Two Kent Police officers and one Federal Way Police officer fired shots and injured a man reportedly wanted for murder on Monday, Sept. 27 in Snohomish County.
Snohomish County Sheriff deputies responded at about 2:40 p.m. to a report of multiple shots fired in a parking lot at Clearview Plaza, in the 17500 block of State Route 9 near the town of Snohomish, according to a Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team news release.
Upon arrival, responding units found the Valley SWAT team (composed of officers from Kent, Federal Way, Auburn, Renton, Tukwila and the Port of Seattle) had been conducting surveillance on a murder suspect at a nearby residence and followed him to the parking lot where he went into a business.
As the man returned to his vehicle, an unmarked police vehicle drove up behind him and officers exited and gave him verbal commands to surrender. The suspect accelerated forward ramming a bystander vehicle and then accelerated backwards into the unmarked police vehicle multiple times. Three Valley SWAT members fired multiple shots striking the suspect.
Aid was rendered on scene and the suspect was transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with what are believed to be non-life threatening injuries. There were no other reported injuries.
The male passenger in the vehicle was detained at the scene but was later released after talking to detectives. A juvenile in the backseat was released to his parent.
Erika Davis, of Clearview, said she was walking out of the Safeway with her daughter when she heard a car crash, according to a newspaper report by The Daily Herald in Everett.
A black pickup truck pulled up behind two cars that had collided, she said.
Men holding assault rifles got out of the pickup. According to Davis, one of those men shouted, “Get down, mother-(expletive)!”
“I saw the bullets fly out of the gun,” Davis said.
Davis saw one injured man carried away on a gurney, face down, with his shirt off. That man was transported to Harborview Medical Center, according to police. A hospital spokesperson said the wounded man was in satisfactory condition as of Monday evening.
Police did not immediately say if the man or anyone else in the car had been armed with a weapon. Authorities also did not immediately say what crime the suspect was wanted for.
A large police presence remained in the parking lot for hours. Among the vehicles was a black extended-cab pickup, behind yellow caution tape, with faint yellow markings saying “KENT POLICE” on the tailgate and cab doors.
Two of the involved officers are employed by the Kent Police Department and one is employed by the Federal Way Police Department, according to the Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team. That team, composed of representatives from several Snohomish law enforcement agencies and the Washington State Patrol, will conduct the investigation into the shooting.
The Federal Way officer was placed on administrative leave as is protocol in every officer-involved shooting, according to an email from Federal Way Police Cmdr. Kurt Schwan. Schwan said he is not permitted to comment about the officer-involved shooting because Federal Way is an involved agency.
Kent Police have not responded to several emails from the Kent Reporter for information about the officers involved or which murder case the suspect might have been involved in and whether police arrested the man for murder.
Federal Way Mirror reporter Olivia Sullivan and reporter Ellen Dennis of The Daily Herald in Everett contributed to this article.
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