Report: Olympia shooting investigation will likely favor cop

The investigation into the May shooting of two brothers by an Olympia police officer is about to conclude and early reports find that the results will likely favor the cop’s version of events.

Q13 reports that the investigation into the shooting is close to completion. Two police sources confirm the results will state that there is nothing to support criminal charges against the officer who fired the shots, Ryan Donald, and that the shooting was justified.

That conclusion has also been confirmed by Officer Donald’s attorney, who told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson that, as he understands the facts, the investigation will exonerate his client.

“I’ve been authorized to say that Officer Donald acted solely in self-defense in fear of serious bodily harm or death,” said Saxon Rogers, Donald’s attorney.

The investigation will state that evidence contradicts statements from the two young men’s attorney, according to Q13. The Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office will ultimately decide whether or not to bring charges against the brothers or the police officer based on the investigation.

Related: Officer shoots two young black men in Olympia

Officer Donald spotted the two suspects walking along an Olympia street shortly after 1 a.m. on May 21. He was following up on a report of two young men shoplifting beer from a nearby grocery store. Andre Thompson, 23, and Bryson Chaplin, 21 were contacted by Officer Donald. Within minutes, both men were shot by the officer. What happened within those few minutes has been questionable ever since.

Related: Store security video shows young men allegedly shoplifting

An outside investigative team from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office has been pouring over evidence and details in the months since the shooting.

The anticipated results of that investigation, clearing Donald’s name, differ considerably from statements made by attorney David Beninger, representing the young men who were shot. Beninger told Monson in June that the investigation would turn out in favor of his clients.

“The evidence doesn’t support an attack with a skateboard and when we look at the physical evidence right now with the bullet wounds and the number of shots, and hit wounds mostly to the back side and fired from the back side, that would support a retreat,” Beninger told Monson.

That claim is surprising to Rogers.

“That’s absolutely not true,” Rogers said. “I think it’s absolutely irresponsible.”

“I will tell you that I’m outraged by that claim,” he said. “If someone is going to make those sort of accusations, they should be able to back it up.”

The results of the investigation into the shooting have been anticipated since the incident, which happened amid tense relations and protests across the country. The Olympia shooting occurred during a year that followed high-profile officer involved deaths in the United States, such as Ferguson and Baltimore.

But Rogers thinks that after the investigation’s results are released, they will show that the Olympia shooting is nothing like the incidents elsewhere.

“This is not Ferguson, it’s not anywhere close to Ferguson, and when I see the media make headlines like ‘White officer shoots black suspects for stealing beer’ nothing could be further from the truth,” Rogers said. “He wasn’t even at the store.”

“All the comparisons to Ferguson and Baltimore &#8212 they have a whole different society in those places,” he said. “I don’t have any doubt that there are racially-motivated shootings nationally. Like the white guy that went into the church and killed those black people. The whole country seems to be out of control, but they shouldn’t be linking this incident in Olympia, Washington with the rest of that craziness because that’s not what it is.”