$2 Million Settlement Reached in Case of Pastor Killed by Deputy

The sheriff still refuses to admit wrongdoing

The family of a Spokane Valley pastor shot to death after a confrontation with a deputy sheriff in 2010 will receive $2 million.

The settlement was reached Friday after U.S. District Judge Rosanna Peterson dismissed Spokane County and Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich from the family's civil lawsuit. That left as the lone defendant in the case Deputy Brian Hirzel, who shot the Rev. Wayne Scott Creach in the parking lot of the pastor's nursery and greenhouse business on Aug. 25, 2010. Although the county had been dismissed from the federal lawsuit, it still was providing Hirzel's legal defense.

"It's a good result for the Creach family, and it goes to show that there are problems in Spokane Valley and with the Spokane County Sheriff's Office," Creach family attorney Simeon Osborn said.