Pasco, Wash. has recently been surrounded by controversy. On Feb. 10, the Pasco community suffered the death of Antonio Zambrano-Montes, when three Pasco police officers opened fire on the unarmed Mexico native. All three officers shot Zambrano-Montes, a 35-year-old orchard worker.

This incident was captured on a camera phone by a person sitting in midday traffic. As many as 17 shots were fired, with five to eight shots hitting Zambrano-Montes, in front of several lanes of drivers stuck in traffic.

The fact that all three of the officers fired simultaneously in front of so many witnesses seems unfathomable. Is this part of the culture within law enforcement? The Pasco shooting tells me that there is a “quick trigger” attitude going around. Zambrano-Montes’ death also tells me that these cops may feel protected by the law, to the extent that they take life-threatening action before considering alternative options.

By protection, I don’t mean the “protect and serve” oath they swear on, I mean an invincible, “God complex” smugness that puts them above the law in their own heads.

For example, it sometimes seems like police officers have ulterior motives – that they are in an arms race to hand out the most tickets to meet their quota. Is it a commissionable honor when a Kittitas County newspaper publishes an annual list of officers with the most tickets and DUIs given? Or is it just a printed warning of which officers to avoid?

The video shows Zambrano-Montes walking away from the officers after throwing rocks at them. When he looks behind to see the officers in pursuit, he begins to run, but very quickly stretches his arms above his head to indicate that he is not a threat to the officer’s safety. After Zambrano-Montes turned around, the officers set their feet and shot him in the chest.

It is common to find illegal immigrants working in the Tri-Cities, which helps to explain why Zambrano-Montes first sought to flee from the cops. But why are these officers shooting an unarmed man in the chest? Is that part of police policy, to shoot to kill?

If so, there needs to be a new policy. If officers are trained to handle and aim a firearm, why not shoot the supposed assailant in the leg or an equally less lethal area of the body?

In recent months, the Seattle Police Department trained officers to use their words before their weapons when dealing with combative suspects and angry victims.

According to MYNorthwest.com, this is part of their de-escalation tactic: “Learning how to talk to people is an important part of the department’s training curriculum, especially after a federal investigation found that Seattle police had a pattern of resorting to force too quickly.”

A lot of controversy surrounds the Pasco shooting–as the full coronary report is ongoing and could take several more weeks to be released. Whether officers started firing at Zambrano-Montes while his back was facing them remains unclear. Preliminary reports said that there were no entry wounds on the back of Zambrano-Montes’ body, but there has since been evidence to suggest two shots hit Zambrano-Montes from behind.

The publicity surrounding the shooting has revealed Zambrano-Montes’ blemished record. He may have had a history with drugs, assault and mental instability. Nonetheless, as a victim, he left two teenage daughters behind.

There has already been fallout from the Pasco shooting. There have been organized rallies protesting police brutality. The incident is now under federal investigation, although local officials have said there is nothing they are trying to cover up.

In the months to come, the Pasco shooting may garner more national media attention as Benjamin Crump, the attorney who represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown in their controversial court cases, will represent the Zambrano-Montes family. The fact that a grand jury elected against taking Brown’s case to trial, based on circumstantial evidence or weak arguments from the U.S. prosecuting attorney, is astonishing and forces me to question my faith in the judicial system, too.

In Ellensburg, I mentioned the Pasco shooting to a coworker and got a strange response: “Why was he throwing rocks at the cops?” The question sounds more defensive than curious. I can’t articulate an answer as I find myself in disbelief at how often this “blame the victim” mentality arises to justify tragedy.

Hopefully, what results from the Pasco shooting is a shift in police behavior. I think officers should be reprimanded for their actions. With so many eyes watching police departments nowadays, vigilance goes both ways and an important question that begs asking is “Will the punishment fit the crime?”