Washington state officials urge calm following police shooting

By Victoria Cavaliere SEATTLE (Reuters) - Officials in Washington state's capital, Olympia, urged calm on Friday after protests turned heated between police and demonstrators over the shooting of two unarmed black men suspected of trying to steal beer from a supermarket. Authorities in Thurston County have promised a thorough and unbiased investigation of the Thursday incident in which two step-brothers, 24-year-old Andre Thompson and 21-year-old Bryson Chaplin, were shot and wounded by a white Olympia police officer who said they attacked him with a skateboard. Olympia police said the two men did not have weapons. Both were expected to survive. "This is a tragic event. It deeply saddens me that we have two young people in the hospital as the result of an altercation with an officer of the law," Olympia Mayor Stephen Buxbaum said in a statement. Buxbaum also appealed for calm, peaceful dialogue surrounding the incident. "This is a time to talk about these things. It's also a time to exercise patience," Buxbaum told reporters. The incident was the latest to bring attention to the issue of police use of force in the United States, particularly against minorities. Several hundred demonstrators in Olympia, a city of 48,000 where just 2 percent of the population is black, turned out late on Thursday for a "Black Lives Matter" rally. Marching toward City Hall, they paused to commemorate the death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old unarmed black man killed during a confrontation with a white police officer last year in Ferguson, Missouri. The demonstration was peaceful until after midnight, when about two dozen people clashed with police, throwing rocks and making taunts. They were dispersed with flashbangs, police said. Chief Brad Watkins of the Thurston County Sheriff's Office said a task force was investigating whether Officer Ryan Donald was justified in the use of force. Donald has been placed on administrative leave while the investigation was underway, Olympia police said. Donald and other officers had gone to a local supermarket to investigate reports that two men were trying to shoplift beer before throwing the items at an employee and fleeing, authorities said. Donald encountered Thompson and Chaplin outside the store, police said. Donald reported that the men had attacked him with a skateboard and were "very aggressive," according to police. (Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Will Dunham)