Tom Wales
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Wales was shot to death in his home in 2001. The FBI has led an 18-year investigation into the shooting, supported by a $1 million reward announced by the Department of Justice and supplemented by pledges of an additional $525,000 raised by the NAFUSA Foundation. It appears that Wales, who served as an AUSA in the Western District of Washington, was the first federal prosecutor killed in the line of duty in the nation’s history.
In what may be a break in the investigation, an indictment was handed up by a grand jury in June and unsealed this week in Seattle. The indictment charges a woman from Everett, Washington, with making a false declaration before a grand jury in February 2018 and obstruction of justice by obstructing the investigation into Wales’ death.
NAFUSA member John McKay, who began serving as U.S. Attorney for the Western District shortly after the shooting, is quoted in The Seattle Times as saying, “We should all be encouraged by the indictment and arrest if, as it appears, it relates to the murder of … Tom Wales in 2001, because it means the FBI and Department of Justice continue to actively investigate this horrible crime.”
McKay, who held the post until 2007, said the killing was an “attack on our justice system and if this arrest helps identify those cowards responsible for it then it’s not just a good thing – it’s a very good thing.”
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