MARYSVILLE — Someone passing through wouldn’t know that gunfire had rattled the neighborhood the night before.
There was not so much as a fragment of yellow police tape lying on the sidewalk. But neighbors had heard the firecracker-like sounds near Shoultes Elementary School on Tuesday night.
One woman said she knew something was wrong when her neighbor’s Seahawks-themed lights were turned off. That rarely happens, she said.
Some homes were evacuated. No one was hurt.
It started when a woman called 911 around 7:45 p.m. to report that her husband was armed and having suicidal thoughts. Police responded as did an aid car, and almost immediately their vehicles were hit by bullets, said Sgt. Pete Shove, of the Marysville Police Department.
The SWAT team brought an armored personnel carrier. The man, 50, allegedly shot at that vehicle as well. The suspect eventually surrendered and was arrested.
“It’s a miracle that not a single injury was reported during the entire incident,” Shove said.
At first, the woman thought her husband had shot himself in the house on 47th Drive NE. She also said he was intoxicated.
It’s not clear yet how many shots were fired and who fired them, Shove said. An investigation is under way.
The man barricaded himself inside the home but was not holding his wife hostage, Shove said. She left through the back of the house about half an hour after police arrived.
It was initially reported that the man had three guns, including an AR-15-style rifle, Shove said.
Negotiators talked to the suspect over the phone. He reportedly came to the front door and asked to speak to a lawyer. Another time he wanted to smoke a cigarette. He was arrested around 9 p.m. He initially was booked into the Marysville jail and was later taken to the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of felony assault and illegal firearm possession.
The arrest report was not available Wednesday. The results of a blood test are pending, Shove said.
Neighbors who witnessed the incident were reluctant to have their names published in the newspaper.
One woman heard a loud noise she thought was a car crash.
She watched through a window as officers crept between buildings. Streetlamps cast their shadows on the side of a house.
At one point she could hear wood cracking as the team broke through a fence. They stacked the boards in the grass.
Stephanie Davey: 425-339-3192; sdavey@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @stephrdavey.
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