Lake Stevens man identified in Everett manhunt, deadly police shooting

EVERETT — The man shot and killed by police in Everett last month has been identified as 34-year-old Travis L. Hammons, the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office announced Tuesday.

On May 19, the Snohomish County sheriff’s Violent Offender Task Force was trying to serve a warrant on the man at the Rivers Landing Apartments, authorities said.

After an argument, the man fired a gunshot into the ground and ran away, said Meeghan Black, spokesperson for the King County Independent Force Investigation Team, a cadre of detectives assigned to investigate police use of force.

Officers from Everett and Lynnwood joined in the manhunt. There were “multiple incidents of gunfire exchanged” at different locations, Black said.

According to the King County investigative team, an officer reported hearing a gunshot fired inside a home, and Hammons was seen running from the residence.

The suspect was eventually tracked down in the 800 block of Linden Street. Around 1 p.m., deputies radioed about “shots fired.”

“The suspect did not survive that final round of gunfire,” according to the investigative team.

Witnesses at the scene said they saw three officers walking along Linden Street, when they spotted the suspect. They started pursuing him, and Hammons took off running.

The witness reported as the man ran, he turned around a bit, and that’s when police opened fire.

Three officers were placed on administrative leave: an Everett police sergeant, a Lynnwood sergeant and one Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy. The names of the officers had not yet been released as of Tuesday, over two weeks since the shooting.

Hammons had been released from prison in January, according to the state Department of Corrections. He was still on probation.

In 2019, Hammons was sentenced to seven years in prison for brutally beating an inmate at the Snohomish County Jail until he lost consciousness.

Joshua O’Connor, who had been convicted in 2019 of a plot to shoot classmates at ACES High School in south Everett, was reportedly trying to recruit others to help him carry out attacks on local high schools. One inmate protested, and word leaked out that he revealed the scheme to an attorney. Prosecutors wrote that O’Connor recruited Hammons to confront him. The inmate was beaten for 57 seconds without interruption, according to court documents.

The medical examiner’s office released Hammon’s identity Tuesday. An autopsy confirmed the cause of death was gunshot wounds.

Jonathan Tall: 425-339-3486; jonathan.tall@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @EDHJonTall.