Nelson Martinez Mendez

In the late summer of 2001, on August 8th, the life of a young man, Nelson Martinez Mendez, a 24-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, was cut short in the parking lot of an East Bellevue, Washington, condominium complex. His death was not the result of a random act of violence but an encounter with a Bellevue police officer.

That day, Officer Michael Hetle was responding to a domestic-violence complaint and had been informed that Martinez Mendez might be armed with a knife. Upon confronting him ...