K9 Officer Chris Gregorio

Seattle K9 officer Chris Gregorio is one of two officers who shot Terry J. Caver, a Black man with schizophrenia, in May 2020. In addition, officer Gregorio has previously shown behavioral red flags, including a history of reckless escalation as well as racist behavior on the job and on social media.

The Killing of Terry J. Caver

Bodycam footage shows multiple officers surrounding Carver.

Seattle police officers Chris Gregorio and Matthew Milburn shot Terry J. Caver near an intersection in Lower Queen Anne on May 19, 2020.

• Officers responded to a 911 call about a man waving a knife at passersby, but when officers arrived, Caver was alone. According to his sister Vanessa, Caver had intense paranoia and carried a knife for protection.
• Bodycam footage released (warning: graphic content) shows responding officers are quick to start shouting at Caver when they arrive, evoking a fight or flight response.
• When Caver sees the SPD officers, he attempts to flee while holding a kitchen knife, never getting further than a few feet away from any officer.
• A Taser is deployed, and seconds later, Christopher Gregorio and Matthew Milburn fire on Caver as his knees buckle, killing him.
• Caver was pronounced dead by medics from the Seattle Fire Department on arrival. It took Seattle police less than 1 minute to approach and kill Caver.
• Caver’s sister Vanessa believes the heavy-handed police presence exacerbated her brother’s mental condition, and a less aggressive response could have saved her brother’s life:

“If there had been one or two officers, they could have talked to him. He always listened. If they had talked to him, got him to sit down in the patrol car, he would have felt safer. But, there were too many officers, so he was scared,”

History of Racial Profiling

• In 2008, Gregorio racially profiled a Black man named Roger Wright.
• Gregorio pulled over Wright for not turning his lights on. However, the sun had not yet set, and Wright was not legally required to have them on.
• Gregorio then manufactured a pretext for a warrantless search of Wright’s vehicle, claiming Wright was in an area known for car prowls and that he smelled marijuana.
• In April 2009, the Washington State Supreme Court determined this was a violation of Wright’s Fourth Amendment right, declaring the search unconstitutional and overturning his conviction.

History of Excessive Force

• In 2015, Gregorio was reprimanded and referred for training for a complaint alleging that he had pulled his gun on a witness, deployed a police dog against a suspect without cause, and failed to wear a portable microphone.
• In 2018, Gregorio used a reckless PIT maneuver (a police tactic for immobilizing a fleeing vehicle) during a high-speed chase. OPA sustained the complaint, noting that it was unnecessary and a “risk of catastrophic harm” to both the subject and bystanders.

Racist Online Behavior

• On August 14, 2020, Twitter account @WANaziWatch outed Gregorio for sharing racist, far-right posts on a Facebook account.
• Using the display name “Cerebus Federico,” Gregorio is caught repeatedly sharing anti-Muslim content, including a misleading video from Britain First, a U.K. Fascist party.
• Gregorio is also a fan of Milo Yiannopoulos, sharing video content from the internet agitator and white nationalist to his Facebook friends.