POLICE CHASE ACROSS COUNTY ENDS IN SHOOTING

Published 9:20 pm Friday, July 20, 2007

A police chase involving suspected carjackers ended with gunshots at the Everett Mall and an Everett shopping center near Mill Creek.

The chase stretched across Snohomish County, after starting with a car prowl in Lake Stevens.

One suspect apparently was shot at the Fred Meyer store on 132nd Street SE in Everett.

Another shot also was fired outside the Regal Cinemas at the Everett Mall. There were no immediate reports of injures, but a witness said police chased a man from the mall and arrested him after subduing him with an electric shock from a Taser.

Brooke Maahs, 14, Everett, said she was riding with her grandmother approaching the Everett Mall when a silver car sped past them and and parked near the food court. Minutes later, she saw a man with a gun drawn race out of the mall near Regal Cinemas. He appeared to be running away from someone, she said.

Jeff Sonsteng, 18, of Everett, was walking across the mall parking lot toward Regal Cinema when shots rang out. A man in a white shirt and a red hat knocked him to the pavement, apparently trying to protect him.

“I was freaking out. I heard gunshots really close to me,” he said.

Kayla DeBaker, 17, of Everett, said she and a friend walked into the mall minutes before two suspects ran out. It wasn’t long before mall security told them they had to leave.

“They wouldn’t let us stay in for safety reasons,” she said.

Josh Cuger, 22, lives in the Trailside Village apartments near the mall. He said he saw people running from the mall and watched a man hop into a Ford pickup truck.

The man drove to a construction site near Cuger’s apartment complex, trailed by police. The man jumped from the truck and tried to run.

“The police had Tasers and they Tased him,” Cuger said.

Kelly Thompson of Mill Creek is an emergency room nurse who has worked in California.

She said she was driving home along the Bothell-Everett Highway when she saw a truck swerving in and out of traffic followed by numerous police cars.

Thompson said she pulled into a parking lot on the east side of the Fred Meyer at the eastern edge of Everett.

“I’m an ER nurse. I thought I’ll help them,” she said.

As she left her car, Thompson said she heard gunshots.

“Bam, bam, bam,” she recalled. “I felt like I was back in LA.”

Hillary Walker was inside the Washington Mutual in Fred Meyer with her son, 11 months, and 15-year-old daughter, when they saw a man run through the store and heard someone else yell about a gun.

The people yelled “‘get down on the floor, he has a gun,’” Walker said.

She laid down on the ground and used her body to cover her son, Ashton, and crept as far back into the safety of the bank as she could.

“We were so shaken up,” Walker said.

A short time later, someone told them to run out of the store.

Lynnette Fortier of Everett was at the Fred Meyer with her sons, 5 and 3 years old.

They were shopping for orange juice.

As they were heading out of the store, they saw a man run past them and heard police yell “he’s got a gun,” Fortier said. They ran toward the pharmacy and locked themselves in the pharmacy bathroom with six other people, who then propped a crutch against the door.

“I was scared to death,” Fortier said. “I had no idea what was going on.”

Police came and opened the door and told everyone to run out of the store.

The little boys were upset the groceries were left inside the store, Fortier said.

The incident appears to have started with a carjacking in Lake Stevens. Police called off a chase and two men were reported to have fled onto U.S. 2 towards Everett. They crashed the car in the middle of the trestle and took a silver Mazda 3 at gunpoint.

Police spent about 30 minutes hunting for that car before it was spotted in south Everett.

A chase ensued and the suspects headed into the parking lot at the Everett Mall. A second carjacking appears to have taken place there.

One suspect was apprehended by police at the mall. There also were reports of shots fired but no injuries.

The second suspect led police on a chase towards Mill Creek. Police were able to use a spike strip to slow that vehicle.

The man went to the Fred Meyer store and shots were fired. The suspect reportedly was hit. He was taken to a local hospital by helicopter.

The extent of his injuries are not yet known.

Details from police are still developing.