King County sheriff’s review board finds deputy’s shooting of Tommy Le was justified

A King County sheriff’s review panel has unanimously concluded that a deputy was “justified and within department policy” when he fatally shot Tommy Le, 20, a Vietnamese American found to be holding a pen mistaken for a knife during a disturbance in Burien last year.

Deputy Cesar Molina “reasonably believed that (Le) was armed with a deadly weapon and that he had already attacked someone with a knife,” according to a report issued Wednesday by the sheriff’s Use of Force