LAKE STEVENS — A Lake Stevens police officer shot and killed a man Thursday morning in a new housing development overlooking Ebey Island.
The man, 33, allegedly advanced on officers with a knife, said Aaron Snell, a spokesman for the Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team, or SMART.
The confrontation started about 10:15 a.m. along 18th Place SE, just east of the U.S. 2 trestle. The man reportedly called 911 and said, “I want to kill cops.”
Within moments, others in the neighborhood called 911 to say the man was walking around, apparently bloody and carrying some kind of flag.
Officers found him about 10:30 a.m. He was in the area between 70th Avenue SE and Highway 204. He reportedly said, “Just kill me” while wielding a knife. The officers first tried to subdue him with an electronic stun gun, but he continued toward them, Snell said.
One officer fired one shot, Snell said.
The man was taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett and died a short time later. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an investigation of the death and confirm his identity.
The officer who opened fire was placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure. He has been with the department about a year.
About half of the homes in the neighborhood near Cavalero Ridge still are owned by the developer, property records show. Many others were sold within the past year. The 33-year-old man who was killed apparently lived in the area.
It was the third fatal officer-involved shooting in the county since December. Investigations are ongoing into a death on Highway 99 in Lynnwood on Jan. 30 and another in Everett on Dec. 17. Both those shootings involved Lynnwood officers.
SMART detectives are drawn from throughout the county to investigate when police use fatal force. Their completed cases are forwarded to county prosecutors, who conduct a legal analysis of whether the use of force was justified. That process generally takes about a year.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @rikkiking.
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