Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies killed Dawn Hegel’s brother Donald two years ago. Now, she’s suing for damages.
Her lawsuit, filed March 27 in Superior Court, says the county and three sheriff’s deputies used "unnecessary violence and excessive force,” when they killed her brother in March 2024.
The three deputies who shot Donald Hegel are named in the suit: Josiah Loos, Samuel Turner and Travis West.
The lawsuit — filed almost exactly two years after Donald’s death — seeks damages for Dawn’s losses in the wake of her brother’s killing, including “pain, suffering, terror and physical and emotional distress” and “loss of love and companionships,” among others.
“It ain't gonna bring my brother back,” Dawn told RANGE this week, adding that she wants criminal charges filed against the deputies who shot Donald. Though she was at the scene where her brother was killed, she didn’t see it happen and has many questions about his death, which RANGE detailed last year.
Dawn is represented in the lawsuit by the prominent personal injury and civil rights attorney Rondi Thorp. Thorp, who did not immediately return a request for comment, also represents the family of Joshua Musselman, who was killed by Spokane Police in late December 2024 and has won a number of large settlements for families of victims of Spokane police violence.
The lawsuit notes the Hegels were close when Donald was alive.
“They spent holidays, birthdays and special occasions together,” it says. “As a result of the shooting and loss of her brother, Dawn Hegel has suffered and continues to suffer emotional harm.”
It does not specify an amount of money to be paid for damages.
The court ordered the defendants to appear before Judge Maria L. Polin at 8:30 am on June 26.
Spokane County deputies killed Donald at a friend’s house in Deer Park when they responded to a Stevens County warrant for his arrest over an allegation that he had raped a child. He had not appeared in court to face those allegations.
During an hourslong standoff with Donald, the deputies reported they thought he was holding a gun. They later discovered the object in his hands had been a cigarette lighter that looked like a gun.
The lawsuit also alleges that the deputies failed to try to save Donald after they’d shot him.
“This should have been a safe place,” the lawsuit says. “Instead, he experienced unthinkable pain, suffering and fear for the imminent loss of his life while no one came to his aid after shooting him.”
Dawn told RANGE she still wants authorities to bring criminal charges, but then-Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell declined to do so when the case crossed his desk early last year. During his decade-long tenure, Haskell has not prosecuted a single police killing.
The only time a Spokane-area law enforcement officer has ever been prosecuted was for the 2006 killing of Otto Zehm. In that case, the prosecutors were federal attorneys, not local ones.
Dawn has been seeking information about her brother’s death through body camera footage and documents for more than two years. She said some information has been trickling out, but it’s frustratingly slow.
The lawsuit also asks the court to order the county to fulfill her requests for information.
During her time investigating her brother’s killing, Dawn has become an active advocate for police accountability in Washington state, working with the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability to push legislation to establish more stringent controls on cops in the state.
Neither Spokane County spokesperson Martha Lou Wheatley-Billeter nor Spokane County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Mark Gregory responded to a request for comment by press time.
