EVERETT – They pleaded with the man not to drive.
Standing on the smoking deck behind a popular Everett diner late Wednesday night, several women were concerned the man who had joined them for a smoke might get behind the wheel and hit the road, Elizabeth Thornes said.
The man appeared drunk. He began calling the women names, Thornes said. She lives in the neighborhood and had stopped into the Chuckwagon Inn for a visit with friends.
“Please go in and let the bartender have your keys and call you a cab,” Thornes, 40, remembered saying.
The man, who appeared to be in his late 40s, brushed off the request. Someone dialed 911.
Police arrived and hemmed in the man’s white Corvette with their patrol cars, she said.
When the man saw the cops, he took off running. Somehow, he managed to get to his car and start it up.
Thornes said she heard the officers yelling at him, telling the man to shut off the car and get out. She said they used an electronic stun gun several times but the man didn’t comply.
The man revved the car’s engine; it lurched forward into a fence. Thornes, who was standing nearby, was knocked down by the fence as it wobbled from the impact.
“When I stood up, all I heard was pop, pop, pop,” she said.
Shots were fired. Thornes believes it was as many as six rounds.
Officers pulled the man from behind the wheel and tried to revive him. Thornes said she assisted.
She recalled that he was wearing a Harley-Davidson T-shirt and jeans. He died at the scene.
An investigation has been launched to determine the circumstances of the fatal shooting, Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said.
Several people called 911 to report an apparently drunk man leaving Patty’s Eggnest — Chuckwagon Inn in the 6700 block of Evergreen Way, Hover said.
“Events unfolded quickly,” Hover said.
Hover said she couldn’t confirm the witness’s account, but did say the man drove into a fence knocking down a woman and that shots rang out.
Investigators were still trying to determine precisely who fired weapons.
More information about the man, including his identity, age and hometown, were not immediately released.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner is expected to do an autopsy.
An Everett police officer, 41, an 11-year veteran, has been placed on administrative leave, standard procedure during these types of investigations, Hover said.
The Snohomish County Multi-Agency Response Team, or SMART, is leading the investigation. SMART is a special team of investigators made up of homicide detectives from around Snohomish County trained to look into police-involved fatalities.
Detectives early today obtained a search warrant and were expected to spend several hours collecting evidence. An Everett Fire Department ladder truck was brought to the parking lot behind the restaurant so investigators could take aerial photos.
Detectives from SMART still are investigating the May 29 shooting by Snohomish County deputies that killed Daniel Wasilchen of Verlot. The SMART team last was summoned to investigate Everett police after the Nov. 8 shooting that killed Dustin Willard. That investigation also continues.
Thornes went to the hospital to be checked out because she was splattered with some of the victim’s blood, she said.
“There was no where he could go,” Thornes said.
She said she wasn’t physically hurt but shaken up emotionally.
“It’s just scary,” she said.
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