While 16-year-old Nick Woody lay dying of hypothermia in a Lakewood swamp a few dozen feet from police, an officer fired just over a dozen balls of pepper spray at him, hoping to roust him from the water.
It didn’t work. The boy would be dead by dawn.
Hours of body-worn camera video and police reports obtained by The News Tribune through public requests show how officers with the Lakewood Police Department, after locating Nick, waited 35 minutes before approaching him to check his condition and retrieve him from the swamp. Not knowing whether Nick was armed, police fired pepper balls and told him to crawl to their flashlights. His family has hired an attorney and is considering a wrongful death lawsuit against the city.
“[Nick] Woody was basically non-responsive in the swamp,” the attorney, Sean Malcolm, told The News Tribune. “I think certainly officers have a right to protect their safety initially, and then once the scene seems secure, I think there became a point where it crossed the line into negligence and seemed like it was more about just joking and firing pepper ball rounds than saving this child’s life.”
The Lakewood Police Department, through a spokesperson, declined to comment for this story, citing the pending litigation.
Standoff in the swamp
As night fell on Dec. 2, 2023, temperatures dropped to the mid 40s. In a residential neighborhood south of Flett Wetland, a large swamp home to river otters and waterfowl, white Christmas lights glimmered on the houses. Red and white police lights glowed. Behind a two-story home on Woodlawn Avenue, police officers shined their flashlight beams in Nick’s direction.
Nick, who had sprinted into the marsh from a stolen Kia with three other people earlier that night, hadn’t said a word. Before the first volley of pepper balls was launched, a police officer observed that he appeared to be nodding off. Now, finally, it looked like he was trying to get up.
“More pepper?” officer Max Mahaffey asked his commanding officer, shouldering his compressed air rifle.
“Hold on, hold on,” Sgt. Ryan Moody replied. “Give him an opportunity.”
Moody called out to Nick, telling him that if he could move, he could come their way. Officers had found two handguns near the vehicle Nick had run from, and the sergeant was worried the teen could be waiting to ambush them.
If he didn’t hurry up, Moody warned, a police dog would be sent in, and it could bite. He got no response.
“The pepper’s getting to him,” Mahaffey said. “He’s, like, moaning.”
A few other police officers were gathered at the wetland’s bank with Moody and Mahaffey. One said Nick was trying to stand again.
“Hey dude, get up and crawl to us!” Moody yelled.
Seconds later, an officer said Nick fell. An indiscernible sound came from his direction. The officer said it looked like he was trying to get up, but he was tangled. Nick was about 40-50 feet from police, at the base of a small tree. The officer said she could see him now, and he was flailing around. Again, police told Nick to crawl to them.
It was 11:43 p.m. The temperature was now about 43 degrees, according to Weather Underground. More than an hour and a half had passed since Nick entered the cold marsh water that was now killing him. He didn’t come out, or couldn’t.
Another twelve minutes went by before a team of at least six officers, led by Moody, moved in on the teen. Moody had his handgun drawn and held a shield in front of him. They went to the spot where they’d seen Nick, but he wasn’t there. An officer wondered aloud if they were stepping on him. A few feet away, they found Nick submerged in the water and pulled him out.
Police were aware of the danger Nick and the other teenagers were in. Shouting into the dark or talking through a patrol car’s PA system, officers warned them throughout the night that the water was cold and they could die of hypothermia if they didn’t come out. Two teens had been arrested by the time Mahaffey spotted Nick. One emerged in soaked clothing, practically begging the officers who cuffed him for help.
By the time police approached Nick, it was too late.
Officers brought him to a backyard, where paramedics and police performed CPR until he was transported to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma. He was pronounced dead at 6:02 a.m. According to police reports, the Pierce County Medical Examiner later determined he died of hypothermia, but drowning couldn’t be ruled out. The manner of death was ruled an accident.
Guns made cops cautious, but only for Nick
Police’s documentation shows how their approach to recovering a stolen vehicle — identified by a newly-installed license-plate camera — shifted throughout the night.
The initial pursuit was not high speed. While the driver of the Kia wound through a residential neighborhood, using its turn signal at intersections, a patrol car followed without activating its lights or sirens until the driver turned onto a dead-end road. A police officer wrote in a report that it looked like they were lost. Four people ran from the vehicle into the swamp, and officers immediately chased them.
Two handguns were quickly found in or near the Kia. Both were Glocks with extended magazines meant to hold 20 or 30 bullets, and one had a switch that allowed it to fire fully automatic.
Nicholas Woody II died when he tried to escape a police pursuit by running into this swamp northeast of Woodlawn Avenue in Lakewood, Washington, shown on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023.
The firearms didn’t deter two officers from trudging into the water to try to locate the driver. Despite believing the people they were pursuing were likely armed, the officers walked through “absolute darkness,” a report stated, and occasionally fell into waist-deep water while a police drone hovered overhead. They left the marsh after the driver was arrested by a different officer.
Back at the patrol cars parked on Woodlawn Avenue, an officer was instructed to make announcements over a PA system asking the teens to step out of the swamp. The officer directing her seemed more concerned about the teens’ wellbeing, or the potential for liability, than any crimes that were committed.
“I just want to CYA, since they are kids in the freezing water,” the officer said, using an initialism commonly known to mean “cover your ass.”
“You don’t even have to say you’re under arrest — at this point it’s a welfare check,” the officer continued.
Later in the night, when officers were yelling at Nick to come out and getting no response, the specter of firearms stopped police from walking up to him. At 11:26 p.m., body-camera video showed an officer begin to walk toward him, but Moody called her back.
“Keep in mind, there’s two handguns that were already found so, if he ain’t willing to come out on his own …,” Moody said.
Nick was wearing bright, multi-colored shorts, according to police reports., but the next morning a drone operator and a dive team recovered jeans from the area where he was found. One leg was inside out, and the other held a .45-caliber Glock with an extended magazine.
Shortly before 11 p.m., body-worn camera video shows, a small group of officers cracked jokes near the stolen car, which one cop was sealing with evidence tape.
“That water is like ice water … if you want to do your ice plunge,” one officer said.
“I almost got my dive cert, so,” Mahaffey added, trailing off.
“I know you’re recording — I already said it — my balls are soaked,” another said.
A father’s futile search
Officers had Flett Wetland surrounded. While they chirped their sirens and called for the teens to come out, Nick’s father and brother sat nearby in their car listening to a police scanner, unsure what to do. They didn’t want to believe Nick was out there.
The two had driven to the scene after Nick’s older brother, Evan, got a phone call. According to Nick’s father, also named Nicholas Woody, Evan only heard that his brother and the people he was with had been pulled over.
“He just said Nick was in trouble,” Woody, 45, said.
Earlier that night, Evan had seen his younger brother hanging out with a friend at their father’s home, he later told police. Evan left for a while, and, when he came back, the two were gone.
Nick had previously shared his iPhone’s location with his father. When Woody learned his son was in trouble, he could see exactly where the device was.
“I looked, and I saw that he was, I mean, it just looked like a field,” Woody said. “I saw his location was down behind Lochburn [Middle School], and I kind of knew the area.”
He texted his son, but the messages didn’t get through to Nick, who had dropped his phone. Nothing came over the police scanner indicating he’d been caught. When an ambulance passed their car, Woody said, Evan’s phone briefly connected with Nick’s earbuds.
“We didn’t really understand that, either,” Woody said. “Because we weren’t really accepting the fact at that time. That was far from our minds that something like this would happen.”
Eventually, the two went home. Hours later, maybe 4 a.m., Woody returned to the scene after it was cleared with Evan and his nephew. Together they trekked through the water, calling Nick’s name.
“It was cold, there was a bunch of weeds in it,” Woody said. “It was up and down, like uneven. It would go from about a foot-and-a-half to three feet. The deepest I got was my waist.”
The search brought Woody to what he called a sort of island in the swamp that he thought his son would have walked to. Evan had to come get him to tell him they needed to leave.
After they left, Woody started calling hospitals. He told them his son’s name and that Lakewood police might have brought him in, but everyone he called told him they didn’t have anyone matching Nick’s description under his name or as a John Doe.
Woody slept for a few hours. When he woke up, he ran to the front room of his trailer and asked Evan if he’d heard anything. The answer was no. They called Nick’s mother — his parents are separated — and she came over with her boyfriend. Then they called the police’s non-emergency number, and eventually they were connected with a detective. They were told their son had died.
“I took off running into the backyard,” Woody said. “I collapsed, and I remember screaming, but I couldn’t cry. I was in shock.”
‘He wanted to grow up so fast’
Woody wants to know why the police didn’t give his son the chance he got as a kid. He grew up getting into trouble, he says, and later in life spent time in prison for identity theft and property crimes.
“I’ve been pulled out of swamps,” Woody said. “I’ve been pulled out of bushes, you know? And I was given the opportunity to learn my lesson through the courts, probation and community service. Why didn’t they give him that chance?”
Nick never had been in a situation like this, Woody said. He doesn’t know why his son didn’t come out earlier in the night. Nick was stubborn, he said, and, when he set his mind to something, that’s what he was going to do.
“At that age you’re invincible,” Woody said. “You don’t realize what you’re laying in is killing you.”
Maybe, he said, Nick was scared by the police. Or maybe he wasn’t fully conscious. According to Mayo Clinic, people with hypothermia usually aren’t aware of their condition, which can cause confusion that prevents self-awareness and can lead to risky behavior.
“Who knows what he went through when he was in there,” Woody said.
The two teenagers who were arrested that night, ages 14 and 17, were booked into Remann Hall on suspicion of possessing a stolen vehicle and unlawful possession of a firearm, according to police reports.
Prosecutors charged them days later in juvenile court with nearly the same offenses, but only one of them was accused of illegally possessing a gun. That teen, the younger of the two, received a deferred disposition in February 2024 for six months. He completed it, and the case was dismissed. According to the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the older teen’s case was sealed due to state law, RCW 13.50.260. It requires the court to seal juvenile cases after the child’s 18th birthday, the anticipated end date of their probation or after their anticipated release from confinement, whichever comes later.
Aside from Nick and the two who were arrested, two others were in the stolen car that started the ordeal. One ran into the swamp but managed to evade law enforcement. The other talked his way out of arrest.
Video from an officer’s patrol car showed that seconds after officers chased the four that went into the marsh, one person slowly got out on the other side of the car and casually walked away. An officer saw him leaving and questioned him briefly, but let him go after he told the officer he was just walking from his house.
Investigators determined the stolen car, a red 2020 Kia Sportage, belonged to a woman from Redmond. Police reports state the car’s ignition was damaged, and a USB cord was being used as the key. A rear window was busted out, and there was a bullet hole in the frame.
Woody said he believes Nick thought he was just going for a ride. They’d talked about the so-called “Kia boys” before, and Woody said Nick told him his friends weren’t like those “crash out” kids. Woody said his son had no prior criminal history, and he was studying to become a machine operator through Bates Technical College. Nick went through a few high schools, Woody said, including Stadium and Silas high schools in Tacoma, but before he died Woody said Nick was working to get his diploma and a degree from Bates at the same time.
“He was so impatient,” Woody said. “He wanted to grow up so fast.”
Nick was born Feb. 3, 2007 in Tacoma to Woody and Shawna Pichler. Woody remembers calling him the old man when he was a baby because of his skin — he said it looked like Nick was born old and got younger. His mother’s nickname for him was “Brother.” Growing up, Nick was outgoing and competitive. He loved football, Woody said, and Nick and his older brother, Evan, often watched the Seattle Seahawks together. Nick’s favorite player was Russel Wilson.
“They knew everything,” Woody said. “They knew the stats on them, who was traded from what and why it was going to benefit the team.”
Nicholas Woody II is pictured in a memorial set up at his gravesite in Lakewood.
Nick liked to play football, too, and Woody said he threw a mean spiral. Later, around 2014, Nick and Evan lived with their grandmother in Vancouver, Washington. Before he died, Nick was living with his father in Lakewood, sleeping in the front room of a one-bedroom trailer. Woody still holds on to a love letter Nick’s girlfriend wrote him.
Lakewood police also mentioned the “Kia boys” in their reports. The term became associated with videos that trended on social media in 2022 that showed how easy it is to steal a Kia with just a USB cord. Law enforcement across the country has blamed the videos for helping spur a boom in auto thefts, particularly among teenagers.
On the night of Nick’s death, police associated the teenagers with the “Kia boys,” which appears to have made them more cautious. Describing the decision-making that went into how to contact Nick, an officer wrote that “numerous juveniles” were recently entering gangs and calling themselves “Kia Boyz,” and many were classified as armed and dangerous.
“Their hobbies and activities include stealing cars and committing robberies, carjacking’s (sic), drive by shootings, targeted shootings, etc,” the report states.
Investigators later dug into Nick’s social media and found his Instagram had been tagged by an account called Washington gang wars. The first post on Nick’s page shows him wearing a black balaclava pulled over his nose and a backward baseball cap with a bandana draped on either side of his face.
A chain hung around his neck and four rings adorned his fingers. Two people flashed hand signs behind him, and in the next photo Nick held a gun with a drum-style magazine.
A couple of nights after Nick died, Woody had what he called a vision. In a shadow on a wall of the trailer, Woody saw Nick. He was about 6 or 8 years old, Woody said, bowing his head like he did back then when he got in trouble. Woody saw his late father and grandmother, too. They had their arms around Nick.
“He was bowing his head, and I was like, ‘I’m not mad at you,’” Woody said. “You didn’t do nothing wrong.”
Father says police were unprofessional, dishonest
If Nick had lived through that night, his father said, he imagines he would have found success in his future. He might not have been the president, Woody said, but even if Nick was unemployed, he would have been doing something amazing.
“He would have been an amazing father … anything,” Woody said, his voice breaking.
Woody wants people to know that there’s more to Nick’s story than the fact that a life was lost. His family was devastated.
“A mom was crushed,” Woody said. “A dad has been changed forever. A brother lost his little brother. Everyone in my family is touched by my son, and we all have been changed by this.”
Of the police response, Woody said he felt officers acted “extremely unprofessional.” He also felt like they were dishonest. Body-camera video showed detectives formally informing Woody, Nick’s mother and his brother that Nick had died, and they never mentioned that officers fired pepper balls at him. Woody said they found out about that through the morgue.
A press release issued the day after Nick’s death also made no mention of the pepper-ball gun’s deployment. According to police reports, Lakewood police discussed whether the circumstances of the incident warranted a response from the Pierce County Force Investigation Team, which investigates police uses of deadly force. Lakewood police consulted with a captain from the Puyallup Police Department and a bureau chief from the Sheriff’s Office, and they all agreed the incident did not require a response from PCFIT.
When body-camera and dash-camera footage was released to Malcolm, the attorney for Nick’s family, he noticed that some video seemed to be missing. There wasn’t any footage of the officer who was ordered to fire the pepper-ball gun.
The News Tribune contacted the City of Lakewood’s public records officer about the discrepancy, and she said she identified a glitch that caused some videos to not be uploaded. She said it was unintentional, and the videos were subsequently released.
Malcolm said he sees the use of the pepper-ball gun as the basis for a wrongful-death lawsuit.
“When they’ve identified that there’s no more danger, and the kids are basically freezing to death, it just seems completely negligent and inappropriate that they would sit there continually firing pepper ball rounds at them,” Malcolm said.
“This went on for probably half an hour before he was pulled out of the water basically unconscious.”