A Thurston County sheriff’s deputy fired three shots at a fleeing suspect early Sunday after a pursuit on northbound I-5 near Grand Mound ended with the man allegedly brandishing a gun — shots that missed, but that have now triggered an independent state investigation. The suspect was eventually captured near a Taco Bell after deputies hit him with a Taser, and he was booked into jail on suspicion of trying to elude police and assaulting law enforcement with a deadly weapon.
According to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, as reported by komonews.com, deputies assisted Washington State Patrol troopers at about 6:18 a.m. Sunday in a pursuit on northbound I-5 near milepost 88, after the driver allegedly opened fire on a pursuing WSP patrol vehicle. Troopers deployed spike strips, and the suspect’s SUV eventually lost control and struck a barrier near the exit 88 overpass, the sheriff’s office said.
From there, the chase went on foot. The suspect reportedly ran across the freeway, cut through a field, followed railroad tracks and scaled a barbed-wire fence, falling on the other side before deputies caught up to him. During the initial confrontation, deputies deployed a Taser. The sheriff’s office said the suspect then displayed a firearm, prompting a deputy to fire three times — shots that did not strike him. The suspect ran toward a nearby Taco Bell, where additional deputies confronted him, used a Taser again and took him into custody, per the same account.
Minor Injuries, Stolen Gun Recovered
The suspect was taken to a local hospital for treatment of minor injuries tied to the Taser deployments before being booked into the Lewis County jail, the sheriff’s office reported. No law enforcement personnel were injured during the incident, according to the agency. Investigators recovered the suspect’s gun, which had been reported stolen out of Seattle, along with a gun magazine found along I-5.
Authorities also said the suspect is connected to an armed robbery at a cannabis store in Pierce County the night before, during which a round was fired inside the store, the sheriff’s office reported.
Independent Investigation Now Underway
Because the incident involved a deputy discharging a firearm, state law required the sheriff’s office to notify the Washington State Office of Independent Investigations, which declined to take the case. The Region 3 Critical Incident Investigation Team was notified instead and has taken over the inquiry, a pattern that mirrors how a separate Thurston County standoff was handled in September, when the same independent-investigations office also declined to investigate and The Olympian reported the Region 3 team stepped in under state law. Under Washington’s framework for deadly-force incidents, outlined in RCW 43.102.120, involved agencies must notify the state office once a scene is safe and any life-threatening injuries have been addressed, while WAC 139-12-010 lays out that an independent investigation must be completed to help determine whether an officer’s use of deadly force met the applicable good-faith standard.
Once the Region 3 team wraps its work, the case file will be forwarded to the Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office for review, according to Yahoo News. That same review-and-referral process played out earlier this year in a nonfatal Yelm shooting, where the Region 3 team investigated a deputy who shot a man after he allegedly charged at him with a firearm; the Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office ultimately cleared that deputy of wrongdoing, according to the Chronicle.
The names of the deputies involved in Sunday’s shooting have not been released; the sheriff’s office said the Region 3 Critical Incident Investigation Team will handle that disclosure along with all future updates on the case. Similar officer-involved incidents elsewhere in the state have followed a comparable arc in recent months, including a Grays Harbor County case involving a 13-year-old armed first with an axe and later a bow and arrows, where an officer fired one shot that missed before responders switched to less-lethal force to take the teen into custody, per komonews.com.
