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Tacoma: Police return fire, kill man

February 22nd, 2010, incident report by jbtaylor

  • February 10, 2010
  • 1
  • 0
  • South Alaska Street and South 58th Street
  • Tacoma
  • Washington
  • 98408

JOYCE CHEN. The News Tribune. Tacoma, Wash.: Feb 11, 2010. pg. A.1
Copyright 2010 The News Tribune All Rights Reserved.

Tacoma police shot and killed a man Wednesday evening in the South End after he led them on a chase, then fired at four officers when they trapped him in a residential cul-de-sac.
The shooting occurred about 5:25 p.m. near South Alaska Street and South 58th Street, Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum said. The man fired at least one round from his car, then was shot by one or more of the officers.
The incident came four days after a Pierce County sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man who drove toward the officer while attempting to leave a burglary scene Saturday.
Wednesday's incident began with a domestic violence call about 5:10 p.m., police chief Don Ramsdell said at the scene. Ramsdell and Fulghum gave this account:
A woman called 911 from her car, saying her ex-boyfriend was closely following her vehicle on McKinley Avenue. Dispatch operators told her to drive to the Wapato police substation at 1501 S. 72nd St. Officers attempted to stop the man's vehicle, but "he took off," Fulghum said.
The man drove to the tree-lined end of South 58th Street, just east of Interstate 5. He drove around the cul-de-sac so his vehicle faced the police cars and fired at the officers.
None of the officers was injured, and the caller also was unharmed, Fulghum said. The man was taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead.
The four officers have been placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure. Police set up a barricade Wednesday evening at South 58th Street and South Alaska Street as they tried to piece together what happened.
"There's at least one police car with a bullet hole in the windshield," Fulghum said, adding that it's unclear how many shots were fired.
An hour after the shooting, investigators tramped through mud on the rain-slicked streets as they processed the scene. A cluster of curious twentysomething men lingered across the street. They said they had heard about the shooting on television news.
Few signs of life were visible in neighbors' homes; the lights were off in all the houses along the street.