The SWAT team member who shot and killed a man in Pullman during an armed standoff last week has been identified.
According to a Washington State University Police news release, WSU Police Sgt. Brett Boyd was the officer who used lethal force during a standoff at a Pullman apartment Dec. 15.
Pullman Police Department officers responded to a “weapons offense” at the Coffee House Apartments on the 1000 block of SE Latah Street at 8 p.m. Dec. 14th, and found 36-year-old Brent Kopacka, who had allegedly threatened to kill his roommates in their apartment.
Pullman police crisis negotiators and the Whitman County Regional SWAT team were later dispatched.
Kopacka was fatally shot by a SWAT team member, now identified as Boyd, around 4 a.m. Thursday.
According to the news release, Boyd has worked at the WSU Police Department since 2008. He was promoted to corporal in 2016 and then sergeant in 2022. He’s been a member of the SWAT team since 2012, and also is a field-trained officer, certified patrol tactics instructor and a certified firearms instructor for handguns, rifles and shotguns.
Boyd has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure after an officer uses deadly force.
