Federal investigators have concluded there are no grounds for criminal civil rights charges against an off-duty King County sheriff's deputy who fatally shot a black man in a roadside confrontation, authorities said Wednesday. At issue was the shooting death of Robert Thomas Sr., 59, on April 7, 2002. His adult son was wounded in the shooting, which occurred after the elder Thomas parked his pickup truck, with the radio playing, on a road outside south suburban Renton. A young woman in the truck was not injured. Melvin Miller, then 50, lived nearby. He said he went to the truck - casually dressed but armed - to find out what was going on. What happened next is in dispute. Miller said he opened fire after the older man pulled a handgun and aimed it at him. The younger Thomas and the young woman said the deputy drew first. The parties agree Miller didn't identify himself as a deputy sheriff until after the shooting. The federal investigation - by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, the local U.S. attorney's office and the FBI - was requested by local NAACP leader Carl Mack. [more] and [more]
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