has now branded Jeffrey Nelson a murderer. Not knowing anything about him other than he’s an Iraq veteran, I can’t begin to guess whether he was born a killer, the military and his war experience turned him into one, or police work made him vicious. But he sure looks vicious. (And with that load of tattoos, he’s prison-ready.)
All of the people Nelson killed were engaging in problem, if not threatening, behavior. They all had mental issues, and at least two were felons. They were a burden on society. But they also had families that miss them, and there’s the question of what value our society puts on human life.
Subduing violent or combative people is a police officer’s job. They’re given training and specialized equipment to accomplish that task. We’re in a bad place as a society if we’re putting cops on our streets who can’t deal with such situations by any means other than a bullet to the head.
Of course, that’s not the case; countless police officers faced with similar situations get similar individuals under control and in custody without killing them. The rap on Nelson, and a factor in the jury’s decision to convict him, is that he departed from department policy and his training. Instead of doing the job the way it’s supposed to be done, he did it his way.
Maybe he thought the badge would protect him from consequences. In the old days, it would have. But America is waking up to police brutality and brutal cops, and at least in Washington, the days are over when a cop with killer instincts and an itchy trigger finger could easily get away with murder.
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